


The Path of Destiny

by Racingwolf



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2007-09-21
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2018-11-06 19:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 78
Words: 495,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11043201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Racingwolf/pseuds/Racingwolf
Summary: The story of a young arctic growlithe named Snowcrystal begins as a threat to the snowy mountains the growlithe call home drives her to seek help from the only pokémon who can reverse the damage that has been done - Articuno.Her quest leads her to meet several other pokémon, and they band together, each in search of something. However, her journey soon throws her in the midst of an adventure she never bargained for. And the danger her home lies in pales in comparison to the threats that lie in wait.





	1. The Beginnings of a Journey

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I started in 2007 and have been writing ever since. I hope you enjoy it.

An icy cold wind blew fiercely across a vast rocky mountainside, bringing with it snow and ice that coated the jagged spurs of rock that jutted out from the mountain peak. The strong chilling winds filled the frigid air with their soft mournful howl, drowning out all other noise in the desolate landscape.

The great snow-capped mountain loomed over a wilderness of dry plains and rugged grasslands. On the mountain's slopes, ice-covered shards of dark rock jutted out over immense canyons and crevices, creating steep and perilous drops at almost every turn. All that could be seen was rock and snow; there was no sign of life.

The strong winds lashed down mercilessly, sending snow and hail flying in all directions. Clouds obscured the sky, eclipsing the mountain in almost complete darkness.

Yet…there was sign of life after all…

Padding carefully across the pale snow and ice was a pokémon. And, even more strangely, the pokémon was a growlithe, a young one. But even stranger still, the puppy pokémon had an unusual coloration. The growlithe's fur was as white as the snow she walked across so effortlessly, and her back was marked with pale gray stripes. The growlithe looked to the sky momentarily, showing no sign that she felt the cold. Lifting her paw again, the pokémon continued her short journey. Increasing her pace to a sprint, she seemed to glide over the ice and snow.

Near a large slab of dark gray rock topped with snow a little ways away, another snow-white growlithe sat waiting. The pokémon's thick fur was fluffed out against the wind and his eyes were half closed as snow swirled around him. As the first growlithe approached, he spoke. "The others have been waiting."

"I'm sorry," the female growlithe whispered, shuffling her paws. "Am I…am I the last one here?"

The male growlithe bared his fangs, disregarding her question. "Do you have any idea of the importance of this meeting? Our leader has important news that every growlithe must know, Snowcrystal. Now hurry!"

The growlithe called Snowcrystal carefully trotted around the rock's base until she came to a small crevice in its side. Slipping inside, she was followed by the growlithe who had been waiting for her. The two of them crawled through a dark and narrow tunnel and emerged into an immense underground cavern. All around the walls of the cave were stone ledges where several other growlithe sat, looking down at a group of youngsters who were scuffling on the cave floor, sending small embers into the air every once in a while. Stalactites covered the ceiling that arched over their heads, and the walls were studded with luminous crystal shards, all glowing a pale red. In fact, it was from those very same crystals that Snowcrystal had gotten her name.

Once the two arriving growlithe had taken their place on the cave floor, the growlithe sitting on the highest ledge stepped forward. Eyeing each of the growlithe seated below him in turn, the leader prepared to deliver what could only be bad news. "Growlithe of the ice mountain," he began, "our land has been changing much in the past year. The ice is melting, and the houndour tribe has now claimed the lands that were once ice and snow. Many things have changed since Articuno left our mountain. I fear that in this time, we must adapt, and become like our cousins, the orange-furred growlithe that hunt in forests and plains."

This statement was met with shocked cries, and one growlithe called out, "But Icefang, we aren't like other growlithe! We cannot hunt in warm climates as they can."

"There must be other lands of snow," another cried. "Maybe we can search for a new home!"

"I think we should send someone out to search!"

"And who's to say that someone would even make it back?"

"Well what should we do? Move every growlithe, young and old, into strange lands without knowing what lies beyond?"

The leader growlithe, Icefang, sat calmly on the high ledge as he listened to the others' cries. He had anticipated this. "Listen," he called to those down below, "on clear days one can stand on the mountain at any point and view the land around for miles. Have you seen any other mountains? No. We may have to adapt to strange places. If we are to survive, we must leave before the snow melts completely, or the houndour tribe will drive us out themselves. We will need to learn to hunt in forests and plains, and live in the warmer lands, at least until our travels lead us to a new home."

The growlithe down below glanced nervously at one another. To most, the idea of moving the entire growlithe tribe was nothing new; there had been lots of rumors about such a thing before. However, it was startling to hear that it would soon actually be happening. Still, most of them were doubtful that they could survive in such strange territories beyond what had always been their home. There was a reason the houndour tribe was taking the growlithe tribe's territory as the snow melted; the land further on was little more than a barren wasteland, though from the mountain, a growlithe could see what looked like a forest beyond that. However, no one was sure what lurked there, and if the houndour tribe had no interest in moving to that forest, it couldn't be an ideal territory.

The young growlithe Snowcrystal listened as the members of the growlithe tribe argued back and forth. It was apparent that they were wondering how soon they would have to leave, where they would go, and just how far the houndour who lived in the plains near the mountain would go to claim their home.

Snowcrystal knew that until recently, the growlithe and the houndour had for the most part left each other in peace, each having their own hunting grounds and lands to call their own. However, she also knew that hunting was difficult in both habitats, and the houndour had been taking over what once had been frozen plains for themselves. The melting of the snow seemed so strange and unnatural that the only explanation anyone could give was that it was happening because Articuno had left the mountain.

No one had understood how or why, but the great arctic bird who had once protected them, shielding their lands from enemies who happened to stumble upon the mountain, had one day flown from the snowy cliffs and off into the distance. Several growlithe had seen it, but they didn't think it so unusual until a long time had passed, and Articuno had still not returned. When the snow started to melt in the plains surrounding the mountain, the growlithe had almost immediately blamed it on the disappearance of the legendary bird. Some were worried that without Articuno's protection, humans would stumble upon the mountain. The growlithe had heard from traveling pokémon, mostly flying types, of trainers and the way they greatly valued pokémon of unusual color. To Snowcrystal, white growlithe were normal, but according to the travelers, humans had never seen or heard of them before.

For a while, Snowcrystal had tried to believe that Articuno hadn't abandoned them, or that the ice would stop melting, but it all seemed as if they really had been left to fend for themselves. It all seemed as if Articuno, the one who'd helped them survive for so long, had really left their land for good.

But what if there was a reason for it? Ignoring the other growlithe, Snowcrystal stood up and called to her leader, who was still trying to reason with the tribe, "What if someone went to search for Articuno?"

Snowcrystal was immediately aware of all eyes focusing on her. Icefang spoke to her calmly, "I am afraid Articuno has probably left of his own free will. If that is really the case, there is nothing we can do to bring him back."

"But what if there's a reason Articuno left?" Snowcrystal cried back, hardly noticing that the cavern had become suddenly silent. "What if he can't get back? What if he needs our help?" The young growlithe had thought these things over many times, but until now, she had never really thought about doing anything. After all, those thoughts had just been guesses, but they suddenly seemed like their only hope of being able to hold their claim on the lands they called home.

"We still have a lot of our territory left," Snowcrystal continued. "We have time. I could search for Articuno, and if I don't find him, then yes, we will have to leave, but we can't give up just yet! Besides, taking the entire tribe into unknown territory is dangerous, especially for the young ones. There are humans and strange pokémon further on. We all know that this is one of the few places humans don't travel by."

Icefang sighed. He admired the young growlithe's courage, but he knew there was very little chance that she would discover Articuno's whereabouts. "We cannot rely on mere guesses and ideas for something this important, Snowcrystal. Finding Articuno would be a near impossible feat."

"But I could still try!" Snowcrystal protested. "I've never been to the lands beyond the snow, but I'm not afraid! One growlithe leaving now would be better than moving the entire group without knowing what's out there. Besides, the tribe won't have to move for a while longer, so it still gives us time. And…and if you don't approve, I'll go anyway!"

At the last remark, Snowcrystal received disapproving glares from many of the surrounding growlithe. One was not to speak to a leader in that way. However, Icefang did not seem angry. "Very well," he stated at last, his voice betraying no emotion. "No one can stop you if this is what you truly want. We still have a while before we must move to new territory, and in the meantime we must all discuss what we are to do." He turned to the rest of the tribe, addressing them. "I understand that you are worried about this news, but I have thought it over for a long time. Unless Articuno returns and replenishes our land…" He paused, his eyes betraying hints of sadness. "I'm afraid we will have to leave." He glanced over the solemn gazes of the growlithe crowding the cavern and sighed. "We will discuss this again starting tomorrow night…"

After Icefang finished his small speech, the growlithe slowly left the cavern in stunned silence; the thought of losing their home was devastating. However, a few of them looked hopeful, giving Snowcrystal encouraging glances as they passed through the narrow tunnel.

At last, only she and Icefang remained. The larger growlithe walked over to her, looking at her with a serious expression. "I hope you understand just what you're getting into if you choose to undertake this mission."

Snowcrystal gave him a small smile. "I don't know what I'm getting into," she told him, "but whatever happens, I'll do my best to find Articuno."

Icefang nodded in reply. He knew that the growlithe he ruled over were far from weak. They thrived in the frigid mountain climate, and in the icy plains below. A growlithe had great endurance, able to travel across the mountain many times in one day without getting tired. "I know you will," he told the young growlithe, "but you must remember everything you've learned. Every survival skill you posses will be vitally important. And also…"

The leader's voice trailed off as he leaped up the stone ledges to his own place at the highest one, vanishing into a small cave behind it that was nearly hidden by the rock. A moment later he reappeared, holding a bright amulet in his mouth. Attached to a string of tough plant fibers, a single glowing red crystal blazed brightly. Leaping gracefully to the ground, Icefang presented Snowcrystal with the gift, setting it down reverently at the young growlithe's paws.

"This amulet was given to me by my mother, the growlithe leader before me. I was told to pass it down to one who has done great service to the tribe. At the time, I believed it meant that I must give it to the next leader, but now, I believe I should let you keep it."

"But…I haven't done anything yet," Snowcrystal replied, giving the leader a confused glance.

He smiled. "You are very brave to undertake a journey for the tribe like this, Snowcrystal, and I know that if you manage to find Articuno and convince him to return, he will be able to restore our home to the way it was. There might not be another leader after me if our tribe cannot adapt and separates, and I'd much rather send this amulet with the one hope that we may be able to keep our old lands."

"Th-thank you," Snowcrystal began, astonished. She was surprised that the leader had decided to put so much faith in her, when she knew her quest was going to be a long and difficult one, if it was even possible at all.

Carefully, Icefang bent down and picked up the amulet, placing it around Snowcrystal's neck. "Who knows?" the leader chuckled. "It may bring you good luck."

Snowcrystal smiled. "Maybe…" She glanced toward the rocky tunnel and replied, "I should leave as soon as possible. Thank you for your gift, but I must begin my journey."

Icefang nodded again. "I understand…" As Snowcrystal turned to leave, the older growlithe whispered, "And may the legendaries be with you…"

  
**-ooo-**  


By early morning, the clouds that lingered above the great mountain had thinned out, and the wind had died down a bit. Padding carefully through the snow, Snowcrystal turned and glanced back at the mountain she had left, knowing that if she failed, she may never see it again. Still, she knew she had to try, and she was determined to one day return, along with Articuno.

Turning back to the way ahead, the growlithe failed to notice the group of pokémon who were crouched down in the sparse grass near where the snow plains ended not far away. As Snowcrystal passed by without a glance, a dog-like pokémon raised his black and red head over the blades of dried grass.

The houndour was puzzled. Turning to his hunting companions, he whispered, "It's one of the growlithe…what's she doing so close to our lands?"

"I dunno, Fang," one of his companions, a houndour whose muzzle and belly fur were an orange color in contrast to the first one's red, replied. "But she doesn't look lost…she's heading somewhere with a purpose. But what would that be?"

The first houndour, Blazefang, narrowed his eyes as he watched the white shape walking so calmly over the snow. Turning to the speaker, he replied, "I don't know, but this is strange. I don't like it…"

"I don't understand, though," a third houndour barked, speaking up for the first time, "what do we have to worry about a stray growlithe? Looks like she's heading away from our lands as well as the mountain; it's not like she's planning to take part of our territory."

"I've got a bad feeling…" Blazefang muttered. "I want to know what's going on. Wildflame!" he turned to the houndour who had first spoken her opinion. "Go and find Darkclaw. I want to know if the growlithe are planning anything."

Wildflame nodded and headed off. Lowering their heads, the other two followed, making hardly a sound as they slipped into the shelter of the tall grass, vanishing as if they were never there.

  
**-ooo-**  


Darkclaw the murkrow was a well known spy among the houndour tribe. He had already alerted the tribe to the fact that the growlithe were possibly planning on leaving if their snowy habitat continued to shrink. The houndour came to him whenever they suspected that the growlithe tribe might be planning a move against them, and he gladly accepted their requests, for the price of a rattata or two.

As the group of houndour approached his favorite tree, Darkclaw flew down toward a twisted lower bough, facing Blazefang. The murkrow ruffled his black feathers as he alighted on the branch, giving the group of houndour a curious gaze through narrowed eyes.

The tough houndour smiled as the murkrow landed. "Darkclaw," he began, "I need to know what's going on at the growlithe's mountain…"

_To be continued…_


	2. New Allies

By nightfall, Darkclaw had returned. Blazefang had been waiting by a big jagged stone that was flecked with snow. Wildflame and his other companion, a young houndour named Boneclaw, were also crouched beside the boulder.

The murkrow swooped down low toward the ground, landing on the topmost point of the rock. Folding his wings, Darkclaw looked down as the three houndour gathered below. He began speaking, "I managed to hear two growlithe talking. They say the one with the crystal shard has gone to find Articuno, so he can bring back the snow and restore the land they've lost. Of course," he added, noticing the houndour's angry expressions, "She has little chance of actually finding that pokémon."

Blazefang sighed. He knew the trials the houndour had faced in the past years. Food was becoming scarcer, and they needed every bit of territory they could get. For reasons unknown, the wasteland surrounding the lands of houndour and growlithe had always remained barren, devoid of any sign of life. Very little plants existed there, and no prey. The only way the houndour could gain more territory was by claiming the parts of growlithe land that no longer suited the needs of the white dog pokémon.

"But she's still got a chance," Blazefang muttered, uprooting a clump of grass with his claws, "And what if Articuno does return? He was always fair to us, but…well, we need more places to hunt!"

"I wouldn't worry," Darkclaw smirked, "It is a fool's journey this growlithe is undertaking. She will probably end up dead."

"I still think our leader should hear about this…," Blazefang muttered.

"Well then tell her," Darkclaw said with a grin. "But of course, if it bothers you so much, then why don't you just follow the growlithe and stop her?"

"I need to talk to Firedash about all this," Blazefang growled, "Maybe you're right…maybe there's nothing to worry about…but I still don't like it."

  
**-ooo-**  


Firedash was the proud leader of the houndour tribe. She was unevolved, like most of the houndour and all of the growlithe, but she was tough and vicious, respected by all those of her tribe, evolved or not. The leader made her home in a rocky cave, much different from the caves further up the icy mountain slopes.

It was this cave that the trio of houndour, led by Blazefang, approached hesitantly. Their leader's moods were sometimes unpredictable. The three stopped warily at the entrance, and it was Blazefang who at last entered the cave and called his leader's name.

He was almost at once greeted by the sight of the small but dangerous houndour approaching him from the darkness.

"Firedash," Blazefang murmured respectfully, dipping his head, "Darkclaw has brought us more news of the growlithe tribe."

Blazefang had caught Firedash in a good mood. The houndour leader smiled. "Well…what has our murkrow friend found out this time?" she asked calmly.

Blazefang quickly explained what he'd learned, and Firedash listened intently. After he was through, the leader replied, "If the growlithe believe that Articuno will help them, then why wouldn't he help us? What if you were to find the arctic bird first?"

Blazefang exchanged confused glances with Boneclaw and Wildflame. "Me?" Blazefang repeated, astonished. "Find Articuno?"

Firedash chuckled. "Not just you. The growlithe were foolish to send but one traveler. I shall send many. The lone growlithe that left may have some idea of where Articuno is. I want you to follow her, Blazefang. Articuno always looked out for both growlithe and houndour in the past. If you can convince him that we are the ones who need the territory more, then he shall help us. Now Blazefang, I will select several houndour from our tribe to follow you. I'm appointing you leader of the traveling group."

Blazefang, despite his confusion and fear, managed a smile. _Leader…_ he had always liked the sound of that. "Yes, yes of course, Firedash," the houndour replied, smiling, "We'll follow the growlithe!"

"Good," Firedash nodded, "Now go. Wait by the berry grove. I will select the others to accompany you soon." Blazefang nodded as he, Boneclaw, and Wildflame left, leaving the houndour leader alone. Firedash smiled. If Blazefang could convince Articuno to come back and help them himself, then all their problems would be solved. And if Blazefang failed…well, the snow in the growlithe's territory was still melting.

  
**-ooo-**  


Night had fallen over the dusky brown wasteland, leaving Snowcrystal exhausted. Her normally pure white fur was now filthy from the dust that was constantly being blown through the air all across the rocky landscape. It was warmer here, but Snowcrystal knew she didn't have to worry much about the heat. Her kind survived in the snowy habitats because of the internal flame that kept them warm. When it got warmer, that flame died down a bit, to prevent the growlithe from being overheated or using up too much of their firepower. However, white fur was easy to spot where there was no snow, and Snowcrystal did not know how she would be able to hunt. She decided that when she reached the line of trees she could see in the distance, she would look for some berries.

While she wasn't worried about traveling through warmer climates, she knew that it was no place for pokémon who were adapted to living in lands of snow. Her kind were used to hunting in their own terrain; it would be quite a challenge to learn how to survive anywhere else. Their bright white fur would make it incredibly difficult for even a skilled hunter to stalk prey, even under the cover of a forest. Not to mention that, although the heat wasn't an immediate danger, it was very uncomfortable. She was a fire type, but she wasn't used to the outside temperatures being so warm. It also didn't seem as if there would even be a place for the entire tribe of growlithe in a strange forest filled with strange pokémon. They needed the mountain.

Looking around, Snowcrystal could see a big group of rocks the color of mud a little ways away, and beyond that lay the forest, still far off in the distance. Snowcrystal had been traveling from the snowy plains all day, and yet the forest appeared no closer. Feeling a need to find shelter for the night, Snowcrystal headed for the mud-colored rocks.

The moment she reached them, the growlithe lay down against one, feeling exhausted. She had caught no prey in the wasteland, and was beginning to wonder if she'd ever make it to the forest. The only water she'd had that day was from a small half-frozen stream in her own territory.

"This is going to take longer than I thought," Snowcrystal whispered to herself, "I sure hope I can-"

A sudden noise from the rocks above her startled the growlithe out of her thoughts. Leaping up, Snowcrystal glanced up at the large jagged boulder, seeing a few pebbles roll down its side. Snowcrystal suddenly felt afraid. Anything could be lurking behind these big rocks at night; just because the place was said to be uninhabited didn't mean it was true.

Creeping slowly around the base of the nearest rock, Snowcrystal peered around, soon finding herself staring through a labyrinth of huge boulders. Carefully she crept further along, looking for whatever had made the noise from before. Common sense should have warned her to stay away from the rocks where an enemy could be lurking in the shadows, but Snowcrystal was too nervous to think clearly.

As she passed one rock after another, she began to get a strange feeling. The place seemed…eerie… All the rocks now looked black in the darkness, and since the tallest ones loomed overhead, they blocked out most of the sky. Just as she was about to turn back, Snowcrystal heard a loud screech, and then something cannoned into her with such force that she was knocked into the side of one of the stones.

The creature was bigger than she was, and its fur had a spiky, rough texture. Kicking out with both paws, Snowcrystal felt her claws scrape the other pokémon's skin, startling it enough that it lost its footing and she was able to lash out at the new enemy with all four paws. This sent it rolling away from her. The pokémon jumped up, then darted at her once more, using what she knew to be quick attack. As the stranger collided into her again, Snowcrystal blew a small ember in its direction, but it twisted out of the way, its fur barely singed.

Snowcrystal stood up, trying to summon up the strength for a more powerful fire attack, when the strange pokémon stopped a few feet away from her. Electricity crackled over its spiny fur, lighting up its face and allowing the young growlithe to see its bared fangs. Sparks flew from the pokémon, illuminating a small bit of the area around it and casting strange shadows against the tall rocks.

Now that she could see it clearly, Snowcrystal recognized the pokémon from some of the stories told by the members of the growlithe tribe. It was an evolution of eevee, though she couldn't remember the name. Was it sparkeon? Jolteon? Shockeon? Though she was confused as to why this pokémon was in a wasteland, she didn't have much time to think. With a growl, it ran towards her, firing off a blast of electricity that left the rock behind Snowcrystal singed as she leaped out of the way. Turning to face the pokémon, which she was now sure was called 'jolteon', Snowcrystal crouched down as she prepared for its next attack.

Then another voice behind her made her jump in surprise and fright. "Spark, what are you doing? Can't you see it's just a growlithe?"

Snowcrystal whipped around as another pokémon approached, also a strange pokémon to be found in a wasteland. The second stranger was bigger than both her and the jolteon, and looked much more threatening. It was a green bug type, with large claws on its feet, and a long, slightly curved fang sticking out of each side of its mouth. Four large wings fanned out from the pokémon's back, but it was the pokémon's arms that Snowcrystal couldn't stop from staring at, for part of the creature's arms were made up of long, lethal-looking silvery-white blades, wickedly curved and deadly sharp. It towered over Snowcrystal, and despite not wanting to seem afraid, the growlithe backed away.

Like jolteon, scyther was a pokémon Snowcrystal had heard about, though the stories she had heard about scythers hadn't been good, usually depicting them as killers and murderers. It took a moment for Snowcrystal to realize that, unlike the jolteon, this scyther was making no move to attack her, and was simply looking at her with a calm expression. Apart from its physical appearance, there seemed to be nothing threatening about the bug pokémon. Snowcrystal relaxed. After all, he did seem to disapprove of the jolteon's attack.

The electric pokémon also relaxed, and muttered, "One can never tell who's an enemy in this place…"

"Well I think it's easy to tell that this pokémon isn't," the scyther told the jolteon sharply. "She obviously doesn't live here. She must be a traveler, like us."

Snowcrystal noticed the scyther looking at her with a slightly betrayed expression, as if he wasn't sure why she still seemed afraid of him. She turned to the jolteon. "Who are you?" she asked quietly, "What are you doing in the middle of this wasteland?"

"I could ask you the same question," the jolteon muttered, but after receiving a disapproving glare from the scyther, he quickly muttered, "We're just travelers…don't really have much of an idea where we're going actually. My name is Spark. Trainer named me…" he added in a whisper. He then motioned with his head toward the scyther, "And that's Stormblade."

"Wait…" Snowcrystal whispered, "You had a trainer?"

"Yes, we both did," the jolteon answered, suddenly seeming a little nervous. "We uh, we ran away. Oh, no, he wasn't a bad trainer. Never abused us. We just…wanted to be wild again." Stormblade nodded in agreement.

Snowcrystal began to think that there was a bit more to it than that, but she didn't question them further. Instead, she kept quiet and listened.

"We've been wandering around for about uh…three weeks now," Spark continued, sounding somewhat hesitant. "We even found a forest, but Stormblade just wanted to move on. Said it was bad or something." Spark cast an annoyed glance at Stormblade, then continued, "It even had plenty of fruit trees, and all sorts of berries. I've never seen a forest that plentiful in food before. It made me wonder why there weren't any pokémon there, at least not any that we saw."

"That's what I didn't like about it," Stormblade muttered. "And didn't you see that human town? There were pokémon traps and poisoned food all over the place! We were lucky there weren't any traps in the forest itself."

Snowcrystal began to feel a little doubtful about entering the forest at all, but if there was food there, it was probably her only choice. "Well I'm going there anyway," the growlithe said stubbornly. "And if I were you, I wouldn't be heading toward the plains by that mountain. You won't get a warm welcome."

The jolteon and scyther glanced at each other, then back at Snowcrystal. "Well you didn't tell us why _you're_ here," Spark growled, obviously still suspicious.

"I have something important to do," Snowcrystal told the two pokémon. "I'm looking for a legendary pokémon, Articuno. You haven't seen him have you? Or even heard of where he might be?"

Stormblade looked surprised and Spark only scoffed, " _Seen_ the legendary Articuno? Who do you think we are? We're just a couple of ordinary pokémon!"

"Look, I just need to find him, and I can do it too! Someone must have seen him or knows where he went," Snowcrystal argued, "He used to live on the top of that mountain, but he disappeared. I've gone to look for him. My tribe will be in… grave danger if I don't find him and convince him to come back to the mountain." She finished her sentence a little uncertainly, not really wanting to go into much detail.

"You're going to look for Articuno all on your own?" Spark replied, sounding a little less arrogant than before. "I hate to break it to you, but there's very little chance you'll actually find him, let alone get the chance to speak to him…" He peered closely at the growlithe, and the crystal she wore around her neck. "It's strange…" he mused, "I've never seen a white growlithe before…I thought all growlithe were orange!"

Snowcrystal couldn't help but laugh. "All of us orange? Of course not! Sure, there a lot of orange growlithe that live in forests and plains far away, but there are many white ones too." She sighed. "I guess not a lot of pokémon know about us. It's for the better I suppose." Snowcrystal was beginning to feel safer among these other two pokémon, even if they were strangers. By now she was certain she had nothing to fear from them, even if Spark didn't seem to want to trust her so quickly or easily.

"You know," Stormblade began, "Maybe we can help you look for a while. After all, we're looking for a new home, and you're looking for something too. Maybe we can look together. We'll have a much better chance of survival if there's more of us."

"Look, I don't know…" Spark mumbled, "We don't even know her…"

"That sounds like a great idea," Snowcrystal interrupted. "We'll help each other. It'll be much easier that way."

Spark scowled, clearly angry at being voted out, and Snowcrystal sighed. "I understand if you don't trust me, but there's not much I can do to hurt you, so you're pretty much safe," she added with a shrug.

Spark glared back at her. "I'm not afraid if that's what you're thinking!" he growled.

"Sure seems like it," Snowcrystal replied with a smirk. "Now," she added, addressing Stormblade this time, "I assume you came here to rest? Well I did too. We should stay here for the night then continue on in the morning."

Stormblade agreed and the three settled down beside the rocks, though Snowcrystal noticed that Spark was still glaring at her, though he now seemed more annoyed than wary. Snowcrystal shook her head softly as she curled up against the base of a rock, thinking over the past events. The scyther seemed nice, and the jolteon didn't seem that bad either, even though he didn't seem to want her to come along.

After a while of lying down and trying to sleep, Snowcrystal began to get the same strange feeling she had felt upon first reaching the rocks. She stood up and peered around, though the only source of light in the area was from the small but bright red glow of her crystal. The area had started to seem creepy again, and she had first thought that the feeling must have come from Spark, watching her from the rocks when she'd arrived. She glanced over to her right, and a short distance away, the jolteon was sleeping peacefully.

Still a bit unsettled, Snowcrystal stood up, deciding to act as a lookout for the group for a little while. Carefully climbing one of the massive brown rocks, Snowcrystal was glad that she was used to that kind of thing. Back at the mountain, she raced and climbed over rocks every day. Once she reached the top, she could see most of the jagged stones, but somehow, being able to see everything made the whole place seem creepier.

For a while, she sat on top of the rock, watching the area or peering up at the stars and moon every once in a while. Despite her fear, she was beginning to get drowsy, and found it harder and harder to keep awake. Just as she was debating whether to climb back down and go to sleep, a small flicker of movement caught her eye. Instantly alert, she glanced around, but saw nothing. Thinking she should warn the others, Snowcrystal started to climb down.

Suddenly something knocked her completely off her feet and over the edge of the rock. Snowcrystal's startled scream woke Stormblade and Spark, and the scyther was the first to take action. Quickly darting underneath the growlithe so as to soften her fall, he glanced upward at the rock, seeing a strange pokémon floating in midair.

Snowcrystal rolled onto the ground, not seriously hurt thanks to Stormblade. She and Spark looked up as well. The pokémon who'd fired the attack was not one Snowcrystal had heard of, but Stormblade seemed to recognize it. It was a small grayish purple ghost type pokémon with eerie yellow eyes. Snowcrystal heard Stormblade mutter the name 'shuppet'. Beside her, Spark started to tremble. "This place must be crawling with ghost types," the jolteon whispered.

Stormblade was just about to make a reply, when several other ghost pokémon of various types and species materialized around them all at once. Snowcrystal could hear Stormblade whispering some of their names as he glanced around, " _Misdreavus, ghastly, duskull…_ "

Spark seemed to have overcome some of his fear. "Ghost pokémon can still be hit with electricity," he whispered. "A thunderbolt ought to do the trick!"

"Wait, shouldn't we-" Snowcrystal began, but she didn't have time to finish. Crackling electricity surged from the jolteon's fur and into the air, hitting several of the ghost pokémon. For a moment they seemed ready to back off, but then even more ghostly shapes appeared, surrounding the three pokémon.

"Heh, heh…oops…" Spark muttered sheepishly.

"'Oops' is right…" Stormblade growled quietly.

The ghost pokémon moved closer, every one of them glaring at the three travelers. Snowcrystal backed up against a rock, staring from one enemy to another.

"This…isn't good…"

_To be continued…_


	3. Into the Dark Forest

"What do we do now?" Snowcrystal whispered, looking hopefully at Stormblade and Spark.

"We fight, of course!" the jolteon growled, glaring from one ghost pokémon to another.

"We can't fight them all," argued Stormblade. "But I think I have an idea." As he and Snowcrystal backed up toward a group of rocks, the scyther whispered something to Spark. The jolteon nodded and fired off a large blast of electricity; not large enough to hit all of the ghost pokémon, but enough to create quite a lot of light...

"Now run!" Stormblade yelled, and nudged Snowcrystal, who was practically blinded by the electric blast illuminating the dark area. The growlithe stood up and ran, unwittingly in the opposite direction of where Spark had just bolted. Instead of following the others, she was heading further into the maze of jagged rocks.

Snowcrystal let out a cry of terror as more strange pokémon appeared out of thin air around her, all of them ghost types. Shaking with fear, she glanced around for Spark, but the jolteon was nowhere to be seen. She could see clearly again, but obviously Spark's attack hadn't stopped the ghost pokémon for long.

Before she could try to fire an ember attack, a shadow punch from one of the enemy pokémon sent her skidding across the dusty ground. Feeling her back hit one of the rocks roughly, Snowcrystal struggled to stand. A moment later, she had to dash behind the boulder as several various attacks hit it at once. She could feel the rock shake from the impact.

Knowing she stood no chance in a fight, Snowcrystal took off, hoping it would be harder for the ghost types to hit her as she dodged between the rocks. However, she quickly discovered that their attacks could move _through_ them, and she found herself running madly through a maze of jagged brown stone.

Glancing left and right, Snowcrystal tried to find a way out, realizing that although her kind were naturally fast, ghost pokémon were everywhere, appearing around every corner. They were going to trap her if she didn't make it out in the open soon.

A shadow ball attack out of nowhere sent her crashing to the ground. Her crystal amulet was sent flying from her and landed a few meters away, glowing softly. As Snowcrystal struggled to stand up, a green blur darted in front of her. Quickly realizing it was Stormblade, she managed to get to her feet. The scyther pointed with his blade to the left, indicating where she should run.

Snowcrystal took off just as Stormblade struck a haunter with night slash. She had only gone a few paces when she suddenly turned back, remembering the crystal that had been left lying near one of the big rocks. Snowcrystal raced towards the amulet and quickly snapped it up in her jaws before running in the direction the scyther had indicated.

It wasn't long before she had cleared the rocks and was out in the open. Stopping to try and locate the others, she realized that the ghost pokémon weren't following her. Some of them glared at her eerily from the rocks, but they did not venture beyond. Snowcrystal shivered as she carefully slipped the amulet back over her neck. A moment later, she heard approaching pawsteps and turned to see Spark limping toward her.

"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Snowcrystal asked, worried. The jolteon's front leg didn't look too badly damaged, but it did seem to slow him down.

"It's not bad," Spark muttered, shrugging, as he sat beside Snowcrystal. "A bunch of those ghosts tried using these weird attacks on me, and one of them hurt my leg a bit, but it's nothing serious."

Snowcrystal was glad that Spark seemed less hostile, but she still had no idea if Stormblade was all right. However, she didn't have to worry long, for the scyther soon flew from the direction of the rocks and landed beside them. He cast a worried look back at the hostile pokémon and Spark assured him that they didn't seem to want to venture past the rocks.

Snowcrystal glanced fearfully at the ghost types who were still watching them, and remembered how Stormblade had tried to fight them. "Are you all right?" she asked him, not sure whether or not he'd been injured in the battle.

"Yes," answered Stormblade, "I'm not hurt. It seemed like those attacks were more for the purpose of scaring us away than actually injuring us."

"I beg to differ," Spark muttered darkly, starting to lick his injured leg.

"It could have been a lot worse," Stormblade replied. "With their numbers, they could have killed us, but they didn't. Though why they're guarding those rocks I have no idea."

Snowcrystal sighed. "Well, let's get going. We're going to have to make it to the forest soon…"

"Don't worry…it's not as far away as it looks. We should make it by tomorrow," Stormblade told her. "But remember, the forest isn't safe. We'll have to be careful."

Snowcrystal nodded and the three headed off, sleep forgotten, as one by one the ghost pokémon disappeared into thin air.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang now led a group of about twenty houndour, not including himself, Boneclaw, and Wildflame. The somewhat small and inexperienced houndour now felt important and entirely in charge of the group who'd been chosen to seek out Articuno and follow Snowcrystal.

It had been fairly easy for the newly formed pack to follow the growlithe's tracks, and being fire types, the lack of water was not overly worrying. All the same, Blazefang was eager to reach the forest up ahead, where finding food and water would be far easier. Though they had traveled much through the night, the nocturnal pokémon were getting tired, and at last Blazefang decided to let them rest a bit.

"All right everyone, let's stop for a while. Try and get some sleep," Blazefang called to the others. "Boneclaw, Wildflame, and I will be lookouts."

One houndour gestured with his head toward a large group of rocks in the distance. "Why don't we rest over there?" he asked, "Instead of just lying out here in the open?"

Blazefang rolled his eyes. "'Cause me and these two will be able to spot any danger over a long distance from here," the leader muttered. "How could we do that if we stop by all those big rocks, huh? And don't you think some other pokémon, some _unfriendly_ pokémon, might be thinking the same thing? To take shelter by the rocks? And what if they found us sheltering there? What then, eh?"

The houndour who'd made the suggestion fell silent, turning away from his leader as he curled up on a patch of dusty ground.

"Right," growled Blazefang. "I'm the leader here an' I give the orders, alright?"

The other houndour mumbled something inaudibly. "What was that?" inquired Blazefang. "Speak up!"

"All right!" the houndour replied reluctantly, and Blazefang smiled, nodding in reply.

"That's right!"

  
**-ooo-**  


By the time the first rays of sun began to shine on the distant horizon, the forest appeared to be much closer to the three travelers. "Well, at least we're getting somewhere," Snowcrystal remarked to Stormblade as she studied the group of trees ahead. The scyther nodded and the two walked on, Spark following at a short distance. However, the jolteon was limping a lot less, and Snowcrystal was relieved that the injury really hadn't been serious.

The group had no trouble from wild pokémon, spotting only a sandslash or a cacnea here and there. These pokémon neither approached nor threatened them, and the travelers left them alone. Now that it wasn't so dark, the going was much quicker, and Snowcrystal could almost forget the ghost pokémon attack at the rocks in her excitement to continue the journey.

It wasn't much longer before the three travelers came upon the outer fringes of the forest. Spark even came across a small stream near the first group of trees, allowing them to take a drink and rest briefly before carrying on.

As they began to make their way through the winding paths of the forest, with Stormblade in the lead, Snowcrystal began to notice a few things. First of all, she now realized that Spark had been right; there were no signs of any other pokémon, no natural forest noise. No scurrying rattata in the undergrowth, no chattering of sentrets in the trees, no birdsong, nothing. Second of all, the further they traveled, the darker the forest became, even though it was daytime. The interlocking branches of the trees overhead made her feel as if she was in a cave.

They hadn't been traveling long when Spark spotted a group of berry bushes up ahead. Though it wasn't as good as freshly-caught prey, Snowcrystal thought the berries tasted delicious, though she figured it was probably just because she was so hungry. Strangely, Stormblade had been completely quiet since entering the forest except for the occasional brief warning about some low-hanging branch or tree root she or Spark were about to run into. Even now, he stood a little ways away from the others, not moving or glancing in their direction. He had not eaten anything, despite the vast amount of berries that grew plentiful in the area. This struck Snowcrystal as extremely odd, considering he couldn't have found much to eat in the wasteland, but she didn't question him.

After Snowcrystal and Spark had eaten their fill, the group carried on. After a while of wandering through semi-darkness, Spark whispered to Stormblade, "We sure aren't getting anywhere quickly. Why don't you fly over the trees and see how much further we have to go before we're out of here?"

Stormblade seemed a bit surprised, as if he was wondering why he hadn't thought of that. "Oh…right…good idea…" he muttered before taking off.

"Why didn't he try that before if he was so worried about this place?" Snowcrystal asked, giving Spark a puzzled look.

Spark shrugged. "I guess he's just too paranoid about all the traps we saw earlier. Didn't want to leave us alone, perhaps. I don't see what the big deal is. After all, he can fly! _And_ see well in the dark. He'd spot a trap before any of us ran into it."

"Do you think he knows something about this place that we don't?" Snowcrystal mused, pawing at her crystal amulet.

"If he did, he would have told us, that much I know," Spark replied. The two sat in silence for a while until Stormblade returned.

"This way…" he mumbled quietly, and the others followed. Stormblade led them through more winding paths, deeper and deeper into the darkening forest, increasing his pace until Spark and Snowcrystal had to sprint to keep up with him.

"Hey, Stormblade, wait up will ya?" called Spark from behind, and as if in answer Stormblade stopped dead. At first Snowcrystal thought that it was Spark's shout that had made him stop, and then she heard a faint sound that gradually increased until she could make out the pounding of hoof beats. Snowcrystal was about to ask Stormblade what he thought it was, when dozens of dark shapes suddenly bolted past them beyond the trees to their left.

Stormblade ducked down, and Snowcrystal did likewise, peering at the pokémon as they thundered by. They were large pokémon with long, slender legs, and strange antlers on their heads. Snowcrystal suddenly recognized what they were even through the gloom. Stantler.

Stantler herds would often pass through her territory, and though they were good prey, she had never hunted one. It took an entire pack of growlithe to bring one down, and only the most experienced of hunters even tried. Now, Snowcrystal was only concerned with watching them, and as the last of the stantler vanished, Spark whispered in a confused voice, "That's odd…me and Stormblade didn't see any other pokémon when we passed through here the first time."

"Well, it's a big forest," Snowcrystal replied, standing up straight again. "And from what you've told me, pokémon probably just want to stay away from that human place."

"Ah, well," sighed Spark. "It doesn't matter, besides, they're only stantler, I mean-" He immediately quieted as one of the deer-like pokémon emerged from a nearby bush, acting like it was completely unaware of them. Snowcrystal took a step toward it and its head swerved towards her. The look in the stantler's eyes seemed to freeze her to the spot, but she found herself staring not at the pokémon's head, but its antlers, which had seemed to glow faintly.

Snowcrystal stiffened as the forest grew darker and the trees closed in all around her. All at once the place had become scarier, and all the trees seemed to tower over her even more. Then the thundering rumble of hoof beats came again. Shaking her head to clear her vision, Snowcrystal shouted, "They're headed this way!"

The stantler who stood in front of Snowcrystal suddenly charged past the group, leaping over a few bushes and vanishing into the darkness. Then from the bushes ahead, the rest of the herd came charging towards them.

Spark glanced at the stantler briefly before darting to the side and heading for the nearest cover. Snowcrystal realized that the herd wasn't going to move out of their way; in fact, it looked as if the stantler _wanted_ to trample them flat. She started to sprint toward the shelter of some nearby bushes as Stormblade spread his wings and flew out of the path of the stampede. Snowcrystal was beginning to realize that perhaps the scyther had been right to be worried.

Just as she was out of the herd's way, a group of stantler suddenly swerved towards her, lowering their horns as their hooves pounded closer and closer. Snowcrystal tried to move faster, but quickly found herself tangled in a bush's thorny branches. There was no time to run. She closed her eyes.

And nothing happened.

The growlithe slowly opened her eyes, seeing stantler running past her on either side, their horns still lowered. However, those in the center were running right through her as if they were ghosts. Confused, she glanced around, seeing Spark crouching down near some bushes, his eyes shut tight. Snowcrystal managed to untangle herself from the bush, and slowly crept over and nudged him. "Spark!"

The jolteon's eyes were still closed. "What's going on? I can still hear them!" Snowcrystal nudged him again, and Spark backed away in shock as he opened his eyes and glanced around.

"What the…they're running straight through the trees!" the jolteon whispered, glancing around in confusion.

"Wait a minute…" Snowcrystal mused, "I remember something Icefang, that's our growlithe tribe's leader, said about stantler. Even just one of them can sometimes create the illusion of a whole herd, or at least that's what he said. I only just remembered it, and I wouldn't have believed it until now."

"But why would a stantler do that to us?" Stormblade asked, still seeming a bit shocked as he watched the very real-looking stantler herd running straight through trees and rocks.

"We're predators…" Snowcrystal answered. "I guess it felt threatened, though there's no way I could have attacked that stantler. I can barely use fire attacks as it is. Or any other attacks for that matter," she added with a hint of embarrassment.

After a few moments, the last of the stantler illusion faded, and Snowcrystal could see things clearly again; the forest was back to looking normal. Spark and Snowcrystal walked over toward Stormblade, who emerged from behind a couple of trees. "Stormblade, it was an illusion." Snowcrystal began. "There really weren't that many-"

"I know, I saw them. But wait, listen!" Stormblade whispered, peering into the bushes.

Snowcrystal was about to reply when she heard a faint cry sounding from somewhere nearby. Stormblade headed toward the noise, with Spark and Snowcrystal following closely behind. The three of them emerged into a small clearing. Snowcrystal could scent another fire type, as well as the fainter scent of something strange, something that wasn't pokémon. As she gazed further into the gloom, she realized that lying in the center of the clearing, was a small, caged vulpix.

_To be continued…_


	4. Blazefang's Discovery

The trapped vulpix hadn't noticed Snowcrystal and the others yet, and was sitting in the middle of the small cage, facing away from them. Snowcrystal could tell it was crying. Approaching the small pokémon, the growlithe tried to sound as friendly as possible. "Don't cry," she whispered. "We're going to try and get you out of there."

To her surprise, the vulpix whipped around, her eyes glaring. "Do you think I'm crying just because I'm stuck in a cage?" she snapped. "No! I'm crying 'cause the humans took my fire stone! Do you have any idea how _long_ I've been waiting to evolve? I found a real fire stone, right in the middle of this forest! I finally got my chance and they took it away!"

Snowcrystal stared back in confusion, and Spark cried out, "What do you mean you just found a fire stone and they took it? If you'd touched it, you would have evolved! I bet you're just embarrassed you got stuck." The jolteon chuckled, which earned him a glare from the vulpix.

"I didn't get the _chance_ to touch it!" the vulpix spat. "I found it lying by those rocks over there, and as I was running toward it, this human suddenly appeared and picked it up! I bit his hand to try and make him put it down, but another human came and put me in this cage!" She angrily paced around her cage, then lay down again, growling, "I hate humans…"

"Oh, boy…" Stormblade muttered worriedly. "Look, not all humans are bad. Though if these ones put you in a cage, then we should-"

"I didn't ask your opinion!" the vulpix shouted, baring her teeth.

"Do you want our help or not?" Stormblade replied, tipping the cage a little with the dull end of his scythe. The vulpix leaped forward and tried to sink her teeth into Stormblade's arm, above the blade. Stormblade shook her off, and let the cage fall back in place. "Okay, listen. Do you want me to find out how to open it, or do you want me to try and cut through it with you in it?" he growled impatiently. "Stay still!"

"I don't think she wants our help," Spark muttered, watching the vulpix, who was now growling at the scyther. "Maybe we should just leave her alone."

"We can't just leave her here!" Stormblade argued.

"Stormblade's right," Snowcrystal agreed. "We'll help her whether she wants it or not. Now, let's see about this cage…"

"I can get out of here any time I like!" the vulpix snarled. "If you want to help me, go get my fire stone back!"

"Why should we?" Spark questioned, walking toward the cage until he was face to face with the vulpix, his fur stiffening into sharp spines. "You should be grateful we're offering to help you get out of that cage! We're not going to follow those humans to try and find a fire stone for you."

"Then leave me alone!" the vulpix retorted.

"If we leave you here, those humans could come back, or you'd just be stuck in here until you died of hunger," Spark muttered flatly. "There's no way you can get out of there by yourself. See that latch on the cage door?" Spark pointed with his paw. "You couldn't open that with your teeth, and you can't even reach it from the inside. One of us can break it for you, though."

The little vulpix fell silent, and Spark moved the latch on the cage's door as much as he could, then allowed Stormblade to cut through it. The door swung open and the young vulpix rushed out in a blur of orange-red fur. She rushed by the others without stopping, and Snowcrystal called after her, "Hey, where are you going?"

The vulpix turned around and cried, "I'm going to follow the humans' tracks and get my fire stone back!"

"You're going to that town?" Stormblade replied, shocked. "You can't go there! I've seen what it's like-"

"Just try and stop me!" the vulpix spat back. "I'm not afraid! Unlike you!" As she turned to continue on her way, Stormblade flew in front of her, blocking her path with his blades.

"I'm trying to give you a warning," he said coldly. "Don't go near the town. It's a bad place for pokémon."

The vulpix casually ducked under the blades and walked straight by him. Stormblade turned around and saw the vulpix heading through some bushes. Snowcrystal noticed as well.

"Wait!" the growlithe cried, running to the other side of the bushes. The vulpix emerged from the leaves to find herself face to face with Snowcrystal. "We can't let you go out there all alone. It's dangerous!"

"I can go where I want to," the vulpix said simply. "And if I have to go to the human's town to get my fire stone back, I will!"

Snowcrystal sighed, seeing there was no convincing her. "Well, at least let us help you. What's your name?"

"Rosie," the vulpix muttered, not turning to look at her.

"Well, Rosie," Snowcrystal began, "maybe we can help you look for this fire stone, as long as you try and stay away from the town afterward. Stormblade says it's-"

"What? We can't go to the town just to look for a fire stone!" Stormblade cried, as he and Spark caught up with the other two.

"See my point?" Snowcrystal whispered. She then spoke louder, addressing Rosie, "Listen, if we all go to the town and just look around for the fire stone quickly, will you promise to leave the town afterward? And just forget about the stone if we don't manage to find it? I can't promise you anything…" She gazed calmly back at the vulpix, who looked back at her as if she was considering it.

"Fine…" Rosie mumbled irritably, turning her head away.

"Look," Snowcrystal stated, glancing at Spark and Stormblade, "if we're careful of traps, it can't hurt to look around, and if we don't find it, you'll be sure to stay away from the human place for good, right?" She glanced at Rosie, who merely nodded reluctantly.

"We'd just better find it…" the vulpix muttered.

"Well, let's go," Snowcrystal announced. "We won't stay there long," she assured the others. "After all," she added jokingly, "I do have Articuno to find…"

"What?" exclaimed Rosie, but Snowcrystal ignored her and turned to Stormblade, who flew off to find the exact location of the town.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang and his group were on the move. The houndour pack had rested during some of the night and most of the morning, and were now nearing the jumble of jagged brown boulders that Snowcrystal had rested at the previous evening. Now that it was daylight, Blazefang was less wary of the area, and decided that the rocks may have provided some shelter for desert plants. The thought of finding prey appealed to the group, and Blazefang led the twenty-two other houndour to the rocks.

Wildflame, the female houndour who'd been a lookout the night before, didn't like the place. There was something odd about it, and she could feel it. Blazefang and the rest were busy searching for prey, but Wildflame stayed put at the edge of the rocky area. The way the stones cast strange, eerie shadows across the ground, spooky even during the day, made her somehow nervous.

Boneclaw was frustrated. "There's nothing here!" he growled to Blazefang, scraping dirt from the ground. "Just a bunch of stupid rocks and dust!" He started coughing as some of the dust he'd scooped up with his paw filled the air around him.

Blazefang was losing patience. "If there's prey anywhere, it's here," he growled dangerously. "We haven't searched the whole place yet, so keep looking!"

"What if we run into something dangerous, like you said?" Boneclaw questioned uncertainly, and, as if in answer to the fire dog's statement, a houndour screamed.

Blazefang leaped toward the sound, Boneclaw stumbling behind him as he tried to keep up. The two of them arrived in a small area surrounded on almost all sides by more of the tall rocks. A houndour was lying at the base of one of the boulders. He grinned sheepishly at Blazefang. "Heheh…I fell…"

"Oh, for the love of mew…" Blazefang growled angrily. "Quit acting like an idiot and keep looking for signs of prey!"

"Blazefang!" a houndour cried, and the pack's leader whipped around. "Uh…Blazefang…" the houndour repeated, "we found something strange…we think you should come and look!"

Blazefang sighed and followed him, Boneclaw in his wake. "This better be good…" he mumbled.

The houndour led his leader to a clear patch of ground surrounded by thin pointed rocks which all seemed to curve inward a little at the tops. These rocks formed a strangely shaped circle around the small area of ground. Two houndour looked up from where they were crouching beside some odd-shaped markings in the dust. Blazefang peered at them curiously, before brushing them away easily with his paw. "What was all this about? Some stupid marks in the dirt? I can't believe you actually…hey, wait a minute…"

Blazefang stepped closer to the patch of ground where his claws had scored through the markings. Barely visible beneath one of the claw marks, was the glint of something smooth and shiny.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal and Rosie headed after Spark and Stormblade as they trekked through the forest in the direction of the human's town. Snowcrystal could hear Stormblade's angry muttering from up ahead.

"I don't see why the little brat has to evolve…" the scyther was saying. "I never evolved, and I'm never going to! I don't get what the big deal about evolution is…And now we have to go through all this for a stupid fire stone…What's so great about it anyway? Can't she just be satisfied with what she is?"

Spark was getting very tired of Stormblade's rants. "Hey! _I'm_ evolved! So maybe you don't want to. Well, others might. Ever thought of that? Or are you just still paranoid about the humans? I thought you believed that trainers were there to help pokémon!"

"Not these humans!" Stormblade retorted. "Humans who put poison outside their buildings aren't there to help, they're…"

Snowcrystal rolled her eyes, wishing the two would stop arguing. Rosie had turned suddenly cheerful as they neared the town, prancing about happily next to Snowcrystal as the growlithe followed the jolteon and scyther.

"I can't wait to be a ninetales!" the little vulpix cried cheerfully to Snowcrystal. "I'll have white fur like you, only mine will be more creamy-colored, like a meowth's fur." A dreamy look crossed her eyes, as if she were picturing what she would look like in her new form. "So, uh…when are we gonna get to the town?"

"Hopefully soon," Snowcrystal sighed, glancing at Spark and Stormblade up ahead. Spark had turned his fur spiny again, as he seemed to do when he was angry. "Look you two, stop arguing!" she called over to them. "We'll be fine if we're careful. And this won't take long. We're just going to see if the fire stone's there."

"You've never been to a city or town, have you?" Stormblade called back. "We can't look through an entire town for something that small!"

"We're just going to try…" Snowcrystal replied impatiently. "Just really quickly. It's not far, is it?"

"Shouldn't be…" Stormblade replied unhappily.

"Oh, look, what do you know…" Spark called from further up ahead, where he was peering through some bushes. "There it is! And ooh…looks _so_ scary!"

Rosie darted up beside Spark and confirmed his statement. "He's right! I see the buildings! Let's go!"

Stormblade and Snowcrystal made their way through the bushes to see a large group of buildings up ahead. Snowcrystal stared wide-eyed, having never seen anything remotely like them before.

"What are they?" the white growlithe asked.

"Those big things are called buildings," Spark answered, his voice taking on a jesting tone as he explained in an overly simple way. "Humans live in them, work in them, or battle pokémon in them. Those rectangle things are called doors. They move, and let you enter a building. Okay, let's go."

Snowcrystal looked puzzled, and quite confused about what Spark had tried to explain to her. She looked around at the buildings, not seeing any humans around. Rosie started to run toward the town, but once again, Stormblade tried to stop her. "Wait!" he warned her. "At least make sure it's safe before you go running in there!"

Spark walked right up to him, stopping between Stormblade and the vulpix. "Stormblade," he stated flatly. "Three words…Par-a-noid!" He then turned and darted toward the nearest buildings.

"That's one word!" Stormblade yelled, heading after him.

Snowcrystal quickly caught up with Rosie. "Well, we better go look for that fire stone, and look out for humans," she whispered, and she and the vulpix followed the other two.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang's claws scraped the dust around the shiny object, revealing it to be a flat, almost oval-shaped stone. It was clear, and a dark purple in color, with slightly darker flecks all across it. Blazefang thought it must be a gem or a crystal of some sort, and set about trying to free it from the earth.

It was harder than he expected. The ground was hard and packed tightly around the object, and his claws made little progress as he sought to free the stone by digging. Blazefang then tried to grip with his claws around its edge, finally managing to pry it loose. Looking down at the dusty rock on the ground, Blazefang tapped its edge and rolled it over with his paw. "Well, what do you think it was here for?" he asked.

"I dunno…looks like just an old rock," Boneclaw replied. "But it's a kinda pretty one!"

Blazefang peered closely at the stone, noticing a few small imperfections in its shiny surface. Most of them were just minor nicks and scratches, but one was a narrow hole near the top of the stone. However, he still thought it looked pretty nice. "Heh, maybe I'll keep it. I could make a sort of medallion out of it or something."

Boneclaw was about to reply when a harsh cry rang out through the rocky area, and several ghostly forms suddenly materialized around the group, all looking very angry. Blazefang held back a cry of surprise and gritted his teeth. He'd been ambushed, but already he was thinking up a plan. "Everyone! Over here!" he yelled, and several panicked houndour arrived at Blazefang's side, gazing terrified at the ghost pokémon. Blazefang glanced around, noticing that some of his pack members were missing. Quickly realizing that the ghost types were all over the place, Blazefang figured the other houndour probably must have fled in terror, since there had been no sight or sound of an attack from their new enemies yet.

The houndour leader was quick to give orders. He kicked the purple stone toward one of his fellow houndour. "Boneclaw, hold this, everyone, get in a circle and face the pokémon!"

Boneclaw picked up the rock in his mouth, his teeth gripping the edges, while the other houndour did as Blazefang said. The ghost pokémon seemed to be glaring at Boneclaw in particular, and the houndour in question flattened his ears against his skull, growling. Many of the enemy ghost types were soon charging up some attacks, and at that moment, Blazefang cried, "Flamethrower, now!"

All at once the houndour fired blasts of red-hot flame at the ghost pokémon, while Blazefang signaled a retreat. The houndour backed off, taking turns at launching their attacks at the oncoming horde of spectral enemies, striking quite a few while at the same time making it very difficult for the ghost types to attack them back.

Blazefang was glad that his pack was great in numbers. He had them firing their attacks in turn; one small group using flamethrower after another had just fired theirs, creating a constant stream of fire that caused great panic and chaos among the ghost pokémon. Blazefang chuckled to himself as a shadow ball plowed into the ground to one side of him. These pokémon weren't great fighters; they seemed to want to rely more on scaring them off, but that advantage was long lost.

It wasn't long before Blazefang and the houndour had cleared the rocks, meeting up with Wildflame and the few houndour who'd fled. They then took to a run, soon leaving behind the angry ghost types who'd briefly attempted to follow them across the plains. Blazefang snickered to himself as he glanced back at the pokémon, who obviously weren't suited to the intense heat and the bright daylight.

One by one the ghost pokémon vanished, looking defeated and at a loss for what to do. Feeling pleased with himself, Blazefang called to the others in the group, "You see? If we had stopped there during the night, we might not have been so lucky. But then again, those ghosts only seemed to be good at trying to scare us off. Haha! Well, that's a lousy defense that ain't gonna work against us!" Still chuckling to himself about how well he'd handled the situation, Blazefang led his group toward the forest, silencing any complaints about minor injuries from the pack members.

_To be continued…_


	5. Search for the Fire Stone

Snowcrystal was awed by the human's buildings and their strange structures. For a while, Stormblade made sure they all kept to the shadows, to the alleyways, because although there were bound to be more traps, they would be less likely to encounter a human. Stormblade was obviously still unhappy about having to take the detour at all, and even Spark seemed to realize that something was amiss in the odd town.

A lot of the buildings seemed broken down and forgotten, not even scents remaining to tell Snowcrystal anything about their former inhabitants. The only humans Snowcrystal saw were walking along a sidewalk a little ways away, carrying some odd metal objects, but definitely no fire stone. Though she had never seen a human before, and therefore had nothing to compare it to, she felt that there was something off about these ones. It seemed that whatever reason they had for being here in this abandoned place wasn't anything good.

As they walked through another alley, Snowcrystal saw Stormblade and Spark point out several traps along the way, although most of them, Spark had told her, were designed for small pokémon like rattata.

"Do you think it's just the rattata the humans want out?" Snowcrystal asked.

"When Spark and I went by this town before, I saw bigger traps near some of the other buildings," Stormblade replied. "I guess pokémon might have once come here a lot to steal food or something. Well, whatever had been left in this place."

As Snowcrystal followed him carefully, she noticed a few small, sweet-smelling objects up ahead. Stormblade explained to her, "Those are called pokéblocks, but those ones smell poisoned to me. Don't go near them."

"Where are we supposed to find my fire stone in this place?" Rosie cried. "Shouldn't we be looking for the human who took it?"

"I think it's safe to wander around for a bit," Spark told the others, with a nod to Rosie. "There don't seem to be many humans around."

Snowcrystal nodded in agreement and the four pokémon started to wander the streets, feeling somewhat confident that they'd be able to flee from a human easily if they were spotted. However, they tried not to stay out in the open too much, as even Spark was a bit wary about being seen.

The town was both frightening and confusing to Snowcrystal, and she was soon ready to give up. She was about to suggest to the others that they go back, when suddenly Rosie gave a small growl of anger and hissed, "Look…it's him! That's him…the human that put me in that cage…"

The four pokémon ducked into an alleyway as a tall man walked by, a quilava trotting calmly by his side. Snowcrystal looked to see if he was holding the fire stone, but she couldn't tell.

As the man passed, his quilava stopped, taking a quick look around as he sniffed the air suspiciously. "Volco, come," the man said calmly, and the quilava turned reluctantly away and followed the human.

Rosie peered after them, whispering, "We gotta follow. Come on!"

"Wait," Snowcrystal whispered back. "He has pokémon with him, and we don't want a fight. We should wait a while, then follow his scent to wherever he's going. From there we'll see if we can find where he put the fire stone, and take it back."

Rosie sighed impatiently. "All right…" she mumbled reluctantly. "We'll wait…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang was still feeling strangely cheerful as he and the other houndour reached the forest. There, he managed to find tough plant fibers to make a medallion out of the strange purple stone. By managing to push both ends of the plant fiber into the narrow hole at the top of the gem, Blazefang had made it secure enough to ensure that the stone wouldn't fall off. He now wore it around his neck, much like Snowcrystal's.

Blazefang liked his new amulet. It made him feel more like authority, and there was something about it that put him in a good mood. The houndour pack had stopped at the stream Spark had found earlier for a rest and a drink. Though most of them were exhausted and just wanted to get some sleep, Blazefang felt energetic and wide awake. He wanted to continue following the growlithe, but he knew the others needed to rest, and for once he wasn't angry about it.

Pacing happily around the area, Blazefang let his mind wander, daydreaming about what it would be like to really find Articuno and have him on his side.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was nearing evening by the time Snowcrystal and the others left to follow the human with the quilava. Being a growlithe, it wasn't hard for her to track the scent, and it led her to a particularly run-down section of the town. They followed the winding roads, coming to a very large building, which Spark mentioned was called a pokémon gym.

At least, it had once been one. The building was in such a state of disrepair that Spark guessed that it hadn't been used for its intended purpose in decades. It smelled faintly of mold and rot, and strange vines clung to its brick walls.

Snowcrystal and the others wandered around it, trying to find a way in, but there seemed to be no way to enter the gym quietly. Just as they were about to give up, they heard the man's voice from not far away.

"Well, Volco," the voice was saying quietly from up ahead, an amused tone to the words, "we found the fire stone that pesky pidgeotto took, _and_ I caught another vulpix. There's always the chance this one could have potential. We'll see how it fares after a while in the trap."

Snowcrystal and the others crept forward, seeing the man and his quilava walking toward a section of the gym that was outside. Without even looking at it, the man flung a small object in the air and caught it easily. Snowcrystal noticed Rosie's eyes grow wide; it was the fire stone. The man continued talking.

"This should help Redclaw pose a bit more of a challenge to our battlers, shouldn't it?" he said calmly, talking to his pokémon as if this were an everyday type of conversation. "And just in time. A few more fights as a growlithe and he'd be torn apart for good…which would be a bit too soon for my liking."

The man spoke as if there was nothing wrong with what he was saying, and Snowcrystal shivered as she watched him. She heard the quilava reply, but couldn't hear what he was saying. From what she remembered of the tales she'd been told about humans, the trainer wouldn't even be able to understand the pokémon, but neither of the strangers seemed to mind.

The human and pokémon headed toward a group of fences, and the man opened a door to one of them and walked inside. Beside Snowcrystal, Rosie shifted nervously. "Is he going to use my fire stone on another pokémon?" the vulpix asked, alarmed.

"I don't know," Spark whispered back. "Let's just see what's behind those fences. It looks like there's a few practice battlefields outside." He walked up to one of the fences and peered through it.

Snowcrystal peered through it as well, seeing that the ground beyond was made up of a wide, flat surface, with thick white marks running across it in different areas. "Looks like a practice battlefield to me," Stormblade whispered from beside her. "But the human went that way. Let's go… quietly."

Snowcrystal was glad that it was somewhat darker now, and that there still seemed to be no other humans wandering the streets in this part of the town. As the group walked by the practice battling areas, they came across several, much taller fences, as well as thick concrete walls in some places.

It was just when Rosie had started fussing about the fire stone again that they heard the same human's voice from not far away. This time, he was shouting angrily, and Snowcrystal kept hearing a loud noise. Padding carefully alongside one of the fences toward the sound, the growlithe crawled through some thick weeds, her belly fur brushing against the ground. Then she suddenly found the source of the noise.

Just past the fence she was crouching beside was a closed-off area, a small section of fence with a concrete wall on one side. The man and his quilava were standing inside the fenced area, their backs to her. And to her shock, there was a second pokémon standing beside the concrete wall.

_Another scyther._

Snowcrystal couldn't see the other scyther clearly, but from what she could tell, it was obviously being beaten in some way by the human, yet it was just standing there, not making a move against him. Spark crawled through the grass to her side, while Stormblade and Rosie peered carefully through the fence at a safer distance.

"That human…that human has a whip!" Stormblade whispered angrily.

"He has my fire stone too," Rosie whispered back. "Don't forget what we came here for."

"But that scyther's chained!" Stormblade hissed. "We have to do something-"

"We can't do anything while that human and his quilava are around," Snowcrystal whispered back. "We should watch where he goes, try and see where he takes the fire stone, then we'll decide what to do."

The quilava, Volco, was watching his master calmly as the man brought the whip down on the scyther again, who wasn't even turning to face him. After lashing at the pokémon several more times, he set aside the whip and backed away a bit. Snowcrystal noticed that the scyther had a chain attached to its arm, which was in turn attached to the concrete wall. The human was carefully making sure that he was further away from the scyther than the chain could reach. The pokémon, however, didn't make any move to threaten him. In fact, she was ignoring him completely. This struck Snowcrystal as very strange, because although she wasn't familiar with whips, she figured that had to hurt, and the scyther wasn't cowering from the man either, just standing by the wall and ignoring him.

"That's strange…" Snowcrystal whispered to Spark. "Why doesn't that scyther fight back? I'm sure she can take down a human-"

"I dunno," Spark replied quietly so only she could hear. "But this is strange…I don't like this place. I'm starting to think that maybe Stormblade was right for once. Let's leave…I want to get out of here. Rosie can find herself another fire stone…"

"What?" the vulpix hissed, and Snowcrystal realized that she must have heard the last bit of what Spark had said. "I'm not leaving without my fire stone!"

"I'm not leaving until we can find a way to help that other scyther!" Stormblade stated firmly.

"Do you not see that that human has a fire type?" Spark hissed to Stormblade. "You said it yourself; this is dangerous!"

"Quiet!" Snowcrystal growled lowly, and turned back to the man and his quilava. The human was still facing the scyther, who for the first time, was actually looking at him, but with an almost bored and uninterested expression.

Snowcrystal heard the man speak with his calm, confident voice. If she hadn't heard him shouting angrily just before, she would have assumed he was a different human entirely. "You must be thirsty…" he was saying. "Standing out here in the hot sun all day." At this point the scyther had started to ignore him again, even when he held out a small bowl of water. "Well, you won't get any today," he said coldly, dropping the bowl to the ground, where the water seeped into the dirt at the scyther's feet. He turned away from the chained pokémon before stooping down and allowing Volco the quilava to climb on his shoulder, muttering under his breath as he left the fenced area and locked it. He then walked in the opposite direction of Snowcrystal and the others, toward the gym building.

For a moment, no one moved or spoke, and Spark looked horrified that a trainer would treat his pokémon that way. Snowcrystal realized that the jolteon must have had a very good trainer and hadn't seen these sorts of things. She herself had heard stories of abusive trainers like this back at the mountain, but it still came as a sort of shock.

After moments of silence, Rosie spoke up, "He went in that building…and he took the fire stone with him. I don't know if there's anything we can do about that scyther. He sounds like he could get really mad at us if we interfered."

"Or stole a fire stone," Snowcrystal pointed out. "But this is more important. Let's see if we can find out why that human's keeping the scyther there, and if we can help."

"He's keeping her there because she's his pokémon," Spark replied, standing up and shaking off bits of grass that had gotten tangled in his spiny fur, "That's all there is to it. He's a trainer. Though why he's keeping the pokémon chained up and not in a poké ball, I don't know." The jolteon shook himself, starting to look very unnerved. "And the place is long abandoned. He can't possibly _live_ here. He and those other humans must come here to do…who knows what."

"Come on, let's go…" Snowcrystal whispered. "Before he comes back…" Slowly she approached the fenced area where the strange scyther was. Now able to see up close, she could tell that as well as the chain around the scyther's arm – the one attached to the concrete wall – there was a heavy-looking iron collar around her neck. It looked as if a chain could be attached to it as well. The scyther hadn't noticed them, and was busy trying to lick drops of moisture from the rocky ground, making the previously tough-looking pokémon look almost feeble. Finally abandoning the attempt, the scyther headed back toward the wall, before lying down against it.

She then got the shock of her life as Stormblade suddenly flew over the fence to land right in front of her. Leaping up in surprise, the scyther stared at Stormblade in confusion, then lunged toward him, both scythes raised. The chain stopped her in mid-leap, but she still swiped at Stormblade with her other scythe, making a small slice in the tip of his left wing. Taken completely by surprise, Stormblade backed away, shaking drops of blood from his injured wing. The other scyther glared at him, but didn't attempt another attack; he was too far out of range.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried, managing to wriggle through a small gap in one side of the fence. Rosie slipped through after her, and Spark tried to follow their example, but ended up getting stuck halfway. Although he struggled franticly, the others were too preoccupied with the trapped scyther's sudden violent attack to notice his plight.

The chained scyther's reaction to Rosie and Snowcrystal was no different than it had been for Stormblade; she charged toward them, but was stopped by the chain before she got close enough to do any damage. She then backed off, poising for attack as if expecting them to bring the fight to her. For a moment, no one moved at all, and the strange scyther seemed to be daring any of them to come closer as she watched them through narrowed eyes.

Once again, Rosie managed to break the silence. "What's your problem?" she shouted at the scyther. "We're only trying to help you! So at least act grateful!"

"Hypocrite…" Spark muttered to himself, still lying half in and half out of the fence.

To everyone's immense surprise, the scyther relaxed, and her expression turned from angry to surprised. "You've come to… _help_ me?" She looked completely baffled and shocked, and somehow, Snowcrystal was sure she wasn't going to try and attack them anymore. As the scyther slowly started to pace back and forth near the wall, still seeming unsure of what to think, Snowcrystal gave her a closer look.

The scyther stood a bit shorter than Stormblade, but with blades and wings that were slightly longer than his. Her top two fangs that showed when her mouth was closed were longer too, almost twice as long as Stormblade's. Whether that was unusual for a scyther or not, Snowcrystal didn't know. Various scars and wounds covered the strange scyther's body, but she hardly seemed to notice them at all. In fact, by the way she walked so easily, without limping or showing any sign of pain, it was almost as if the wounds weren't there. The heavy iron collar around her neck and the chain attached to her arm didn't seem to bother her much either. Snowcrystal remembered how the bug type had acted like the beating she had received was a mere annoyance rather than a horrible experience. She didn't understand it, but she wasn't about to question the scyther.

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied softly. "We're here to help. We helped this vulpix, and we can get you out of here too." As she spoke, her gaze drifted to Stormblade, noticing his wound for the first time. She ran over to him, crying, "Oh, your wing! Are you all right?"

From his unfortunate position at the edge of the fence, Spark muttered darkly, "Oh sure, you notice when he gets hurt. But yet, no one seems to realize that…I AM STUCK IN A FENCE!" To Spark's dismay, his shout went ignored.

"It's not important now…" Stormblade told Snowcrystal in answer to her question. Gritting his teeth, he turned to the chained scyther. "But we need to find a way to break that chain…I'm guessing a scythe won't work?"

The other scyther stared at him as if he were crazy. "Do you think I wouldn't have freed myself already if I could cut through it?" To prove her point, she slashed across the chain a couple of times, and it did no apparent damage.

"Maybe we could…" Stormblade began, but Snowcrystal interrupted him.

"I have an idea," the growlithe whispered, "but I'll need Rosie and Spark's help. Wait a minute…where is Spark?" She turned and looked around, finally noticing him. "Oh…you're stuck…" she stated, running over in his direction.

"About time someone noticed," Spark murmured, rolling his eyes.

For a moment Snowcrystal struggled with the wire, but soon Spark was finally able to wriggle loose, leaving behind a few tufts of yellow fur. "Thanks for the _help_ , Snowcrystal," Spark cried, making a point of saying it loudly.

Snowcrystal beckoned Rosie over to her as she approached the scyther, stopping right beside where the chain attached to the wall. "Uh…stand back," she whispered to the chained pokémon. "I don't want to hurt you by accident."

"I'm not afraid," the scyther muttered, not moving at all. Knowing that their time could be running out, Snowcrystal quickly instructed Rosie on what to do. Together, they used their embers to heat a small section of the chain. Once Snowcrystal decided it was hot enough, she called Spark over to her side, and whispered to him as well.

Spark nodded and concentrated on the section of the chain as his short, spiky tail started to glow a bright silver. A few moments later, he leaped over the chain, slamming his tail down on the heated metal. The iron tail, combined with the ember attacks, did the trick. The link broke in two, and the scyther stepped away from the wall, the severed chain still attached to her arm.

"There, you're free now," Snowcrystal whispered. "Go, and hurry!"

The scyther needed no second bidding. Spreading her wings for probably the first time in a long while, she flew over the fence and away from the buildings, soon disappearing into the growing darkness.

Snowcrystal realized that they'd lingered for far too long. Turning toward the fence again, the growlithe carefully slipped under it and waited for the others. Once they were all on the other side, she quietly crept forward, walking around the corner of another section of fence leading to the gym building.

And it was then that she found herself face to face with the trainer's quilava.

  
**-ooo-**  


As evening slowly turned to night, Blazefang and the houndour pack moved stealthily through the forest, always on the lookout for danger. Blazefang wasn't particularly worried, but the others were, namely Wildflame. Snowcrystal's trail was becoming harder to follow, and the group was repeatedly getting turned around. However, to everyone's surprise, Blazefang was patient with them.

Oddly enough, the houndour had found both tracks and scent of other travelers, and had reached the conclusion that there were new pokémon helping the growlithe. Blazefang wasn't worried, however, since if the growlithe's group saw him and tried to attack, his pack could easily overpower them. For now, though, it was best to not let the white growlithe know she was being followed. After all, she could have an idea of where Articuno had gone.

As they traveled on, members of the pack began to notice that Blazefang's stone amulet seemed to glow brighter as the forest became darker. This made Blazefang more pleased, as he liked the thought of owning something rare and unique.

When the pack stopped for another rest, Blazefang sat to himself away from the main group, still hardly tired. Sitting up, he pawed at the strange violet-colored stone, careful to only touch its edges out of fear of damaging it with his claws. Then, to his amazement, the stone's glow intensified, until the whole area around him was flooded with a bright white light.

Startled, he lifted his paw again and touched the stone's edge lightly, and the glow faded to its normal brightness. Blazefang sat completely still, confused and pondering what had just happened. Was there more to this stone than he had realized?

_To be continued…_


	6. Battle for Freedom

Wildflame, along with about ten other houndour, were out hunting. One of them had scented stantler, and Blazefang had sent them to catch prey for the rest of the pack. The smaller group was following the strong scent of the stantler herd, which had been there not too long ago. Wildflame was the first one to spot the deer-like pokémon ahead, and the houndour pack spread out, singling out the stantler furthest from the main herd.

Before anyone could move further, one of the other stantler lifted its head and charged toward where Boneclaw was hiding, sending the houndour scurrying for cover. A few other houndour raced toward it, surrounding the creature and allowing Boneclaw to escape. The stantler backed away with an alarmed look in its eyes, but a moment later, the rest of the herd came dashing toward them.

"Move out of the way!" Wildflame shouted. "Come back and circle any stragglers!"

The houndour bolted in different directions. They had all had experience with stantler before. Most of the stampeding ones were probably just illusions, but Wildflame wasn't taking any chances. The stantler heard thundered past, and Wildflame ordered the pack to follow them.

As she raced after the rest of the houndour, one of the larger, tougher stantler suddenly leaped in front of her, bringing his hooves smashing down into her side. Wildflame let out a yelp as she was forcefully knocked off her feet and into a tangle of bushes. She looked around wildly, but the pack had already left, chasing after the rest of the herd. She was alone. There was no way one single houndour could bring down a stantler, and this one seemed bent on killing her to protect his herd from a future attack.

Wildflame barely managed to avoid another stomp of the beast's hooves. She got to her feet, knowing there was no choice but to fight. After being kicked by the stantler, she knew she couldn't outrun him in this state. Doing the only thing she could think of at the moment, Wildflame used a smog attack. Thick smoke filled the area, hiding the stantler from view. Hoping it would be blinded by the attack, Wildflame started to limp off.

However, it wasn't enough. The stantler came charging toward her through the billowing smoke, rage filling its eyes. Wildflame saw in that look a hatred for her kind and for predators. She was unable to escape as the stantler charged toward her with a powerful take down, lowering his horns as he slammed Wildflame forcefully to the ground.

The houndour lay prone on the leafy earth, hearing the worried cries of her packmates. They now knew she was in danger, but she would probably be dead before they could come to her rescue. With her last bit of strength, she painfully tried to stand up, and to her surprise, she did.

For some strange reason, she was able to stand firmly, no longer feeling as if she were about to faint. The smog had seemed to clear away a bit as well, or was it getting lighter? Wildflame realized then that the light, the glow, was coming from herself.

The stantler was charging toward her again, and with a snarl Wildflame leaped at him, her legs and paws already starting to lengthen and become much slimmer, her claws growing larger and more curved. Her muzzle was also becoming longer, her teeth even more sharp and deadly. Horns curved back behind her head, and as she struck the stantler, sinking her teeth around its neck, she could feel her tail grow long and thin, ending in an arrow-shaped point.

The glow faded a moment later, leaving a newly-evolved houndoom clinging to the enraged stantler with teeth and claws. Wildflame felt the hooves pounding into her stomach, but she was much larger and stronger now. Releasing the pokémon, Wildflame landed on all fours, breathing heavily, but with the wild light of battle in her eyes. Leaping at the stantler again, Wildflame locked her jaws around its throat, hoping for a swift kill. A brief struggle ensued, and the two collapsed in the dirt. A moment later, Wildflame stood up shakily, her prey lying at her feet.

She had done it. Relief and shock flooded over her; she was astonished at what she had done. Taking down a large prey pokémon on her own was something she would have thought was impossible. She could hear the sounds of her pack coming closer. Wildflame lifted her head and gave a few barking cries, a signal to the rest of the hunting pack. As the other houndour approached, exhaustion overcame Wildflame, and she collapsed in a heap.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was hard to tell who was more surprised, Volco or Snowcrystal. The quilava just stared back at the growlithe for a few seconds, but quickly moved past being startled. Dashing towards Snowcrystal, he plowed her into the side of the fence with quick attack. Spark leapt to his friend's rescue, striking Volco with thunderbolt and sinking his fangs into the quilava's leg.

The two pokémon struggled in the dust, and as Rosie and Stormblade appeared, Volco's trainer did as well, stepping from around the corner of a concrete wall. Glancing toward the pokémon, the man gave a cry of shock, for two reasons. One, a scyther he believed was his was loose and standing right by the fence. Two, there was a growlithe recovering from one of his quilava's attacks…that had white fur.

"Volco, flame wheel. Thunder, get the others," the trainer shouted. Volco leaped away from Spark as the flames on his head and back flared up. Opening his mouth wide, he fired a whirling tornado of flames at his attacker. Spark nimbly leaped out of the way, his back fur only singed, and instantly turned his pelt to spines before whipping around and firing a large amount of them at the attacking quilava's face.

Volco gave a shriek of pain as the sharp spines embedded themselves in his face and chest. Pawing furiously at them, the quilava didn't hear his trainer's next orders. Volco's trainer now focused his attention on Stormblade, glaring at the scyther through the darkness. "Thunder, _move!_ "

Stormblade stood still, confused, and the human stepped closer, peering at him through the gloom. It was only then that he realized that this wasn't his scyther. Giving a cry of frustration, he reached for one of the poké balls hooked to his belt. A hint of alarm flashed across his face as he did so, as if he was remembering that he didn't have any more of his most trusted pokémon with him. Nevertheless, he grabbed one of the round objects and threw it. "Redclaw, go."

A massive shape materialized in front of Spark and the others. It bore a strong resemblance to Snowcrystal, only it was much bigger. It had a longer mane and thicker stripes, as well as two fangs that stuck out of its mouth. Unlike Snowcrystal however, the arcanine had bright, vivid orange fur and stripes as black as tar, strikingly different from the pale gray of Snowcrystal's own stripes. Red flame-like shapes had also been painted on the arcanine's claws, or perhaps, Snowcrystal thought with a jolt, it was meant to represent blood.

Unlike Volco, who looked healthy and well fed, the arcanine was gaunt and thin, the marks of a whip clearly evident along its back. It bore several wounds, as if many pokémon had tried to attack it over weeks or days. It also wore a strange collar that emitted several sparks every few seconds. The arcanine looked even more wounded and malnourished than the trainer's scyther, whom from what the man had said seemed to be called 'Thunder.'

"Redclaw," the man ordered, "attack that other scyther! And don't let the growlithe escape."

Redclaw gave a loud roar, though it sounded less than enthusiastic, and charged toward Stormblade, launching a flamethrower in the scyther's direction. Stormblade leaped aside, and at a command from his trainer, Redclaw fired the same attack again. This time, as Stormblade dodged, the flames seared across his shoulder. When he landed on his feet again, he could see the arcanine with his mouth open wide, fangs gleaming, and a faint red glow at the back of the doglike pokémon's throat growing steadily brighter. Stormblade, knowing what was coming, quickly darted behind a concrete wall just as Redclaw shot a blast of flame in his direction, feeling the heat of the attack as it blazed past him.

Meanwhile, Volco had recovered, and was now battling against Snowcrystal, Spark, and Rosie. As the quilava shot another flame wheel at Spark, who managed to dodge but escaped with a burned paw, Rosie's eyes started to glow as she focused them on Volco.

The quilava's eyes glazed over a bit, giving him a dazed and confused look. He tried to fire another flame wheel, which collided with the concrete wall instead of hitting Rosie, who was in the opposite direction.

Volco stumbled around to face his opponents again, shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts. Spark struck him with another thunderbolt, and the quilava sank to the ground, the confuse ray's effects fading away, but all too late. The trainer cursed under his breath and immediately returned his quilava before Snowcrystal's jaws could clamp around his front leg.

At the same time Volco was returned, Stormblade found himself face to face with Redclaw; both of them seeming reluctant to attack. Redclaw now seemed exhausted and weak, dreading the thought of having to go on, and Stormblade couldn't find it in himself to attack him.

"Redclaw, fire blast that bug!" the arcanine's trainer shouted.

Redclaw seemed to flinch at the command, then began charging up the attack. Stormblade leaped out of the way as Redclaw launched the fire blast, but he needn't have bothered. The attack was a miss, plowing into the ground to the right side of the scyther. Redclaw began panting for breath, his whole body visibly shaking. Stormblade left him as he ran to help his friends, who were now fighting a skarmory that Volco's trainer had sent out. Their fire attacks had clearly weakened the emaciated pokémon, but nevertheless, it was still fighting, a look of insane rage in its eyes as it tried to claw at Snowcrystal's back. The growlithe managed to duck down and avoid the worst of the blow, but a few of the claws caught on her skin, leaving bright red cuts that stood out strikingly against her soft white fur.

"Stop it!" Stormblade cried, rushing toward the others. "He'll only send out one pokémon after another. Don't attack the pokémon, it isn't their fault-we just need to get out of here!"

Rosie nodded, but knowing that the trainer would only follow them, she used her confuse ray once again, on the skarmory this time, and she and the others took off, running past Stormblade and toward the woods.

The skarmory gave a cry of rage and shot after Stormblade as he turned to follow the others. The steel type flew low to the ground, trying to rake the scyther's back with its claws. Stormblade shook the pokémon off, not wanting to attack it in this weakened state, as it had obviously been trained in a cruel way purely to fight again and again. Like the arcanine, it looked as if it had been used as a punching bag for some incredibly strong pokémon.

The skarmory shrieked as it plowed into Stormblade, sending the scyther crashing into the ground. The armored bird pokémon leaped into the air again, ready to swoop down at the stunned bug type.

Redclaw and his trainer came dashing toward the two, watching as the skarmory swiped its razor-edged wing feathers at Stormblade's face. Stormblade blocked the blow with his blade and, knowing that there was no other option, lashed out with both scythes at the skarmory's chest. However, it seemed to do little damage to the steel pokémon. A moment later, the skarmory had him pinned down, its claws scraping against his shoulders.

The trainer watching the fight took an empty poké ball from his belt. "All right, Redclaw, finish him off." He looked a bit less unsettled, casting a look back at the abandoned gym building before returning his gaze to the battle.

Redclaw darted toward the fight, a bright glow coming from his muzzle. He then blasted the flames not at Stormblade, but at the skarmory. The steel pokémon gave a cry of pain and collapsed, allowing Stormblade to struggle to his feet.

As the skarmory recovered, Redclaw stared into the scyther's eyes, ignoring his trainer's sudden cries. The arcanine shot a quick look back at the man, who was making a break for the gym building. "Get out of here," the fire type shouted at Stormblade. "Go away and don't come back. He's getting his other pokémon…the really strong ones, and you'll never win a battle against them." The roar of some chained up pokémon from within the gym building seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet, and Redclaw's voice grew low and desperate. "Please, you don't want him to catch you. You deserve a better life than this, friend."

Stormblade stared back in shock for a moment, exhausted from the battle. He realized that this arcanine was grateful to him for his refusal to fight back, and that the arcanine probably got beaten by his opponents quite often. Knowing there was nothing more he could do for the fire pokémon, he nodded and flew off toward the forest, following his fleeing friends.

Watching him leave, Redclaw bowed his head as his trainer returned, several new poké balls clasped in his hand. The man caught up with him, furious that the group of wild pokémon had already faded into the nighttime gloom of the trees. He knew that he could send out a search, but it would be all but useless in wilderness like this during the night. Redclaw also knew that the man would never trust him enough to try to force him to track them down after what he'd done. The trainer swore under his breath, lowering his hand and clenching the poké ball tighter as he looked out into the thick forest.

Redclaw knew what was coming, but he didn't care. He had done what was right; he had helped that scyther, and he had denied his trainer a new group of pokémon, as well as a rare-colored growlithe that he would have sold in one of the cities.

And that in itself was a victory.

  
**-ooo-**  


Spark cried out in pain as he collapsed, exhausted, in the middle of the forest before starting to lick his burned forepaw. Snowcrystal slumped to the ground next to him, the claw wounds on her back still bleeding a bit.

Rosie, luckily, was unscathed. She approached the others timidly, whispering, "What about my fire stone?"

"Rosie," Snowcrystal whispered, "I think that human used the fire stone on that arcanine."

Rosie glanced toward the ground sadly, and to Snowcrystal's shock, she could see the vulpix blinking away tears. "You were all really brave though," she said softly, as if it took a bit of effort to say it.

Snowcrystal was about to reply when Stormblade came staggering into the clearing. Apart from the burn on his shoulder, he didn't have any noticeable wounds, but he looked incredibly tired. Stormblade sat down beside a tree, panting, as the others tried to recover from the effects of the battle.

"We shouldn't have gone in there," Spark whispered at last. "You were right, Stormblade."

"Well, we're alive aren't we?" Stormblade replied. "And we did get to help that other scyther..."

"Yes…" Snowcrystal agreed, standing up, "but we'd better get going. That human could be looking for us. Come on…"

Rosie slowly stood up and plodded after Snowcrystal, Spark limping beside her. Stormblade rose to his feet and followed, and Snowcrystal could tell by his slightly awkward movements that his shoulder was bothering him. She was surprised when Rosie spoke up in a helpful-sounding voice, "You know, there's some rawst berries over there. If you and Spark eat them, it will help your burns to not get infected, and maybe even heal a bit faster." She motioned toward a berry bush nearby, and Spark and Stormblade, as well as Snowcrystal and Rosie herself, ate a few before carrying on.

  
**-ooo-**  


The trainer's scyther had never felt so much freedom. Ever since she had been freed, she had spent nearly an hour running and flying all around the forest, just for the sheer joy of being able to do it. The long chain still attached to her arm had gotten tangled in bushes and brambles at times, but she had hardly noticed. She was _free_.

The scyther had not known freedom for as long as she could remember. Having been raised by her trainer from a young age, her life before that was a blur. Whether or not she had had a name then, she wasn't sure. She had always gone by the nickname her trainer had given her, Thunder.

At last Thunder became so exhausted she had to stop and rest, no matter how much she wanted to keep running on and on. It was so different from being chained to a wall all day, as her trainer tended to do to her often, or being stuck inside a poké ball. However, one of the things that did get Thunder to finally stop her constant wandering was a nearby stream.

The moment she saw it, she darted over, plunging her head into the stream and drinking as much of the cool, clean water as it took to quench her thirst. She was amazed. All this water was right there, and no one was around to tell her how much she was allowed to drink. She could come here to the stream again and again, as much as she wanted, and her Master would never know.

_Master…_ Thunder became suddenly wary. Her trainer was sure to come after her with his other pokémon. She couldn't stay here, but she could find another forest, and another water stream like this one.

Once she had finished drinking, Thunder headed deeper into the trees, not bothering to look for danger and fearing nothing and no one…

…No one but Master.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal was glad Stormblade hadn't been hurt badly and could still fly. The small cut on his wing from the chained scyther's attack didn't bother him much, and he could still use his wings just fine. He had just flown above the foliage and come back to tell them, to everyone's great relief, that they were nearly out of the forest and that a vast grassy plain lay beyond.

In spite of their wounds, the group eagerly traveled onward. The cuts across Snowcrystal's back still stung, but they had stopped bleeding, and she knew that the rawst berries would help Stormblade and Spark heal well. The trees seemed to thin out as the group got further, and Snowcrystal sighed with relief as she realized that they really didn't have far to go.

Movement up ahead caught her eye, and she realized that the same scyther they'd helped before, the one the trainer had mentioned was named 'Thunder', had flown to the forest floor ahead of them, looking completely exhausted. The moment she saw the group, Thunder jumped toward them with the intention to attack, but stopped herself when she realized who they were.

"What are you still doing here?" Stormblade asked her, astonished. "You should be far away from this forest!"

"I will be," Thunder replied simply. "But I don't know where to go. Maybe Master's pokémon will try and find me…I don't know these lands well."

Spark gave Snowcrystal a confused glance, but they both knew that what Thunder meant by 'Master' was her trainer. Snowcrystal decided to talk to the strange scyther herself.

"We don't know these lands either," the growlithe explained. "I'm on a journey. I'm traveling to find…Articuno." She was surprised when Thunder didn't show any interest in the legendary's name being mentioned. "Stormblade, this scyther, and Spark, this jolteon, are looking for a new home," she continued. "And I'm sure Rosie is too. If you want, you can come with us. You shouldn't be wandering alone when you're injured."

"I am not injured," Thunder replied, though Snowcrystal could plainly see that that was a blatant lie. From the look on Snowcrystal's face, Thunder could tell what she was thinking. "I am not injured," she repeated. "Master was not very angry with me. He did not hurt me much. If Master was very angry, I would be injured now, but I'm not."

Spark and Snowcrystal exchanged puzzled looks again, not understanding how this scyther could regard her wounds as 'nothing'. However, they decided not to question her on the subject. "So…do you want to come with us?" Snowcrystal asked. "After all, Stormblade and Spark are looking for the same thing you should be looking for. A safe new home."

Thunder shrugged. "I guess so…" she replied. "I don't know whether Master's pokémon are searching for me, but I will come with you…for a little while."

Snowcrystal nodded happily and the group headed off. Snowcrystal couldn't help but notice how Spark and Stormblade were still limping; their wounds, although minor, were obviously bothering them. Thunder, however, moved swiftly and easily, as if she wasn't injured at all. Only the look in her eyes gave away that she was in pain, and even then it was hard to tell.

Snowcrystal sighed. They were certainly becoming an odd group of adventurers, but at least they would be working together if any danger happened to come their way.

_To be continued…_


	7. Another "Little" Adventure

A pleasant breeze drifted over the plains toward the group of pokémon as they emerged from the last of the forest's trees and onto the sweet-smelling grass. Early morning sunlight lit up the fields, a much welcome change from the darkness of the forest. Flowers covered the ground almost as far as they could see, and there were tall cliffs, though not as tall as the ones Snowcrystal was used to, close by near the forest they had just traveled through. Flowers dotted the sides of these cliffs, giving them a tranquil and calming look.

The place seemed so peaceful, Snowcrystal could almost believe they were safe. But they had plenty to worry about. Out of their group of five, four were injured. None of them had managed to get enough food in the past few days. Spark and Snowcrystal had eaten some berries, but that was all, and Rosie and Stormblade had only had a few rawst berries. Considering they were all species of pokémon that needed meat, that certainly wasn't enough to nourish them. That, and who knew if there could be danger lurking hidden in this seemingly peaceful place?

Despite all this, Snowcrystal felt like she could relax here for a little bit, and so she and the others decided to rest. Snowcrystal lay down among a small bed of wildflowers, while Spark did likewise, his paw still causing him pain. Rosie, however, obviously wasn't feeling weary, as she was running around, tearing up flowers and plant stems as she bolted through the tall grass, happy to be away from the forest. Knowing that the vulpix was having fun, Snowcrystal didn't bother her. It would probably take her mind off the fire stone incident anyway.

Thunder was not very concerned with taking a rest either. She was busy exploring the area around them, paying no heed to the others. They didn't question her either.

After a while, Rosie became bored with running through the grass and flowers, and urged the rest of the group to move on. Reluctantly, Snowcrystal, Spark, and Stormblade decided that she was right and they needed to keep going.

Snowcrystal decided that it would be better to travel by the high cliffs that towered overhead, which would provide shade if it got hot later in the day. They had just reached the foot of the cliffs when Snowcrystal spotted a group of strange pokémon ahead. They were odd-shaped yellow bee-like pokémon that looked somewhat like honeycomb. "What are they?" Snowcrystal asked, watching a group of them flying toward a large patch of wildflowers some ways ahead.

"Oh, those are combee," Spark replied, not sounding very interested. Obviously he had seen them before on his travels.

"Did you and Stormblade pass this way when you came to the forest?" Snowcrystal asked.

Spark shook his head. "No, we entered the forest from somewhere that way." He pointed his paw westward. "We've never been here before. But I've seen combee in other places…when I still had a trainer."

Rosie suddenly gave a loud shriek as one of the combee flew by, interrupting Spark and Snowcrystal's conversation. "A BUG!" the vulpix cried, running over to Stormblade and clinging to his leg. Stormblade gave her a weird look. "What?" she growled, glaring back at him, "I don't like bugs…they're scary…" She looked at the combee again and shuddered.

Stormblade just stared.

"Bugs aren't scary, Rosie," Snowcrystal said cheerfully. "Look, the combee aren't even bothering us. Just leave them alone and they'll leave you alone."

As Snowcrystal was talking, Stormblade looked past her to see Thunder charging toward a combee who had apparently got too close to her, swiping at it with both her scythes. The combee managed to get away as Thunder's chain snagged on a bush, causing her to stumble.

"Leave the combee alone," Stormblade called to her. "They won't bother you and they aren't good for prey either."

Rosie stepped away from Stormblade, sticking her tongue out at another combee as it passed. "I'm…I'm not afraid of you anymore!" she called after it, trying to sound brave.

"Wow…" mused Spark. "These things are everywhere…hey look!" He leaped up and pointed with his paw to a large crevice in the side of a nearby cliff. A few combee were coming in and out of the opening. "Those combee must have a hive up there," Spark told Snowcrystal. "And hive means honey. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Snowcrystal looked blank. "Uh…what?"

Spark sighed impatiently. "Don't tell me you don't know what honey is…well, you won't know how good it is until you taste it!"

"You mean there's food in that cave up there?" Snowcrystal whispered. "Do you think they'd give us some?" She glanced toward the large groups of combee flying over the fields.

"No, they won't," Spark told her simply. "But they have plenty of food and I'm starving, so let's go!" He started to run toward the rocky side of the cliff, leaving Snowcrystal still looking confused.

Stormblade suddenly stamped down on the jolteon's short, spiky tail, preventing him from running any further. "Stop! Don't you think the combee will be angry if you steal from their hive?" he growled.

Spark turned his head toward the scyther and smirked. Suddenly the hairs of his pelt stuck up straight with a twanging noise, turning into sharp needle-like spines. Stormblade jumped back with a cry of pain, allowing Spark to stand up. Roaring with laughter, the electric pokémon raced off in the direction of the hive.

Snowcrystal sighed. "I guess we better follow him," she told the others. "And maybe…maybe if we just get a little of this…honey and leave it'll be all right. I'm sure those combee won't mind. Besides, we're all hungry, right?"

Stormblade looked up, halfway through pulling the spines out of his foot with his teeth. He spat a few out, muttering, "Fine! You go in there…as for me, I'm staying out here."

"Okay, then you can starve!" Spark called back from where he was still running up ahead.

Snowcrystal sighed. "All right then, stay here Stormblade. The rest of us will go…" Rosie nodded and Thunder merely shrugged, and the two of them followed Snowcrystal as she ran after the jolteon. "Hey, wait up Spark!"

The others caught up with Spark as he reached the foot of the cliff, directly below the cave. Snowcrystal glanced upward, starting to feel as if this was a bad idea. However, seeing how peaceful the combee were, there didn't seem to be much danger, and she tried to convince herself that it would be for the best. After all, they would need their strength for the journey, and this seemed to be the only place to find food in the area, as they probably wouldn't have the energy to hunt for a while. Snowcrystal sighed, not knowing if she'd ever be able to hunt in places where her white coat was so easy to spot.

Spark was grinning as he outlined his plan to the others. "Okay, we need someone to distract the combee flying toward the entrance. Then the rest of us will climb up those rocks on the less steep side and reach the cave. We meet up, go through the cave and find the hive, get some honey and then leave…simple!"

"Isn't this stealing?" Rosie asked with a glance at Spark.

"It's not stealing, Rosie, it's survival!" Spark muttered. "We have to find food somewhere."

"Oh…" Rosie replied. "Yep, it's stealing. Sounds fun!" She gave Spark a mischievous grin.

"Okay," Spark whispered, leaning closer to the others, "Let's get started. Thunder, you'll create the distraction…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang was having a strange feeling again. As the pack trekked through the dark forest, the houndour leader somehow felt that something was amiss. But as to what that was, he had no clue. His pack was constantly on the alert, following the trail of the growlithe and her companions. They had not run into danger since Wildflame had fought the stantler.

But Blazefang felt tired. His stone amulet almost seemed to weigh him down. He could not shake off the feeling that something was somehow…wrong.

Blazefang nearly jumped out of his fur when Wildflame suddenly appeared beside him. "What's up?" the houndoom questioned, "You look like you're worried about something. Is anyone following us?

"No…" Blazefang replied hastily, "I just…I just don't like this place…that's all. Let's keep moving so we can get out of here. The growlithe was here recently…"

After a while of walking through the woods, Blazefang had become so paranoid that he told the pack to take a short break. Creeping away from them, Blazefang sought a place where he could be alone with his thoughts. He didn't understand the strange moods he'd been having, and he wanted to try to sort it out. Finally finding a nice area away from the other houndour, Blazefang sat down and tried to think. Not knowing why, he found his mind drifting back to the incident in the wasteland near the forest, when the ghost pokémon had attacked. It had been strange…the way they had chased them after Blazefang had retrieved the stone. Had there been a reason that they'd been guarding it?

Almost without realizing it, Blazefang lifted a single claw to the center of the stone. Suddenly a blinding jolt of what felt like electricity surged through the houndour's body. He tried to scream, but found to his horror that he couldn't make a sound. Just before he lost consciousness, he heard what sounded like a voice inside his own head echo around his mind…

…" _Shadowflare…"_

  
**-ooo-**  


Spark, being careful of his injured paw, slowly hoisted himself up on the ledge in front of the cave's entrance. He then helped Snowcrystal and Rosie in turn as they too clambered up the rocks. Thunder was already waiting for them, having scared off quite a few of the combee. The scyther watched the others slowly enter the cave before turning and following them.

"I can hardly see anything…" whispered Snowcrystal. "Wait…" Using ember, she blew a small flame into the air, illuminating the area around them. Struggling to keep the flame lit up, she led the way through the rocky tunnel.

Luckily, she didn't have to keep it up for long, as they soon emerged into a large cavern. Massive glowing crystals were embedded in the walls, giving off plenty of light. Snowcrystal was reminded fondly of her own home, only these crystals were a pale blue, not red, and some of them were far larger than any she had ever seen.

Rosie and Spark were also glancing around in silent awe, but Thunder only seemed mildly curious, giving the cavern a brief glance all around before starting to walk through it toward the other side. Snowcrystal followed her, gazing at the immense columns of stone that reached from the ceiling to the stone floor, and all the strange and unusual rock formations that surrounded her in every direction.

"Wow…" Spark whispered, awed, as he walked up to a group of thin stalactites that reached almost down to the floor. "These spiky things are everywhere! Look at those big ones way up there…I bet they could fall and cut you in half!"

"That's lovely, Spark," Snowcrystal muttered. "Let's find the hive before the combee know we're in here."

"Aw…it could be in any one of these tunnels," Rosie whispered, glancing around. "How are we gonna find it?"

"Why did these combee have to build their hive in a cave?" Spark muttered irritably.

"So it would be protected, hard to locate, so _other pokémon won't steal their honey_ _…_ " Snowcrystal added with a glance at Spark and Rosie.

"Well, let's just look around…" Spark suggested. "If we can't find it, we'll go back…" He padded up to the base of an immense limestone column. The water that had been trickling down the rock pillar for thousands of years had created smooth and intricate patterns in the natural stone. "You have to admit though, this is a pretty cool cave…much prettier than those ones my trainer and I had to travel through. I always hated those caves. Full of geodude…zubat…If I never have to fight one again…"

"Spark, look!" Snowcrystal whispered, looking ahead. Spark stopped talking and followed Snowcrystal's gaze. Through a tunnel slightly to their right and above a few odd-looking stalagmites on a rock ledge, the growlithe was sure she had seen the flicker of wings. "I think I saw one of the combee in there," she whispered.

The four pokémon crept toward the tunnel, climbing carefully onto the ledge. The chain around Thunder's arm caught on a small stalagmite, causing her to stumble. Turning around angrily, Thunder swiped her blade at the stalagmite, breaking the tiny stone formation easily. Turning away from it with a growl, Thunder caught up with the rest of the group.

Snowcrystal edged her way around some of the thick stone stalagmites before climbing onto the ledge and peering into the tunnel. Rosie found that she couldn't make the climb and had to be lifted up by Spark.

As they walked through the tunnel, which got darker and darker as they progressed, Snowcrystal's sharp hearing picked up the sound of many pokémon…combee. She and the others crept forward to find themselves standing on a ledge looking over a cavern even bigger than the one they had just left.

Like the other cavern, this one was lit by luminous crystals, though these looked golden. Down below and up above, combee flew everywhere, some in large groups and others by themselves, all headed to and away from what looked like a huge golden cave formation. To Snowcrystal's shock, there seemed to be what looked like pools of gold liquid on rock ledges all around the combee's massive construction. The gold stuff looked to be flowing into the pools from ledges higher up, which shaped part of the golden formation. The entire structure filled up a large part of the room on the opposite side, seeming to tower over them even from where they were standing.

"That thing is huge…" Snowcrystal whispered to Spark as she covered her stone amulet with her paws, trying to keep to the shadows where they wouldn't be seen. She did not want to be noticed by the combee flying around the cavern.

"And it's part of the combees' honey storage," Spark replied in a whisper.

Several combee were fluttering to the honey pools, but Snowcrystal noticed a smaller pool in a different tunnel that seemed to be ignored, and out of sight of most of the combee. She nodded toward it and the four pokémon carefully crept down the ledge toward it, careful to stay hidden against the wall where it was darkest, away from the crystals. Snowcrystal knew one thing for sure. She didn't want to be caught in that large cavern, however peaceful and harmless the combee seemed…

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang began to feel his senses returning. He opened his eyes slowly, looking around. How long had he been unconscious? He thought for a moment. If it had been a long time, the pack would have come looking for him and found him. No, he'd probably only passed out for a few minutes. He stood up, surprised to find that not only did he no longer feel weak, but he felt stronger…the sort of strong he felt when he won a friendly battle with one of his fellow houndour, or when he learned a new attack.

Then he remembered…the jolting pain he had felt when he had touched the center of the purple stone. Carefully he reached out a paw and touched it again. Nothing happened, and he felt no different. Suddenly he recalled the word he'd heard just before he'd passed out… _Shadowflare_. "Shadowflare…" Blazefang mused aloud, "What the heck is a Shadowflare?" Then a thought struck him. What if this stone had given him a new power or attack? He'd heard of human-made devices that could teach pokémon attacks, and he began to wonder if this stone, whatever it really was, might be the same sort of thing.

He felt stronger now, very much as if he _had_ learned a new attack or ability. That, and he could practically sense that some strange power now lie within him, a power that hadn't been there before. Oddly enough, he didn't feel afraid. He felt…pleased. Smirking, he stood up and headed back to the others. Whatever this 'Shadowflare' was, he'd find out soon enough, but for now he'd keep it a secret from the rest of the pack.

  
**-ooo-**  


"I didn't know combee hives were this big," Rosie mused as Snowcrystal led the way through a tunnel.

"Yeah," Spark replied. "They aren't always so big. This looks like a huge swarm though. It looks like they store most of their honey in that cavern back there. Luckily for us there weren't that many around."

"Yeah…" Snowcrystal agreed, though she would hardly have called the number of combee she'd seen back in that cavern 'not many.' "I don't like the thought of them attacking us…I'll just be glad when we get out of here."

"Well, most of them are outside," Rosie whispered. "But you're right…I don't want to be too close to those combee…they're creepy…"

"Beedrill are worse," Spark whispered back. "Just be glad these are combee… Hey look!" He ran forward, reaching the pool of honey Snowcrystal had spotted before.

"Uh…this stuff tastes good?" Snowcrystal asked Spark uncertainly, not liking the look of the golden liquid now that she could see it up close.

"Yep!" Spark answered, walking over to the honey pool and softly licking at its shiny surface.

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, unsure if she really wanted to taste the honey. She had to admit, it didn't look very appetizing, but once Rosie started to lick some from the pool as well, Snowcrystal gave in. To her surprise, the honey was sweet-tasting, and she found that she liked it. Spark seemed to like it a lot, as he was happily licking away at the pool, his muzzle covered in the sticky substance. At seeing how much Spark seemed to enjoy it, Rosie made a snide comment about him being part heracross.

Thunder seemed to be thinking the same thing as Snowcrystal had been before. The scyther carefully smelled the honey but did not try any. "Come on," Rosie urged her, noticing the scyther's reluctance. "It tastes _good!_ " Thunder decided to try some after that, but although she didn't dislike it, she didn't seem to really like it all that much either.

Snowcrystal looked up when she heard the flutter of wings. "I think some of the combee are coming this way…" she whispered. "Let's go."

Spark nodded, stepping away from the pool, and he and the others dashed around the stored honey and into a smaller tunnel…

…Unaware of the combee workers who had just seen Rosie's fluffy tails vanish into the gloom of the passage…

_To be continued…_


	8. Blazefang's Plan

Stormblade was getting tired of waiting. Snowcrystal and the others had been gone for a while, and he was debating whether he should go after them or stay in the field and wait longer. He was also starting to wonder if he should have gone with the others in the first place and gotten some food for himself. However, the possibility of getting attacked by hundreds, maybe thousands, of combee just didn't seem worth it for food that wouldn't be particularly nourishing for a carnivore. For now, he would have to be content with simply waiting for them alone.

Not far from the field where Stormblade was resting, the houndour pack was reaching the end of the forest. Blazefang could tell that the trees were beginning to thin out. Knowing that this meant that they'd be leaving the forest completely soon, he urged the rest of the weary pack to greater efforts. After a while, the houndour leader's assumptions were found to be true, as up ahead, far less trees could be seen, and there were many more clearings and patches of grass. Unsure of what lie ahead, Blazefang and Wildflame left the pack and crept through the grass to scout out the land, soon emerging from the last group of trees and onto the grassy plains.

Blazefang lifted his head above the tall blades of grass and glanced around warily. Sensing no danger, he headed back to the pack with Wildflame following behind him. Once they reached the rest of the houndour, Blazefang led them toward the grassy plains area, confident that there was no trouble or danger awaiting them.

"We're getting close to the growlithe and her friends …" Blazefang told the others. "But we would travel much faster if we knew where Articuno was and not have to rely on following the white growlithe, wouldn't we?" He paused, waiting a few moments before carrying on. "And of course there's always the chance that Articuno will help the growlithe instead." Blazefang smiled grimly and continued, "This is why I believe we should eliminate her and maybe even her companions once and for all, so at least the growlithe tribe won't have a chance at finding Articuno before we do. But first…we need to find out if they actually do know anything about the whereabouts of the legendary bird. Wildflame, that's where you come in."

The houndoom glanced at him, surprised, and Blazefang went on, "If they know we're following them, that's no problem. Wildflame will tell them anyway. If the growlithe's seeking help from others, I want Wildflame to join her traveling party."

"But…" Wildflame began, clearly confused with Blazefang's absurd plan, "if they know about you…they'll never-"

"The growlithe would suspect a houndour or houndoom to be an enemy of her tribe," Blazefang explained. "After all, we are her tribe's rivals. To earn her trust, make up a story. Say you were part of my group, and that we were sent out to stop her by our own leader but we exiled you after your evolution. The growlithe would know there aren't many houndoom in our tribe. Pretend you've turned to their side and tell them…tell them about me and my pack and how we've been tracking them. It will help you gain their trust when they find out it's true…and it doesn't matter what the growlithe knows about us anymore. We outnumber her little group by far."

Wildflame still looked a bit uncertain, but Blazefang carried on, "And when the moment is right, I'll lead an attack on the growlithe and her friends. You'll fight on their side to further gain their trust. No, we won't kill any of them; in fact, we'll only stay there long enough for you to help the growlithe's friends drive us off. Then, what I want you to find out is where Articuno is. The growlithe must know…why else would she have set off all alone? And the moment you find out anything, report back to me. After all this is finished and we've found out what we want to know, we can get rid of the growlithe and the others for good."

Wildflame was silent for a moment, and then a cruel smile slowly crept across her face. "All right then. Let's ensure our land stays ours."

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade had decided that he'd waited long enough. Fearing that something could be wrong, the scyther now planned to sneak into the hive himself and find the others. Staying hidden in the tall grass, Stormblade watched more combee fly into the cave. Luckily, the bright green grass camouflaged him enough so that the combee didn't notice him creeping closer to their hive.

A sudden swishing sound in the grass behind him caused him to turn around, startled. But the pokémon scent that reached him wasn't combee. Moving silently out of the way of the approaching pokémon, Stormblade saw the black pelt of a houndour through the grass to his left, followed by many more.

Unsure if they were friendly or not, Stormblade decided to stay hidden until they were gone.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Wait…" Boneclaw grunted from behind Blazefang, causing the pack leader to turn around. "There's someone close by."

Blazefang sniffed the air, and replied, "I smell scyther…and growlithe…they passed this way, come on!" Blazefang moved forward, but Boneclaw stayed back.

"No, there's someone this way…" the houndour told Blazefang.

The whole pack crept toward where Stormblade was hiding, and the scyther darted away, the sudden movement of the grass alerting the combee...

…To the houndour pack. Blazefang and the others raced away from the cliffs as a large group of combee chased them away from the hive. Peering from the grass, Stormblade realized that the combee had spotted the houndour pack instead of him, and he moved toward the cave while they were distracted. Quickly flying up and into the crevice, he thought back to what that houndour had been saying. 'They passed this way…'

Stormblade now knew that they were being followed.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal led the way through the gloom of the tunnel. Her glowing crystal was the only light source aside from the faint shine of the giant crystals from the previous caverns, which were still slightly visible from the back of the tunnel. Spark, seeing another pale glow up ahead, ran forward, accidentally stepping on a few of Rosie's tails.

"Ow!" cried Rosie. "Watch it!"

"Shhh!" whispered Snowcrystal. "Let's just be careful while we find a way to get out of here…" She crept past Spark and headed toward the next cavern up ahead.

The growlithe carefully emerged from the tunnel, and then stopped dead in her tracks. Spark, Rosie, and then Thunder appeared behind her and froze as well.

They had emerged into another large cavern, and blocking every path on all sides was what looked like a wall of infuriated combee. The angry pokémon surrounded them completely, cutting off all exits but the tunnel they had just emerged from.

Spark stared at them for a moment, and then quickly swiped his paw across his muzzle, hoping to rid the traces of honey from his face.

"Uh…back through the tunnel," Snowcrystal whispered urgently, ready to dart into the narrow space. Spark and Rosie nodded, but Thunder reacted differently.

To Snowcrystal's shock, the scyther did not seem to want to follow them away from the combee swarm; she instead headed right toward them. Leaping towards the nearest group of combee, Thunder struck out at them with both scythes, breaking through the combee's barrier and ending up on the other side of the cavern.

Spark was already heading down the tunnel when Snowcrystal cried, "Wait! If we go that way we'll end up in the bigger cavern…and there's even more of them in there!" Spark didn't seem to hear, as he had already vanished. A large group of combee swerved behind them, soon blocking off the tunnel just after Spark disappeared. Snowcrystal nudged Rosie toward the combee separating them from Thunder, but the vulpix was standing still, absolutely petrified.

"Come on, Rosie, we can't just stand here," Snowcrystal whispered. She didn't know why the combee weren't attacking yet, but she also knew it could only be a matter of time. She tried to push Rosie in the direction Thunder had gone, and the vulpix started wailing.

"No! I can't do this…I'm not going near them!" Rosie cried. "They're bug pokémon and I'm not taking a step closer!"

"Thunder and Stormblade are bug pokémon, Rosie!" Snowcrystal cried, picking the vulpix up by scruff before she could reply or protest.

On the other side of the cavern, a battle had broken out between Thunder and about forty combee, who were all using gust to try and stop her. Thunder was slashing at them left and right, not even trying to dodge the attacks. After several combee had sustained serious injuries from the attack, they backed off, giving Thunder a wide berth. This was just what Snowcrystal needed. Gripping Rosie tighter, she bolted over to the scyther, noticing a small tunnel up ahead that the combee had abandoned during the fight.

Snowcrystal raced inside and set Rosie down before calling over to Thunder, "Quick, in here!"

Thunder completely ignored the shout, darting toward the combee and chasing them through the air, striking any who came too close. Snowcrystal stood watching for a moment, confused. It was as if some bizarre change had come over Thunder, and all she could think about was fighting the enemies. It took a moment for Snowcrystal to realize that she _had_ seen Thunder like this before. When Stormblade had surprised her when she was still chained, Thunder had cut his wing, and after that, she had tried to attack the rest of them at first glance.

However, Snowcrystal didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts for long. There were about sixty combee in the cavern, but Snowcrystal had no way to tell how many total were in the hive. Due to Thunder's attacks, the combee completely ignored Snowcrystal and Rosie, and if anything, they seemed confused and frightened, unsure of what to do. As she watched them, Snowcrystal couldn't make out any attacks other than gust being used by the combee, and she felt a bit less wary. Unless they were attacked by a very large number, they couldn't be too dangerous. But sixty was still a very large number for one scyther, and she worried that Thunder would soon be taken down.

"Thunder! Come over here!" Snowcrystal cried.

Rosie seemed to have recovered a bit from her fright, as she added to Snowcrystal's shout. "Get in here before they kill you, you idiot!" she screamed, but Thunder appeared to not have noticed either of them.

Snowcrystal crouched further into the safety of the tunnel and sighed. "I don't want to do this, but…" Her voice trailed off and she launched an ember in Thunder's direction, striking the scyther's left wing and causing her to turn around. Somehow, that seemed to snap her out of it. At first Thunder ran towards Snowcrystal with the same angry determination to fight that she had shown the combee, but as she neared the tunnel, she seemed to realize that Snowcrystal had fired the attack for a reason and quickly slipped inside.

Snowcrystal and Rosie ran, hearing the combee behind them but noticing that, strangely, the bee pokémon did not enter the tunnel. Snowcrystal paused to rest. "I don't get it…" she whispered. "Those combee hardly looked like they knew what they were doing, and they didn't even attack us when we were standing by that other tunnel."

"Don't you get it?" Rosie muttered from beside Snowcrystal. "They weren't trying to kill us, they were trying to trap us there. They've probably got us trapped in this tunnel by now for all we know. Obviously they were ordered to do it. They didn't look like they knew what to do when Thunder went crazy and attacked them. They couldn't have been expecting that."

Snowcrystal thought for a moment, and decided it made sense. Now that she thought about it, the combee had seemed like they had been trying to stop them from going anywhere rather than trying to eliminate them, but why? They had seemed so angry…she'd been sure they were going to attack them…or had they been waiting for something?

Snowcrystal noticed that Thunder was breathing heavily and leaning weakly against the wall, as if the combination of her injuries, exhaustion, and taking all those attacks had finally started to affect her. She didn't look much like she'd be able to fight her way out if another large group tried to stop them. What Rosie had said about the combee trapping them in the tunnel suddenly dawned on her fully. "We have to get out…" she whispered. "Now!"

  
**-ooo-**  


Spark had bolted back through the tunnel and through the cavern with the forgotten honey. He now raced along the rock ledge of the massive honey-filled cavern toward the tunnel they had come into the hive from. Combee soon noticed the fleeing jolteon and flew toward him. In a panic, Spark let loose several bolts of electricity, not bothering to look back and see if he'd struck any combee as he made his way toward the exit. Finding the tunnel he was searching for, Spark leaped into it and ran.

The jolteon could hear what sounded like more combee swarming into the hive, and to his shock, the cavern up ahead, which had been unoccupied before, was full of combee flying towards the main cavern. Spark darted swiftly into another side tunnel, trying to think of something. The combee were sure to have blocked off all the exits; he couldn't decide what to do now. His only option, he thought to himself, was to find another way to the cave's exit, and make a run for it, or if he had to…fight his way out.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang paused once his pack was far enough away from the combee. "Well, that was annoying," he growled. He quickly looked around. "There's a stream over there. Let's rest here, see what prey or other food we can find, then we'll keep going." As the pack spread out, Blazefang leaned back against a small tree, pawing his stone amulet.

He still was not completely sure what Shadowflare was, only that it was some odd sort of power or attack the stone had given him. Since the incident in the forest, nothing strange had happened, and the stone no longer seemed like anything out of the ordinary.

Putting it out of his mind, Blazefang focused on other matters. He was aware that the white growlithe was somewhere close, and he didn't want to lead his pack any further until he was sure that Wildflame had done what he'd told her to do. Just minutes ago, the houndoom had set off to catch up with Snowcrystal's group, wherever they might be.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade was unaware of the danger his companions were in. He had at first considered himself lucky for being able to sneak into the cave and then into one of the passages without being noticed. However, as he wandered through long, maze-like tunnels, he quickly realized that he had no way of telling where he was going.

The winding passages he was forced to travel through were dark and confusing. He had wandered for what seemed like quite a long time with no sign of the combee's hive or of his friends.

Stormblade paused to rest, tired out, as he tried to think of what to do next. It suddenly occurred to him that his friends had probably left and just hadn't met up with him yet. After all, there didn't seem to be many combee around these passages, and they had probably gone in and out of the hive relatively easily while most of the workers were away. Surprised, and a bit confused, Stormblade started to head back, glad that he'd had the sense to make small marks in the cave walls with his scythes as he'd explored. Now, he could easily follow the marks back to where he'd come.

After a bit of confusion and a short while of stumbling through the darkness, the scyther reached the large cavern he had entered before going into the tunnels. He peered out, and realized with a tremendous shock that the cavern was now filled with combee, blocking the entrance to the tunnel he had used to get into the caves. Ducking back into the passage before he could be noticed, Stormblade wondered if there was another way out. If there was, he realized, the combee would know about it and have it blocked as well.

He was trapped.

Leaning against the wall in the semi-darkness of the tunnel's entrance, Stormblade began to wonder if his friends had gotten out after all. He had to admit, the thought of being trapped in the hive after the others had gotten out safe wasn't very pleasant, but the safety of his friends was more important.

He would somehow have to find out if they were still in the hive, and then come up with an escape plan. Obviously, it would be easier said than done.

The beating of multiple wings interrupted the scyther's thoughts. He ducked further into the tunnel as a group of combee flew past, several entering the various tunnels around the walls of the large cavern. Stormblade stood perfectly still in his hiding spot, watching the entrance warily. He knew he couldn't hide for long, and he'd have only one option of escape, down the very tunnel he was standing in. However, if he moved even a little from where he was, he could easily be spotted by the combee patrolling the area. It wasn't a good situation, to say the least.

Stormblade didn't have to wonder what to do for long. His decision was made for him as one of the combee happened to dart into the tunnel he was hiding in, spotting him and calling out to the others. Instantly, half of the tunnel-searching combee flew toward him, and the scyther had no choice but to run.

As he dashed through the tunnel, Stormblade could hear the combee from behind, but the passage was far too narrow to allow him to fly. As he ran further, the tunnel became even narrower, and the ceiling much lower. Knowing that the combee were much smaller than he was, Stormblade could only hope that the passage didn't lead to a dead end. He ran as fast as he could in the narrow space, his wings flattened against his back and his head lowered to avoid hitting the stone spikes on the rocky ceiling.

Unaware of where he was going in the darkness, he suddenly gave a small cry of shock as he realized he had run right over the edge of a steep slope. Before he had the chance to spread his wings out, he was sent crashing into a large crumbling stalactite. The old stone formation had already been on the verge of breaking, and the sudden impact caused it to crumble and crack at its base. As Stormblade was knocked to the ground, dazed, the rock broke off from the cave ceiling and fell, shattering on the rough stony ground and causing the rock of the floor to crack and break.

Stormblade had barely started to stand up when the rocks beneath him crumbled and broke apart. He now realized from the way the floor was caving in that he was in some sort of small cavern right above a larger chamber. A shard of broken stone struck his back, knocking him down as the cave floor collapsed completely. Stormblade cast a fleeting glance upward, seeing the shocked faces of a few combee who had just managed to catch up with him. A moment later he had landed, not on hard rock, but on something that was actually quite soft.

Stormblade opened his eyes and glanced around, still somewhat dazed from the blow. He had landed in some medium sized chamber on a floor that seemed to be covered in a sort of soft moss or other strange plant material. Shaking his head to clear it, Stormblade stood up shakily and took a step backward. He gave a cry of shock as he fell backwards into a large pool of something wet and sticky. Leaping up in disgust, he cried out in anger as he realized he accidentally tumbled into a large pool of honey.

Growling angrily, Stormblade began frantically trying to scrape the mess off his scythes as he muttered under his breath, "This is all Spark's fault…It was his crazy idea to come here…Oh, when I find him…"

Stormblade stiffened, hearing a noise behind him. Dreading what he would see, he turned around, and froze in shock. Not only were there about fifteen combee already in the room, but hundreds more were waiting from a larger cavern that connected to it, and standing on the other side of the chamber directly in his path…was a vespiquen.

Stormblade glanced around, just then noticing the destroyed ceiling and the very large broken chunks of stone that now littered the cavern and the honey pool. The very same honey pool he was still standing in. The chamber had obviously been much nicer and cleaner than any of the others he had been in before, and probably much nicer than any of the other honey caverns. It took only a second for him to realize that this was a part of Vespiquen's royal chamber…and the chamber had all but been destroyed in the cave in…the cave in that he had unintentionally caused.

Obviously, the vespiquen wasn't too happy about it.

_To be continued…_


	9. Trapped

Wildflame was confused. She had tracked Snowcrystal's scent to the base of one of the large cliffs, and the trail led to a rocky path to her right which in turn led to a combee hive. Stepping back, Wildflame walked away from the cliff's base, muttering, "Blazefang can yell at me all he wants, but I'm _not_ going in there."

Unsure of what to do, she decided to wait a while, not wanting to face the wrath of Blazefang and the rest of the pack just yet. If the growlithe and her friends didn't come out of the hive after a while, she decided, she could just assume they were dead…

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal knew they wouldn't have much time. They needed to get out before the combee blocked off all of the tunnel's exits. "This way," she whispered, heading off into another tunnel leading to their left. Rosie followed quickly, sure that she could hear the combee coming closer. The two of them vanished into the tunnel, not realizing that Thunder wasn't following.

"Where are we supposed to be going?" Rosie growled as they moved further through the passage, giving Snowcrystal a glare. "You don't have a clue, do you? We could be heading back to that big room where all those combee are and you wouldn't even know!"

"I'm trying, all right?" Snowcrystal replied, resisting the urge to point out that Rosie didn't have a clue as to where they were headed either.

Suddenly Rosie gave a shriek and halted, causing Snowcrystal to stop as well. Up ahead, about a dozen combee had entered the tunnel and were now facing them. "Back the other way…" Rosie whispered, turning around.

"Come on, Rosie!" Snowcrystal shouted. "They aren't strong in small numbers." Not bothering to even check if Rosie had heard, Snowcrystal leaped at the nearest of the combee, knocking it out of the air and sending it crashing to the cave floor before sinking her teeth into its wing. Feeling a strong blast of air shoot by her, Snowcrystal jumped out of the way and fired an ember at the remaining combee before darting past them and through the tunnel. The sound of Rosie's pawsteps behind her told her that the vulpix had managed to make it past the combee group too. However, the angry pokémon were still following them.

Snowcrystal cast a fleeting glance behind her, only to run straight into Spark, who was fleeing from a different tunnel. Rosie, unable to stop in time, crashed into Snowcrystal. The three of them fell to the ground in a tangle of paws and tails. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize who she had run into.

"Spark!" she gasped. "We've got to go now, there's a group of combee coming straight for us!"

"Well there's about fifty of them coming here from that way," Spark replied, pointing his muzzle toward the tunnel he had been running from. "I'd say your way's better, let's go!"

The combee that had been chasing Rosie and Snowcrystal were surprised to see the two pokémon running back that way with yet another intruder, but a thunderbolt from Spark stunned them long enough for the three to get past. "Which way now?" Spark asked.

"I don't know! Any way! Uh…let's try this way!" Snowcrystal cried, darting into yet another of the labyrinth-like tunnels.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder was now making her way through the tunnels on her own. The fact that Rosie and Snowcrystal had left her behind barely registered to her. She wanted to get out of the hive, and her traveling companions were of little, if any, concern to her.

The scyther's feet made a loud splash as she entered into a wider tunnel half-flooded with water. The water was trickling down the walls of the cave and from the ceiling, making every rocky surface slippery. There was a deeper pool up ahead and Thunder paused next to it to take a much-needed drink of water.

A lone combee flying toward the hive on its own happened to come by, staring in shock at the dark form of the scyther lapping at the water from the pool in the middle of the tunnel. The news of intruders had not yet reached this combee, and for a moment he only stared in surprise. But that moment didn't last long. "What are you doing here?" the combee cried, and Thunder turned her head in his direction.

To the lone combee's shock, the scyther didn't reply, didn't even look surprised to see him there. The smaller bug pokémon had no time to react as the scyther leaped toward him, slashing her blades across the small pokémon's body. The combee fell to the ground, unconscious, and Thunder ignored it, simply walking through the water and into the next cavern.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal, Rosie and Spark could hear more combee coming their way. Ultimately, they realized, there would be no escaping them, as there were simply too many, and the exits were blocked. Spark peered through a small hole in the cave wall next to him and sighed. "They're everywhere…" he whispered. "And I can't run much longer…" Looking toward the others, he could see that Rosie was exhausted as well, though Snowcrystal didn't look as tired.

"We must keep going," the growlithe whispered. "I'm used to running long distances and I know you aren't, but we have to-"

"Stop!" a voice called from behind, and Snowcrystal reluctantly turned to see a huge group of combee hovering directly behind them. Another equally large group arrived immediately after from up ahead, and the combee formed a wide circle around the group, surrounding them completely.

Spark growled, his fur sharpening into spines as he readied an electric attack. The jolteon lowered himself into a crouching position, his eyes on the nearest wall of combee.

"Don't…" Snowcrystal whispered. "We could never fight this many. If they attack back we're done for!"

At her words, Spark reluctantly nodded, but his fur didn't lie down flat. Rosie shuffled closer to him, her eyes wide.

The group of combee knew they had caught most of the intruders at last. One of them, obviously the one in charge of the first large group, glared down at the three travelers and called, "You must come with us. Attack, and you'll regret it."

The three friends were soon led by the combee toward what Snowcrystal was certain was the big cavern, knowing that if they fought back, they could easily end up dead.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade had to admit that this was just about the oddest situation he'd ever been in, and likely one of the most dangerous. The combee surrounding the vespiquen looked a lot more angry than the ones he'd seen before. Stormblade stood frozen to the spot as the vespiquen came closer, the eyes of the combee around her glowing slightly. He leapt away from the pool of honey as all at once, the combee fired some bizarre-looking white beam of light at him. Stormblade landed near the wall of the cavern, unscathed, only to have the combee surround him again. The attack they'd just used, he supposed, was probably something the vespiquen had made them do, not an attack they could use normally.

Almost as soon as he landed, the combee fired the attack once again, and he quickly darted out of the way and headed toward the cavern's exit. However, before he'd gotten far, several of the combee's attacks hit him at once, sending him crashing into the ground.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder had found her way blocked by a swarm of the angry combee. However, rather than running from the pokémon, she charged straight towards them, instantly taking out quite a few with her dangerous scythes. The combee, realizing the danger, swerved out of the way to avoid the whirlwind of slashing blades as Thunder darted by. Seconds later the swarm regrouped and headed toward the scyther, who leaped back and slashed viciously at any who happened to come too close.

The combee seemed momentarily taken aback by Thunder's ferocity, and they weren't sure of what to do. It didn't take them long to decide, and soon Thunder was faced by attacks from all sides. Ignoring the odd beams of white light flying toward her from all directions, Thunder focused on causing as much damage as possible to individuals of the swarm.

Suddenly a shout from a nearby cavern interrupted the battle. Thunder noted with interest that the shout had come from Stormblade. More out of curiosity than anything, Thunder ran toward the tunnel where the shout had come from, ignoring the confused and angry group of combee behind her. A moment later, the scyther had emerged into the vespiquen's wrecked chamber.

One of the combee looked up from where Stormblade lay and toward Thunder, muttering in a shocked voice, "There's _another_ scyther?"

Thunder stared at the large group of combee who seemed to have forgotten about Stormblade for a moment. Stormblade, seizing his chance, got and up and flew out of the cavern's entrance, glancing back toward Thunder as if to try and tell her to follow. However, Thunder stood completely still, her gaze fully concentrated on the vespiquen that stood at the other end of the cavern. Without giving any warning she charged toward the larger bug pokémon, scythes raised. The combee didn't matter to her anymore; this was their leader.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade realized all too late that he had accidentally flown into the main cavern. Stopping for a moment, he tried to figure out what path was least likely to get him killed. The combee working in the hive all looked up, and the moment they spotted another, quite different flying bug pokémon within their hive, they abandoned their tasks and flew after the scyther.

Stormblade tried to head toward the nearest exit while attempting to dodge multiple attacks, but the combee far outnumbered him, and several attacks at once finally brought him down.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder ignored the combee swarm as she sprinted toward the vespiquen at the far end of the chamber, leaping up when she was near enough and preparing to strike. However, just as her scythe was but a few inches from the hive's leader, several attacks from a group of combee shot toward her simultaneously and struck, knocking her down to land sprawling at the vespiquen's feet. The vespiquen then looked down at Thunder, not seeming surprised in the least. The use of Attack Order had seemed to surprise the scyther, but she was quickly recovering.

Thunder herself was mildly shocked, especially at the way the vespiquen hadn't even moved when she'd tried to attack her. Leaping to her feet, Thunder attempted to land another blow, but was yet again blasted back at the last moment by the Attack Order from the combee.

Thunder hissed as her head collided with the cavern wall. Lashing with her blades, she leaped up with a newfound rage. Then she charged, but this time, the combee not only fired their attacks at her, but also formed a wall in front of Vespiquen. Thunder was once again hurled against the ground, gazing in fury at the combee who surrounded their leader.

After the scyther managed to stagger to her feet, the combee fluttered away from Vespiquen, as if daring Thunder to attack again. She didn't disappoint them. The combee watched with what was almost amusement as Thunder tried to attack the nearest of the combee, but they darted away too quickly for the injured scyther to attack. However, it was enough to keep them away from Vespiquen long enough for Thunder to aim another strike.

Thunder slashed her scythe at Vespiquen, who moved neatly to the side in the last instant. As the blade swung past her, Vespiquen gripped Thunder's chain in her claws, stopping the motion of the blade. Keeping a tight grip on the chain, she swung it in a downward arc, bringing Thunder to the ground. Thunder shook specks of blood from her wounds as she got up and lashed at Vespiquen with both blades, but the leader had already anticipated this and flew swiftly out of the way. Thunder turned and flew after her opponent, attempting to attack yet again.

Once again, Vespiquen was too fast, and swerved behind Thunder, this time grabbing her metal collar and hurling her against a nearby stalagmite. Her eyes glinting dangerously, Vespiquen launched a power gem attack at the furious scyther, watching impassively as the attack found its mark, causing Thunder to shriek with rage.

The combees' leader was mildly surprised when Thunder stood up yet again. The scyther's breathing sounded rough and hoarse, and she was bleeding in the places where she had been wounded by her trainer, but Thunder seemed focused only on winning the fight, however hopeless it was. Raising her scythes, she prepared to continue the battle.

"Fool…" Vespiquen hissed. "You just don't know when to give up…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal, Rosie, and Spark sat at the base of a massive stone column, guarded by dozens of combee. They could only watch helplessly as Stormblade was led to the same place and made to sit at the base of the column. One of the combee flew up close to Snowcrystal, giving her a stern and angry glare. "You have stolen honey from our hive," she began, "and you have destroyed one of our chambers and a supply of honey." Spark and Snowcrystal glanced at each other in confusion, and Stormblade looked away, pretending to be closely studying the stalagmite column he was positioned next to. The combee continued, "Of course, it will need to be repaired. You will work in the tunnels for us for as long as it takes to repair it, and longer still, for your thievery. That, or you will be killed. Our leader will make the final decision."

Spark gave a small snarl. "They want us to work as… _slaves?_ " He whispered angrily to Snowcrystal.

"Let's just hope they don't decide to kill us," Snowcrystal whispered back, before a strange noise from a cavern nearby interrupted her thoughts. It sounded almost like…a battle. "What…what was _that?_ " she whispered, glancing in the direction of the sound.

  
**-ooo-**  


Vespiquen slashed her claws dangerously close to Thunder's eyes and face, narrowly avoiding the blow from a scythe that could have severed her wing. Thunder gave a cry of fury before slicing her blades at Vespiquen again, pure rage giving her strength despite her injuries. The combee were still staying out of the fight, though Thunder knew that if the battle happened to go her way, that would quickly change, and she would be outnumbered.

Dodging another power gem attack, Thunder tried to land a hit on her enemy with wing attack, and this time, Vespiquen couldn't dodge fast enough. Thunder struck her across the face, pushing the other bug pokémon toward the tunnel that opened up to the main chamber. Thunder leaped toward Vespiquen for another wing attack, but her momentum caused both combatants to stumble out of Vespiquen's chamber and onto a rock ledge in the large room.

Thunder managed to make several deep gashes in the vespiquen's side and back before she was knocked backward toward the cliff of the ledge by another power gem attack. Leaping up as if nothing had happened, Thunder sprinted toward the wounded vespiquen again, before the combee had a chance to come to their leader's aid.

  
**-ooo-**  


Unintentionally, Thunder had created a distraction. Sensing that their leader was in danger, the combee guarding Snowcrystal, Stormblade, Rosie and Spark flew off, their captives momentarily forgotten.

"Let's get out of here!" Rosie cried, running toward a nearby tunnel.

"No!" cried Stormblade. "We have to help Thunder! Those combee could kill her if we don't do something!"

Snowcrystal glanced at the massive swarms of combee flying toward the ledge where Thunder and the vespiquen had appeared. She knew in an instant that Stormblade was right. With those numbers, they could likely bring Thunder down and kill her…and there didn't seem to be anything they could do. Snowcrystal watched the combee with wide eyes. The largest group was almost to the ledge…

Then suddenly, all activity stopped. The combee had halted and were now simply hovering in midair. Wondering what was going on, Snowcrystal crept forward for a closer look. The combee didn't even seem to notice her. She walked across a rock ledge near where the swarm was clustered and glanced up at the ledge by Vespiquen's chamber, expecting to see Thunder already killed in the battle.

Instead, she saw something quite different. The combee's leader was lying helplessly on the stone floor, and as Snowcrystal edged closer along her rock ledge, she could see that Thunder had her blade pressed against the vespiquen's throat. The hive's ruler kept completely still, knowing that if either she or the combee tried to attack, the scyther would kill her. "Thunder…" Snowcrystal whispered as quietly as she could, and though several combee turned to look at her, none of them moved. "Tell them to let us go free!"

Thunder didn't reply, and simply turned to the defeated vespiquen. "Make the combee leave!" she growled.

Having no choice, Vespiquen called to the group of combee and ordered them to leave the chamber. Reluctantly they flew away, and though a few very loyal ones stayed put, unwilling to leave their beloved leader, they posed no threat to the five friends in such small numbers.

"Now can we leave this place in peace?" Thunder asked, and the vespiquen slowly nodded.

Snowcrystal wasn't certain about Vespiquen's reply. What if she ordered all the combee to attack once Thunder let her go? Most of the combee had left, but that did not mean the few that had stayed behind couldn't go and retrieve them. Just as she was about to suggest to Thunder that she force the vespiquen to come with them until they left the hive, just to make sure, she noticed that the scyther had raised her other blade over the vespiquen's neck, obviously preparing to strike.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal cried, not understanding why Thunder was acting this way. "Stop!"

However, her shout seemed to go unheard. Thunder's scythe flashed downwards and though the combee flew towards Vespiquen, Snowcrystal knew they would be too late. The growlithe turned away, expecting to hear the awful sound of flesh being severed. However, the sound that met her ears an instant later was quite different, and sounded like a metallic clang. She looked up, surprised, but no one was more startled than Thunder when, instead of her scythe reaching the vespiquen's throat, it was stopped by another.

Thunder glanced upward, finding herself staring straight into Stormblade's eyes. "Stop," he told her, pushing both her blades away from Vespiquen. "You can't kill her."

"Why not?" Thunder replied, staring back at him.

"She was going to let us go," Stormblade replied, and pushed Thunder away, quickly standing between her and Vespiquen. "And after all, this was our fault to begin with. We were the ones who entered the hive and tried to steal honey. Besides, you won the fight. There was no reason to kill her." Thunder glanced back at Vespiquen, who was now flying upright, but making no move to attack. "We can leave now," Stormblade continued. "There's no need for any more fighting."

Thunder looked back at Stormblade, though this time not with anger. She seemed far more confused by his actions than angry.

Stormblade gently pushed Thunder toward the others, careful not to injure her further with his blades, whispering, "Go…Vespiquen will let us leave safely." Thunder did not reply, nor did she try to argue or resist as the five travelers swiftly exited the cavern through a large tunnel.

Once their leader was surely out of danger, the remaining combee quickly flew to aid Vespiquen, no longer paying any attention to the travelers. Now that she wasn't being chased by combee, Snowcrystal took a bit more time to find the right tunnel by scent, and followed her own scent back through the caves. They encountered no resistance. However, Snowcrystal knew that the brief 'peace' was only shock, and the combee would soon be over that, and then the bug pokémon swarm could very well just decide on getting revenge after all.

Upon reaching the cave entrance, the group quickly made their way down the rocky slope and into the fresh air. Once on safe ground, they raced away from the cliffs, stopping only when they were sure they weren't close enough to be seen directly from the cave. They were unsure whether or not the combee would still want their payment for the stolen honey and the wrecked chamber. After a brief rest, they carried on, knowing they should be moving as far away as possible, just to be safe.

No one had spoken about the events that had taken place in the hive, namely Thunder's battle with the vespiquen, and how close she had come to killing her. Stormblade knew there had to be a reason for Thunder's behavior, but uncertain about it all, he said nothing.

They hadn't gone much further when Thunder collapsed. Snowcrystal knew that her exhaustion had taken a great toll, and that Thunder probably wasn't used to traveling so far in one day, then fighting. Concerned, she ran to the scyther's side. By the time she reached her, Thunder had already stood back up. "What?" Thunder asked. "I'm just fine…" Striding past Snowcrystal, she walked forward a few paces, only to collapse again, this time in a faint.

Rosie turned and looked at the unconscious pokémon, rolling her eyes. "Right…" she muttered. " _Just fine…_ "

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame had watched Snowcrystal and the others leave the hive from a distance. Standing up, the houndoom flicked her arrow-tipped tail in annoyance. "Why does Blazefang want me to befriend those idiots?" she muttered irritably to herself. "They might not even know where Articuno went…"

Narrowing her eyes, the houndoom sulkily began to follow the growlithe's scent, not too happy about the plan now that she'd had more time to think about it. She could only hope the growlithe knew _something_ about where Articuno had gone. Growling under her breath, the houndoom hissed, " _Blazefang better be right about them…_ "

_To be continued…_


	10. A Traitor in Their Midst

The members of the houndour pack were taking a much needed rest. Blazefang had recently sent a group of houndour to hunt, and to his satisfaction, it had been successful. Sitting on a patch of grass beneath a tree, Blazefang no longer felt so rushed to find Articuno. With any luck, the growlithe would let the secret slip, and Wildflame could report back to him.

Idly pawing at the violet stone around his neck, Blazefang lay back on the grass, looking up at the clear sky. Everything felt peaceful and his future as a member of the houndour tribe looked bright. Of course, there was still the planned attack to come, but Blazefang had a feeling that it would go very, very smoothly.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal and the others were gathered around Thunder, who had been lying on the ground without moving for a minute or so. "Is she all right?" Spark asked, glancing at Snowcrystal, who stood beside a large leaf with various berries on it.

"I'm not sure," the growlithe replied, peering at the motionless scyther's face. "But I think these berries can help with…oh, she's waking up!"

Thunder stirred, then opened her eyes. Instantly she leaped up, anger and alarm showing clearly on her face. "Get away from me!" she shouted at the others, baring her fangs.

"Calm down," Spark muttered. "We were only-"

"Shut it!" Thunder snapped. "I don't want your help!"

"But you've been injured, and traveled a long way," Stormblade told her. "I think it's best if we stop for a while so you can rest…and look, these berries will help-"

Thunder glanced at the leaf beside Snowcrystal and stamped her foot down on the berries, grinding them into the dust. She then turned and stepped closer to Stormblade, an angry look in her eyes as she positioned her scythe a fraction from his forehead. "I don't see why we have to stop…I'm not pathetically weak like _you_ are." Turning away from him, Thunder trudged past the others and on up ahead as she continued, "Rest? I don't need to rest! Let's keep going!"

Snowcrystal knew better than to argue, and she and the others followed slowly, knowing it was best not to get Thunder any more aggravated than she already was. They hadn't gone far when suddenly Snowcrystal's ears pricked up. A strange scent wafted toward her on the breeze, and she could tell that someone was nearby. Just as she was about to mention it, a sleek black shape darted over a low hill at a startling speed and came to a halt in front of the group.

It was a houndoom, one who looked as if she had been running for a long time, and in a panic too. She was breathing heavily, and was so exhausted, she nearly collapsed at Snowcrystal's feet. Snowcrystal stepped back, confused, and Stormblade looked fairly shocked.

"Wait a minute…" the scyther muttered. "The houndour…I scented them back near the…"

No one was listening to him at the moment, as they were too focused on the newcomer who staggered forward a bit, dragging herself toward Snowcrystal. "Listen…" the houndoom gasped. "I've come a long way…My name is Wildflame, and I know that you are in terrible danger…as am I…Houndour from our old land by your mountain are tracking you!" She quieted a bit, still gasping for breath, and Spark glanced at Snowcrystal, who was still looking at the strange houndoom and didn't reply.

"Houndour…" Stormblade mused. "Yes, I saw some of them by the cliffs. Well, I couldn't see them all, but it seemed like a big pack. I overheard them saying something about tracking... You must have been one of them…" His eyes narrowed.

Wildflame waited a moment before replying, "Yes, I was one of them. Our leader, Firedash, sent us in a group led by a houndour called Blazefang out to follow the white growlithe who was seeking Articuno…and for a while, I helped them. But you see…our tribe looks down on those who evolve. Firedash is still a houndour, as is her trusted servant Blazefang. I evolved, without fully realizing this. I was being attacked by an enemy pokémon and not thinking clearly at the time, and they drove me away after they saw what I had become…" She pawed at a few scratches on the side of her muzzle. Snowcrystal could see that her shoulder had been clawed as well.

"But why?" Stormblade asked, still sounding suspicious. "Why did they drive you away just for evolving?"

"Our tribe has a strong belief that our kind are powerful enough without having to evolve," Wildflame continued. "Those who evolve are looked down upon, as ones who weren't strong enough already, and had to resort to evolution to survive. We are considered the weak. It makes little sense to me, but that is the way it is. I just never knew they would react so…strongly…to my evolution. I ran from them, then decided I needed to warn you." She lifted her gaze toward Snowcrystal, and her gaze was hardened with anger. "I want to help you find Articuno…so I can stop Blazefang and Firedash, and have my revenge against what I once called my "tribe". I don't care about what will happen to houndour territories anymore; I have no place there, and will seek a home elsewhere. This experience has opened my eyes to who Blazefang and Firedash are. They are not the leaders I once thought they were. Please, I only wish to help you, if you help me in return…for I have nowhere else to go…"

Her voice trailed off, and Snowcrystal gently touched her nose to the houndoom's shoulder. "Of course we'll help you," she replied, "I can understand. If this…Blazefang…did this to you, he couldn't have been a good leader." She paused for a moment as the troubling realization that they were being pursued by a pack of houndour set in. And that had been confirmed too, by what Stormblade had said about seeing houndour by the cliffs. The houndoom was speaking the truth, and she seemed far too distraught and panicked to be lying about being driven away either, and the claw marks further proved that.

"Thank you," Wildflame replied, lowering her head. "I must rest for a bit…but I will come with you…to help you in any way I can. In return, all I ask is that you help me…I do not know how to survive without a pack."

Snowcrystal and the others soon found a place to rest, despite Thunder's protests, and began to feel at ease around their new traveling companion. Stormblade however, wasn't convinced. There was something not quite right about the houndoom, and he didn't trust her one bit.

  
**-ooo-**  


As Wildflame rested beneath a shady tree, Stormblade watched her carefully. Sure, he had trusted Snowcrystal when he had first met her, but this houndoom was different, and Stormblade wasn't ready to let his guard down at all. Something about her actions felt far too 'off' for his liking. Was she really a runaway from the houndour pack, or was she their spy? He hadn't voiced his beliefs to anyone yet, but he planned to, and soon.

Snowcrystal, meanwhile, was lying half-asleep next to a small tree, listening to the peaceful sound of the breeze rustling over the grass. The news that they were being followed had alarmed her, but she knew they couldn't keep going without rest. At the moment, she was too exhausted to be worried. In a matter of minutes, she had unintentionally drifted off to sleep…

  
**-ooo-**  


She was having a strange dream. She was in a forest, running and running, though whether someone or something was chasing her, she wasn't sure. The forest faded away, and she could see clearly an underwater scene, as if she herself was underwater as well. Playful ocean pokémon swam past, and a vaporeon happily preformed a few flips in the water. Then the ocean scene faded as well, and she was in a gray, misty area, a lone figure standing in the distance.

After that, the dream made a little more sense. Snowcrystal was back at her mountain, near where her cave home was. However, instead of caves, there were cages containing pokémon resting in the snow. The forms of the pokémon were hazy and shadowed out, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell what their species were. She crept closer, and noticed that a few of the cages were empty. Wishing to free the others, she ran toward the cages, when a voice hissed in her ear, stopping her. "If you release them, they will kill you…"

"What?" Snowcrystal shouted back, and received no answer nor saw anyone. She walked toward one of the cages, but to her frustration, it seemed so unnaturally dark within them that she still couldn't tell the pokémon's species. But no matter what the odd voice had said, she wasn't going to leave these pokémon to die in the cages. Carefully she lifted a claw to the latch. A sharp jolt coursed through her body like a very small bolt of electricity, making her draw back. A forlorn voice came from the cage.

" _You cannot…"_

"Who…who are you?" Snowcrystal asked. "How did you get in the cage? Why can't I free you? Can I free the others?"

"No…" the voice responded. "You're not the type…"

Snowcrystal stared back at the shadowy haze. "What do you mean?"

For a moment the pokémon's eyes gleamed through the darkness. "It's-"

"SNOWCRYSTAL!"

Snowcrystal jolted awake as Spark's shout rang through the area. "What is it?" she asked, alarmed.

"Oh, hi Snowcrystal," Spark replied cheerfully. "Didn't know you were taking a nap! Well, I have good news and bad news! The good news is, I found out that my thunderbolt attack can double as a bug zapper! The bad news is…" Spark glanced nervously behind him, and finished, "Thunder has no sense of humor. Good bye!" He ran off as Thunder appeared. Snowcrystal backed up against the tree as Thunder tore past her after the jolteon, shouting threats and insults.

Snowcrystal sighed and stood up, ignoring the two. The dream had been so real…yet so strange, though the more she thought about, the more stupid and absurd it seemed. "Probably just some silly dream," she muttered. "It didn't even make any sense." She shook pieces of dry leaves off her coat. "It was just so weird…"

It wasn't long before the group headed out again, now wary of their pursuers. Snowcrystal, her dream momentarily forgotten, led the group through the grassy plains and into a more rocky area. Wildflame seemed to be having a bit of trouble keeping up, but she managed not to fall behind. Spark, a large clump of fur torn off his back, was completely silent the whole time, keeping well away from Thunder. Snowcrystal heard Stormblade approaching, and stopped to allow him to catch up with her, seeing that the scyther looked as if he had something important to say.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal asked. "What is it?"

"It's…Wildflame," Stormblade began hesitantly. "I don't think we should trust her. I know that what she's saying about the houndour pack following us is true…but I'm not sure she's really on our side."

Snowcrystal sounded annoyed. "Stormblade," she whispered, "they drove her out. What do you want us to do? Just send her away after she offered to help us?"

"I think she's working as a spy for the other houndour or something…" Stormblade whispered.

"And just what would we know that the houndour would want to know?" Snowcrystal replied, confused. She saw that Stormblade still looked deeply concerned, and she sighed. "Look, maybe you're just worried after what happened today."

Stormblade gave a sigh of his own. "Okay, maybe," he replied. "Maybe she's not a spy…but she's up to no good; that much I can tell."

"I don't know if we should judge her so quickly," Snowcrystal replied. "She came to us for help and to help us in return. If it's just because you saw those houndour tracking us before…well, you shouldn't judge her just because of her species. I'm sure as a scyther you know how that feels."

"I wasn't-" Stormblade began, but Snowcrystal interrupted him, butting his leg lightly with her head.

"I know you're worried. We'll try to figure things out, one way or another. Besides," she added with a hint of humor, "what do we know that could be so important to a spy?"

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame hung back at the rear of the group, pausing to idly lick the scratches on her shoulder. Well, it hadn't been her best idea, but it sure was convincing, and she'd made sure to wash any traces of blood from her back claws before she'd approached the group. All that running back and forth across the fields had really tired her out, but her excitement at her plan's success seemed to have restored some of her energy. She was beginning to like this acting game; she felt she was rather good at it, and despite the fact that one of the scyther didn't seem to accept her, the others had seemed willing enough to let her join up with them for a while.

"Heh, what a bunch of idiots…" she smirked to herself as she pretended to limp after the group. "At least with them I won't be treated like some second-rate servant." At the thought of Blazefang, Wildflame rolled her eyes. Sure, he was fairly smart, but he was bossy and his temporary leadership seemed to have gone to his head. She was glad to be rid of him for a while.

After a short time, Wildflame figured she could stop limping, for the sky was darkening and the others wouldn't notice, or they'd assume that her 'injuries' were a bit better. As the group entered a grove of trees, Wildflame noticed the scyther called Stormblade giving her an odd look.

"I know you're up to something," he muttered coldly.

"I don't understand…" Wildflame's expression was one of confused innocence.

"Quit it. I know it's just an act," Stormblade growled.

Wildflame's lips curled in the beginnings of a snarl. However, having overheard pieces of Snowcrystal's conversation with this scyther, she didn't feel like taking any risks that might give herself away to those who were less suspicious. Arguing with Stormblade would accomplish nothing, and she willed her body to relax. "Maybe you should stop treating me like an enemy just because of where I came from." She pushed past him, flicking her tail sharply across his burned shoulder. Stormblade glared at her, but Wildflame knew he couldn't prove that it wasn't an accident. She shot him a fake apologetic look before carrying on after the others.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Ow!" Rosie cried out sharply. "I stepped on a rock!"

"Oh yeah, well I stepped on about five already…with one foot!" Spark exclaimed loudly.

"Careful," Snowcrystal called from up ahead. "There's a lot of sharp rocks around here. I know it's dark, but we need to cover a lot more ground before we stop to rest again."

Wildflame noticed Stormblade giving her another angry look. Making sure no one was looking, she carefully rolled a rock in front of the scyther's foot, watching with satisfaction as Stormblade stumbled with an angry grunt. Running over to him, she leaned against his side as if to try and steady him. Stormblade angrily leaped away, and Wildflame turned to Snowcrystal, whispering, "He tripped over a rock…I was only trying to help."

"Stormblade, please try to be nice…" Snowcrystal whispered tiredly, walking on ahead.

Stormblade gave her a look of annoyance before following, feeling frustrated. He was sure he had seen Wildflame moving the rock. It reminded him of the few times Spark would get into trouble and blame it on him whenever the other pokémon or his trainer asked. Of course, they had always believed the 'sweet little jolteon' rather than the scyther.

As he walked, he noticed a low-hanging tree branch and pushed past it. Noticing Wildflame following close behind him, he held the branch against the side of the tree with one blade while pretending to be stopping to catch his breath. As Wildflame approached, he moved his scythe, causing the branch to whip back in the houndoom's face. "Sorry about that!" he called as he hurried after the others. Wildflame angrily tore the branch out of her way and followed.

Stormblade gave a cry of shock as the houndoom suddenly rammed into him, nearly knocking him to the ground. "Oh sorry…sorry…" Wildflame stuttered. "Here, let me help you. You know, you should really watch where you step."

"Stay away from me," Stormblade snarled, realizing with annoyance that the others were too far up ahead to notice what had happened.

As they continued walking, Stormblade made sure to stay as far away from Wildflame as possible, not willing to deal with her at the moment. He kept shooting angry glances at the houndoom, who gave him either a confused look or a fake nice smile.

He was just about to suggest they stop for a while, when an earsplitting howl rang over the rocky plains. Everyone froze in their tracks and glanced around in the darkness. "It's Blazefang…" Wildflame growled, sinking her claws into the earth.

"What does he want?" Rosie asked in a frightened voice.

"I don't know…" Wildflame replied. "He never told me he would actually-"

Wildflame quieted just as nearly two dozen black shapes appeared over a small rise, their black fur almost silver-looking in the moonlight. The one at the very front, obviously the leader Blazefang, had a glowing purple stone that illuminated the small area around him. Snowcrystal backed up as the leader gave a loud, terrifying cry.

" _ATTACK!_ "

_To be continued…_


	11. Shadowflare

With a chorus of growls and snarls, the houndour pack leapt to the bottom of the rise and surged toward the group as one. _One furious, snarling pack…_ Snowcrystal stared at the oncoming enemies in terror. There were far too many of them. "Run!" she shouted.

"No!" Wildflame yelled back suddenly, then lowered her voice as she quickly said, "We won't get away by running. I know Blazefang. He's a coward. If we put up a fight, he'll turn tail and run." Without another word, she stood boldly in front of the group, facing the oncoming houndour pack, and Snowcrystal, who couldn't bear to see Wildflame get attacked, summoned up her courage and stood beside her.

Spark stepped up beside Snowcrystal as his fur sharpened into the familiar pointed spines. Stormblade stood beside him, and by that time, the houndour were so close that Snowcrystal could see their fangs clearly even in the darkness.

A bright flash of light illuminated the area as a bolt of lightning struck one of the closest houndour, who collapsed in a cloud of dust, only to stand up and shake himself off before running toward them again. Spark however, didn't seem to notice. "Did you see that?" he cried, turning to Stormblade. "I got him! I-arrrghhh!"

Spark let out a cry of pain as a flamethrower attack seared across his shoulder and the side of his face, sending him stumbling him backward. Stormblade ran toward the houndour who'd just fired the attack, who was now mere seconds from reaching the group. Seeing this, Snowcrystal leaped forward as well, just as a rather large and bulky-looking houndour ran in front of her. Before she could figure out how exactly she was going to fight this fierce opponent, he leaped toward her and locked his teeth savagely around her leg.

The houndour bit down harder, and for a moment Snowcrystal thought he would break her leg. Then, unexpectedly, Wildflame bounded toward the houndour, knocking him aside. "Leave her alone, Boneclaw!" she snarled.

Snowcrystal stood up shakily and glanced around. Spark was struggling to his feet, the fur on his face singed. Stormblade was fighting off three houndour who were trying to reach the wounded jolteon, and Rosie had leaped on another houndour's back and was holding on with her teeth while he tried to shake her off, snapping his jaws at her. Due to the fact that Rosie was making a complete fool out of him, Snowcrystal would have thought the sight was amusing if it weren't for the seriousness of their current situation.

Snowcrystal ducked behind Stormblade to where Spark was, while the scyther and Wildflame did most of the work holding off the pack that now nearly surrounded them. To her surprise, Wildflame was doing exceptionally well; she had already sent a few of the houndour fleeing, though quite a few of them hung back, either wary of the fighters or awaiting their leader's orders. Snowcrystal couldn't see their leader…and now that she realized it, she couldn't see Thunder either, and if they ever needed her to fight like a mad pokémon, it was now.

"Spark!" she whispered quickly. "Stay here…I'm going to find Thunder…I'll be back!" Spark nodded in silence as Snowcrystal tore off through the bushes before the houndour could stop her, knowing all too well that she was practically hopeless in battle.

To her surprise, she found Thunder almost immediately, standing in the midst of some thorn bushes among a small group of trees. The scyther glanced at Snowcrystal as she came to a halt, the sounds of battle very close by from the next clearing.

"Thunder! We need your help back there," Snowcrystal gasped.

To her surprise, Thunder shook her head, turning away. "I am not going near there," she stated simply.

"We need your help!" Snowcrystal cried. "Please!"

"No…" Thunder replied, and though it might have been her imagination, Snowcrystal thought the scyther's voice sounded a bit shaky. "I…don't want to…"

Snowcrystal stared at Thunder in disbelief. In the short time since Thunder had joined them, she had never known this scyther to act this way. With Thunder, it had quickly become apparent that she was the type to attack first and ask questions later. _Now she was acting as if…_ Snowcrystal felt both confusion and hopelessness at the thought… _it was almost as if…she was afraid…_ She knew somehow that whatever Thunder was afraid of, it wasn't the houndour back in the clearing. Yet why she was in this strange mood was a mystery to her.

The sounds of screaming and the bright light of flame shining over the rocks and sparse grass only served to remind Snowcrystal of how badly the others needed help. The white growlithe turned back to Thunder, and then said something even she herself hadn't been expecting, something crazy she never would have thought of saying to this scyther had she been thinking clearly. "Thunder, what are you doing? Those houndour could kill them and you're just sitting here! Go back…now!" As the words left her mouth, Snowcrystal wanted to take it back, but she made herself stand firm as she faced the scyther, waiting for her response. Thunder seemed more shocked than angry.

Snowcrystal noticed that Thunder's eyes suddenly had a faraway look, and she wasn't focusing on the growlithe at all. "No…" Thunder growled, and her gaze flicked back to Snowcrystal. This time, she was angry, and the small fire type backed up as Thunder took a step toward her, the scyther's glare looking like it could burn through the growlithe's fur.

Snowcrystal leaped back with a cry of shock as a plume of bright red flame shot by them, catching a nearby tree on fire. She turned to see five houndour from Blazefang's pack all racing toward her. Watching them, Thunder stepped from the bushes, glancing almost idly at one of her wings, the topmost edge of which had been burned by the blast of flame.

Silently the scyther watched the approaching houndour, and her gaze hardened. And then all that had made her seem reluctant and afraid vanished. Without warning, she charged toward the group of dark types, fangs bared and scythes ready to strike.

The first houndour halted at the sight of the crazed scyther heading straight for him and his pack mates. His nerve failed him. With a yelp of fright, he turned, wanting to get as far away from his attacker as possible. A deep slice to his back brought him crashing to the ground. Only the thick bone-like bands across his back saved his life. Another houndour collapsed nearby, and the first houndour couldn't tell how badly injured he was.

Snowcrystal had already hurried back through the bushes toward Spark, who was now bleeding from a wound in his back leg as well. Rosie was lying unconscious behind him. Up ahead, the clearing was full of chaos. Snowcrystal could see the leader, Blazefang, motioning toward the other houndour, but they weren't paying much attention. Stormblade and Wildflame were still managing to hold their own, and the houndour were mainly focusing on attacking them.

Snowcrystal stayed near Spark, glad to see that his burns, although painful-looking, were neither deep nor serious. Near the other side of the clearing, three frightened houndour burst through the bushes-the remainder of the five who had threatened Thunder and Snowcrystal. An eerie, unnatural-sounding cry resounded through the area, causing several houndour to stop fighting and freeze where they stood. A moment later, Thunder burst through the bushes to land standing in the midst of the houndour pack. Many of the houndour backed off a bit, but Thunder showed no sign that she even realized that many of them were trying to flee.

Blazefang froze as he watched the scyther strike left and right, wounding all who came too close. Boneclaw, having just narrowly escaped having a limb severed, landed heavily on his paws as he leaped aside, launching a fire attack at Thunder. Blazefang was taken aback at the crazed look in the scyther's eyes, and he knew that if he didn't do something, his pack would soon be minus quite a few members.

"Fire attacks you idiots!" Blazefang called from his vantage point on a large boulder. "Kill her! Aim all your attacks at the scyther!"

The houndour, fearful for their lives, were quick to obey, using their type to their advantage. Thunder backed away as several flamethrower attacks blazed towards her. She managed to shield her face with her blades before a particularly strong flamethrower struck her, burning deeply into her shoulder. Still weak from all the exertion of the day and previous night, Thunder nearly collapsed, stopping her fall only by sinking her blade into the sandy earth beneath her. A rather bold houndour ran toward her, locking his teeth around her leg while another, encouraged by his pack mate's bravery, tried to tear her injured wing.

Thunder managed to shake them off, but her attempts at striking them with her blades failed as they darted quickly away. She stood back on her feet, but whatever her trainer had been trying to teach her by starving her, she certainly wasn't in good enough health to keep fighting after spending so much of her energy.

Snowcrystal, Spark, Wildflame and Stormblade broke off from their battle with a smaller group of houndour and ran toward the ones attacking Thunder, bringing a few down with electric, fire, and flying attacks, but they didn't stop enough of them in time. Multiple fire attacks struck Thunder at once, bringing her down. Several of the houndour leaped towards her, trying to hold her down with fangs and claws.

Thunder managed to free herself from their attacks momentarily, pausing to catch her breath. Snowcrystal could see that Thunder had burns in several places and parts of her natural armor had been punctured and were seeping blood. Regardless, the scyther staggered forward to face the houndour pack who were ready to put their flamethrower attacks to good use.

"Kill her!" Blazefang roared.

"No!" Snowcrystal, Spark and Stormblade shouted simultaneously, but it was Stormblade who acted first. Leaping behind the group of houndour advancing toward Thunder, he knocked a few of them to the ground with the flat of his blade, while Thunder, unaware of this, took a running leap at the big stolid houndour called Boneclaw.

Thunder knew that her strength had been used up, that the odds had been stacked against her, but all the same she could not ignore the training and fighting techniques that had been burned into her mind until it was like an instinct. Fight no matter how much pain she was in until there was no possible way to continue. This was just like one of Master's battles.

Boneclaw froze as the scyther leaped toward him, blade raised. The houndour closed his eyes instinctively, knowing that there was no time to avoid it…

Yet his opponent never got to strike. Just as she leaped toward him, Thunder lost consciousness before she ever got to use her attack. Colliding into Boneclaw as she fell, the scythe that had been raised fell forward, thudding into the soil beside him. Boneclaw was sent flying backward as Thunder's momentum sent both her and the houndour plowing into the sandy earth. Coughing up dust and struggling for a moment, Boneclaw pushed the fainted scyther away from him with his back paws and scrambled toward Blazefang.

Stormblade turned toward Thunder's still form, and he could see the other houndour standing triumphantly beside the fallen warrior. Horrified, Stormblade could not tell what had brought her down, could not tell if she was breathing. His gaze drifted toward the houndour giving orders. The leader. Blazefang, the one who had ordered Thunder to be killed. Turning around, Stormblade stared hard into the houndour's eyes. "Blazefang!" he yelled.

Blazefang stumbled backwards from his perch on the rock as Stormblade charged toward him. Boneclaw tried to help his leader by firing a flamethrower at the scyther, but Stormblade was moving far too fast to be hit. In seconds he reached Blazefang, who could only keep backing up frantically as the slashing scythes came within a hair's breadth of his face. Common sense told him to use a fire attack, but he couldn't manage it when he was using every bit of his energy to scramble back as quick as he could as the scyther's slashing blades came closer and closer to him.

Snowcrystal and Spark ran to Thunder's side, firing attacks at any houndour who came too close, while Wildflame protected Rosie. Snowcrystal could tell that Thunder was still alive, just out cold. She couldn't understand why Thunder hadn't run and found shelter when she was too weak to carry on. Instead, she had kept fighting until she passed out from exhaustion and weakness. Snowcrystal didn't understand; it just didn't make sense. Hadn't Thunder been unwilling to fight just before?

A couple houndour yelped in pain and fled from the battle as a thunderbolt from Spark struck them. Snowcrystal noticed with mild surprise that most of the houndour were fleeing now.

Wildflame, meanwhile, was both exhausted and confused. Hadn't Blazefang said this would be a quick mock battle? Noticing Blazefang being driven back by Stormblade, Wildflame could do nothing but hope that the houndour leader knew what he was doing.

Blazefang stared at Stormblade in terror as one of the scyther's blades pierced his paw. The houndour stumbled, landing flat on his back as Stormblade stood over him. Blazefang's eyes widened in horror as he noticed that the pack had fled. He was left alone. With a strength born of desperation, he managed to fire a blast of flame at Stormblade, who dodged, landing easily to one side. Blazefang stood up and backed away, Stormblade's gaze still boring into him.

It was then that Blazefang felt that same strange feeling…the feeling he had felt when he had woken up in the forest after he'd touched the purple stone and heard the word Shadowflare. It was as if some new power within him was waiting to be released, the power the stone had given him…Shadowflare.

Stormblade was taken aback when Blazefang suddenly smirked, and there was something in the houndour's gaze that frightened him. Snowcrystal also sensed something was amiss, and raised her head just in time to see Blazefang launch another fire attack.

Yet it was the strangest attack she had ever seen. Blazefang's eyes glowed a bright yellowish-white as he fired it, and the attack itself looked somewhat like flamethrower. However, it glowed an almost blinding white-hot, with a tint of blue, and streaks and specks of purplish black flickered over the beam. Snowcrystal's eyes went wide with shock and she almost turned away from the burning intensity of the white flames.

Stormblade didn't need to stop and look to know that it was bad news. Without hesitating for an instant he turned and darted to the right of the oncoming inferno. However, to everyone's shock _,_ _the flames swerved and followed him._ Stormblade, even with the natural born speed of a scyther, couldn't outrun it. Doing the only other thing he could think of, he ran behind a large tree. Yet it did him no good. The raging flames blasted completely through the trunk, colliding into Stormblade's body and sending him sprawling on the ground, a moment before the burning top half of the tree toppled over and crashed down, landing across the scyther's back.

For a moment, Blazefang only stared at the motionless Stormblade and the burning tree that had been severed completely through near its halfway point. The houndour lowered his gaze and followed the deep scorch marks in the ground leading to the tree; every bit of grass in its path had been burned to nothing, and even the ground looked scorched.

Blazefang noticed a small bit of white flame burning a clump of grass nearby, and backed away. "What the-what _is_ this?" he whispered to himself, looking horrified. Not even fire blast had the kind of power to blast completely through a large tree, and what kind of attack followed after its enemy? Whatever this was, there was nothing natural about it. Blazefang reached up to the violet stone with his claws and tore it from his neck, flinging it onto the blackened earth before turning and fleeing after his pack.

Snowcrystal hardly noticed him. She ran to the side of the tree, nudging Stormblade's still form. Only his head, wings, and a part of his blades were visible from beneath the thick tree trunk, and to Snowcrystal's dismay, Stormblade gave no response.

Spark, still stunned, was sitting beside Thunder, who was beginning to come around, and Rosie, who had already woken up. Wildflame sat a few yards away, looking just as shocked.

"What's going on?" Thunder demanded, making Snowcrystal look up. However, the white growlithe didn't reply, even when Spark limped over.

"Stormblade…" Spark whispered. "What happened? …How…"

"He's dead," Thunder stated calmly as she took a couple of paces toward them. "What more do you want to know?"

Spark didn't reply, and Snowcrystal frantically slammed her body against the tree trunk, trying to move it. The fire was slowly dying down, but it was still spreading across the tree's length. Again and again Snowcrystal tried to move the large tree, but it wouldn't budge.

"Stop that," Thunder muttered. "He's _dead_. As in, not going to move…ever again. I see no point in tiring yourself out trying to move that tree. Stormblade's dead. Forget it and move on."

"No…" Snowcrystal whispered. She was too tired to continue, and could only claw feebly at the tree's bark. No matter what Thunder said, Snowcrystal couldn't bring herself to believe her. "You're wrong…he can't be dead."

"Face it," Thunder stated. "Everyone dies. I don't see why you should be making such a fuss over it."

Snowcrystal didn't reply. She slowly slid to the ground, resting her head against the side of the tree, feeling hopeless. She felt almost as if…everything was over now…the journey…everything… "Snowcrystal…" she looked up to see Spark's face close to hers. She turned away, not believing that any comfort he could give her would ever make her feel any better. "Snowcrystal…Stormblade's still alive."

Snowcrystal lifted her head again, staring straight into Spark's eyes. "He's…alive?"

Spark nodded, and Thunder only looked mildly surprised. Rosie, who had stayed back until then, stood up and walked away from Wildflame and toward the tree. "You sure…you sure he's not dead?" she asked in a scared voice.

"No…" Spark answered. "But…"

Thunder stepped up to where Stormblade lay, close enough to hear his shallow breathing. "Okay, well, this is nice and all," she muttered. "But you do realize he won't last longer than a few minutes. That's life. We better get going now before the blood attracts any unfriendly visitors."

"What?" Snowcrystal cried, shocked. "You expect us to just _leave_ him here?" She watched as Thunder merely shrugged and turned away. Rage built up inside Snowcrystal, and she wanted to claw Thunder in the face. How could she be so indifferent? Deciding to forget about it for the moment, she turned back to Stormblade. Luckily, the way the tree and its branches had landed had prevented him from being crushed, but he was still pinned. Snowcrystal pushed against the tree again, knowing all too well that the fire was still spreading slowly along the trunk. "Everyone…help me!" She cried, and Spark, Rosie, and even Wildflame approached her and pushed against the fallen tree as well.

At last their efforts combined managed to push the blazing trunk away from Stormblade, who still lay prone on the ground. Snowcrystal ran to his side, glancing over the deep and serious burns that covered the top half of his body. Most of the scyther's natural armor on his back and shoulders had been burned through, no doubt reaching the flesh beneath, and sections of his wings had been burned away as well. Thunder simply stared at him impassively, not seeming at all concerned or shocked at Stormblade's condition. Snowcrystal, however, stepped closer. "Stormblade…" she whispered, carefully nudging his side. The scyther, still unconscious, didn't respond.

Spark and Rosie also approached, but Wildflame stood back, simply watching. Snowcrystal carefully examined the scyther's wounds. The worst of the burns by far were on his back, wings, and shoulders, but there were also burns across his arms, chest, and face as well. All of them were far worse than the burn wounds Thunder and Spark had sustained. Snowcrystal couldn't help but stare in shock. She had seen pokémon receive wounds from fire attacks before, but this was something else entirely. Even Thunder looked healthy compared to the still figure lying at her feet, and in addition to the burns, Stormblade's leg had been damaged from the tree's fall.

"I think he'll live," Snowcrystal said at last. "But not for long if we don't get help."

"Where are we supposed to get help _from?_ " Rosie asked. "We're in the middle of nowhere with a houndour pack chasing us, and one of them knows that freaky attack…"

"Guys…" Spark began hesitantly, "I think…I know what that attack was…it may sound strange, but…"

"And how do you know what the heck that was?" Rosie snapped, and Spark didn't answer.

"Look," Wildflame spoke up, "Blazefang's pack will be after us again soon. We must keep going. Once Stormblade wakes up, he'll have to _keep_ up. We need to get out of here."

As if in answer to Wildflame's statement, Stormblade began to stir. Thunder, who had been quietly resting, looked up and glanced toward Stormblade, waiting to see what he would do.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal whispered again, just as the scyther opened his eyes and turned his head slightly to look at her.

"Snowcrystal…is Thunder…the others…alive?" Stormblade's voice sounded strange to Snowcrystal, not like she was used to hearing it. He sounded weak and disoriented, rather than strong and brave like he had always seemed to her earlier.

"Yes," she answered softly. "Everyone's all right…mostly…Spark and Thunder are injured, but they'll be okay in a little while." Really, she wasn't so sure, but their injuries weren't as bad as his, and she didn't want Stormblade to worry.

"Psh…" Thunder muttered, rolling her eyes. "Well if he's awake, let's get a move on already!"

Stormblade made no move to rise, and just lay completely still. "Please get up," Rosie told him. "We have to get out of here."

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Stormblade did try to stagger to his feet, though it was obviously paining him, and she noticed that he wasn't putting any weight on his injured leg, keeping it off the ground and using his scythes to help himself stand instead. Snowcrystal stood beside the injured scyther to try and help steady him, but it didn't seem to help much; she was so small compared to him. Stormblade collapsed to the ground a moment later, and didn't try to get up again, but lay shaking, his eyes closed tightly.

"Oh come on!" Thunder growled impatiently, kicking Stormblade in the side. "Get up! You're not dead!"

"Stop it!" Snowcrystal yelled. She turned toward Stormblade, encouraging him to stand up again; knowing that if he didn't, the others would have to leave him behind.

"Look, we _have_ to get out of here," Wildflame whispered urgently. "You saw that something's wrong with Blazefang. You have to get him to move!"

"Just leaving him there would make life a lot easier," Thunder muttered under her breath.

Snowcrystal tried to help Stormblade, but she was too small, and wasn't much help at all. Spark couldn't do anything in his wounded state, and Snowcrystal didn't feel like asking for help from Wildflame or Thunder. At last Stormblade managed to stand again, and Rosie and Thunder ran on ahead, while the others followed a bit more slowly.

Spark was no longer his usual talkative self, and his injured shoulder seemed to be giving the jolteon a lot of grief. Rosie's wounds were minor, as were Wildflame's, though the houndoom stayed back a bit. Snowcrystal assumed she must be tired still. Thunder was up ahead, moving rather quickly despite her wounds, acting as if they weren't there, just as she had done before.

Snowcrystal soon found herself at the back of the group, feeling lost and hopeless. She glanced upward as a loud thunderclap sounded overhead. Soon after, rain pelted down on the travelers, making the going far more muddy and slippery. The little growlithe paused for a rest against a large rock, feeling tears coming to her eyes.

She didn't know what they would do now…

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade cried out as he stumbled once again over the now slippery wet rocks. He struggled to get up again for a few seconds before he realized that someone was standing beside him. Turning around, he was surprised to see Wildflame standing there.

Attempting to growl as he staggered upright, Stormblade made an effort to get into a battle stance, or as close to one as he could get without injuring his leg further. "Get _away_ from me!" he hissed from between clenched teeth.

The houndoom said nothing as she stepped closer to the wounded scyther, offering him her shoulder to lean on. Stormblade stared back uncertainly for a moment before he accepted her help, allowing Wildflame to assist him over the rocks, as together they gradually followed the others under the rain-filled sky.

_To be continued…_


	12. Spark's Tale

Rain lashed down ceaselessly, while lightning flashed across the sky. The ground at Snowcrystal's feet had turned to pebbly mud, and because of her small size, it was very difficult to wade through. Rosie was also having a considerable amount of trouble, as was Stormblade, mainly for the fact that he couldn't fly and could barely use one of his legs. After Snowcrystal stumbled in the thick mud yet again, only making her fur even filthier, she staggered upright and turned to the others behind her.

"Let's stop and rest…"

"What, is it the rain?" Thunder asked, landing beside Snowcrystal. Unlike the growlithe, she had been able to fly over the mud. "You know, I don't see what's so bad about the rain…"

"Well it's making everyone exhausted," Snowcrystal replied, shaking mud from her paws. Her fur hardly looked white anymore, and she knew that the mud getting into her wounds couldn't be good. "We need to rest. You might be able to keep going, but the rest of us can't."

"Fine," mumbled Thunder, and she followed Snowcrystal to a group of large trees. Spark limped after them along with Rosie, and Stormblade followed last, Wildflame still supporting him along the way.

Underneath the trees, the six pokémon had a bit of shelter from the rain, but the ground was just as muddy underpaw. Spark tried to shake his fur dry, which only splattered Snowcrystal and Rosie with mud. Stormblade was lying down against a tree, not bothering to try and find a less muddy spot. Snowcrystal realized he was probably too weak, as he could barely walk by himself.

Standing up, Snowcrystal padded over to where Spark, Rosie, Wildflame, and Thunder were, letting Stormblade rest. "Listen," she told the others, "we need to find out what to do. Obviously Stormblade needs help. Those burns won't heal with the help of any berries…we need to find someone who knows something about healing. And ...well, not just Stormblade, but you two as well," she glanced toward Thunder and Spark. "Your wounds could get infected…and pokémon die from that."

"I'll be fine," Thunder shrugged. "Master only treated my wounds when they were serious, and nothing ever happened to me."

"Well first things first," Rosie spoke up. "We should focus on finding food as soon as this rain lets up, and then we should rest. We have to be as strong as possible, especially Stormblade."

"She has a point," Wildflame agreed.

Snowcrystal nodded, realizing that except for the berries back in the forest, they hadn't been able to find any food other than the honey in the combee hive, and Stormblade hadn't eaten any of either, with the exception of a few rawst berries that Rosie had found. It been two days since she had met Stormblade and Spark, and now that she thought about it, none of them had really had much luck in finding food. "Yes," she replied. "Those who can should try and hunt or find berries as soon as the storm's passed. I probably couldn't catch anything, because of my white fur, so I could stay here with Stormblade…and Spark, I think you should be resting too, and so should you, Thunder."

"If you're suggesting I'm too weak to hunt for myself, you're wrong," Thunder replied, narrowing her eyes. "I'm not so helpless that I need others to bring food to me."

"All right," Snowcrystal sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing with her. "Wildflame and Thunder can hunt, and Rosie, can you search for other types of food, like berries?" The vulpix nodded. "Well, after we've rested a bit," Snowcrystal continued, "we need to find a pokémon who knows about healing…there were only a few healers in my tribe, and I never really had the chance to learn anything from them. And who knows what that fire attack was capable of doing…I've never seen burns that bad, and I've lived with fire pokémon all my life."

"All made worse by the fact that he's a bug type," Wildflame put in. "I know you're right about finding a healer. Let's face it, he might not last much longer if we don't."

Snowcrystal nodded silently, and all around the group of five pokémon huddled together beneath the trees, the rain seemed to be stopping, or at the least, it wasn't raining as hard as it had been. "Well, we'll be able to hunt soon," Wildflame whispered.

"Everyone," Spark said slowly, "you know that attack Blazefang used? Well…I think I might know what it is. I think it was Shadowflare."

"Well that's a big help," Rosie scoffed. "You know what it's called, and what good is that?"

Snowcrystal turned to Spark, giving him a strange look. "You had a trainer…have you seen that attack used before?"

Spark shook his head vigorously. "No! Of course I've never seen the attack before! In fact, I'm not completely sure that was Shadowflare. I mean, where on earth would Blazefang learn a Forbidden Attack?"

Wildflame looked at Spark curiously. "Forbidden Attack?" she repeated. "What is that?"

Spark quieted down, as if unwilling to go on. "Spark," Snowcrystal urged him. "What _is_ a Forbidden Attack?"

Spark glanced over at Stormblade, who was too far away from the group to hear anything over the sound of the rain and thunder, and turned back to the others. "Well," the jolteon began uneasily, "it was something I heard when I was young, an eevee. My mother used to tell me and my sisters the story. My mother had a trainer, and he told it to his pokémon, and it was supposedly some sort of legend or something. I think I asked my parents if it was true once, and they told me it wasn't, but some humans and pokémon seemed to believe it. I'm surprised Stormblade hasn't heard."

"Well, what was the story?" Thunder asked with mild interest, sitting down and watching Spark through narrowed eyes.

"Uh, well…it went something like this…" he mumbled, looking away from the scyther. "I don't remember it in great detail, but I can pretty much recall the gist of it. It was told to me by my mother and father, who heard it from their trainers, so I'm not sure how much of it is actually true…" He paused for a moment, then went on. "Well, in the story, there were a group of powerful pokémon long ago. They weren't the legendaries, but normal pokémon; though they were exceedingly strong for their kind. Well, from what I could tell, no one who knew about this story was quite certain of their species, but they watched over a land free from humans and marauding pokémon, keeping the area's inhabitants safe.

"Well, one day, they began to notice that a few young pokémon, all of different elemental types, started to develop strange powers. These powers came in the form of completely unique attacks only they could perform. As these young pokémon practiced their strange gifts, the attacks became shockingly powerful, soon earning frightening names the other pokémon came to fear. There was an attack for fire, Shadowflare, an attack for ice, Deathfreeze, and others, though I can't remember the names for most of them. I do remember my father describing Shadowflare to me…just like it looked when Blazefang used it." Spark paused again to glance at the others. Snowcrystal and Wildflame looked intrigued, while Rosie and Thunder simply looked as if they thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Despite this, he kept going,

"Well, the attacks got so out of control that they destroyed the once peaceful land, growing stronger every time they were used. These powers corrupted the minds of those who used them, causing them to create mass devastation. The strange power of these attacks also seemed to be able to transfer from one pokémon to another of their same type, giving that pokémon the power of the attack, yet only if the first user has passed away. For this reason, others seeking to gain these powers sought to kill those who already possessed them. The strong pokémon who watched over the lands knew they had to do something to stop all this before it was too late. So somehow, they managed to steal the powers away from the young pokémon without causing any death, but they could not destroy those powers. However, the strong pokémon still managed to seal the powers away into different objects-stones and pebbles, or gems, something not easily broken, and hid them away in remote locations, where no one would ever think to look for them. Gradually the attacks' powers diminished, though it is said that they're still out there, waiting for a pokémon of the right type to stumble upon them, to use the attacks again and again and make them grow stronger. However, it is also said that all these attacks, at their most powerful form, will never stop until they've destroyed everything in their path. Shadowflare, for example, could become a dark and unstoppable wildfire that consumes everything it touches. No one was ever quite sure where the attacks came from or why they even existed, but the attacks stayed hidden and were never found. Still, they were not forgotten, and they became known as the Forbidden Attacks."

Spark paused for a moment, and then mumbled, "Well, that's how it went, roughly. I don't remember much, but then again I never thought I'd have to remember an eevee kit's story for anything. Seems pretty crazy though, doesn't it? The things I believed when I was little…" He laughed nervously.

"Spark, I think some of it's true, at least the part about the powers being sealed away," Snowcrystal replied softly. "And Blazefang must have used that attack for the first time-you saw how shocked he was…"

"But if the story's true," Spark whispered, "if he uses it again, it could take control of his mind…"

"He looked pretty scared of it to me," Rosie stated. "I don't think he'd want to use it anymore."

"Maybe…" Wildflame whispered. "But Blazefang has been power-hungry before. Once he gets over the shock, he could very well try it again. Let's just hope the part about the attacks growing stronger isn't true."

"Spark," Snowcrystal said quietly, "you said you knew the names of some of these attacks. What do you know about Shadowflare, the one you said Blazefang used?" She glanced over at Stormblade, who was still lying down, and then to Spark again.

"Well, obviously when I was young I was curious about the Forbidden Attacks, and asked about them. Of course, I'm not sure what part of this is true and what's not…considering that everyone in my family believed it to be just a story to scare little pokémon. But my dad used to like telling me how dangerous all the attacks were, probably trying to scare _me_ or something. He said that a Forbidden Attack at its less-powerful stage won't usually kill a strong pokémon, though a wound from one will never heal. He also told me the bit about them increasing in power and such, but that's all I can remember at the moment..."

"Never heals, huh?" Rosie repeated. "Your dad better have been making _that_ part up." As Rosie said this, Snowcrystal nervously glanced over at Stormblade, but he was too far away to have heard.

"Okay, okay!" Spark shouted. "I don't know for sure, but yet…the whole Forbidden Attacks legend is a human thing… _they_ probably made it up."

"If they made it up, how did Blazefang use Shadowflare?" asked Snowcrystal.

"I…don't…know!" Spark replied, gritting his teeth in frustration. "I told you what I heard, but apparently it was just a legend. Humans believed that sort of junk, most trainers do! You hear them going on and on about trying to find and see legendary pokémon and whatnot, they're always fascinated with that sort of thing. Maybe Shadowflare's just some rare weird attack that some attention-seeking human made into some sort of myth. And of course they always write books about these different legends and myths and other humans-"

"Wait," Snowcrystal interrupted, "what did you say humans do?"

Spark paused for a moment. "Uh…make up stuff, write books about legends?"

"What are books?" Snowcrystal asked, confused.

"They're um…stacks of paper stuck together with pictures or markings in them that humans can somehow understand," Spark tried to explain. "My trainer used to read them to me and the other pokémon sometimes, since we can understand what he said, but we couldn't understand the markings in the books. It was really boring actually…especially this one book which just went on and on about the stupidest-"

"But you said humans can understand the markings," Snowcrystal interrupted. "What if we can find a human who knows whether the Forbidden Attacks are really what they are in the story?"

"That's…crazy…" Spark muttered. "Humans can't understand us…and besides, even humans aren't sure about whether legends are true. Yes, I know that some of them spend a lot of time or even their entire lives searching for answers, but most of the legends are probably just stories."

"But maybe there's more to this…story you haven't heard? Or a different version of it?" Snowcrystal asked. "If Shadowflare really was like how it was described to you, and the description matched Blazefang's attack perfectly like you said, couldn't other parts of the legend be true? Maybe what some humans think is fake is really real?"

"Ok then, well next time I see a human, I'll ask him," Rosie scoffed.

"She's right," Spark agreed. "Humans can't understand pokémon, like I said before, and if they could, they probably couldn't help us. I think we should just stay clear of Blazefang and hope he doesn't use Shadowflare again. Forbidden Attack or not, that attack _was_ pretty powerful."

"Who believes that sort of thing anyway?" Thunder muttered, standing up and walking away. "Humans only want to be Masters. They don't help pokémon."

Suddenly a scowl appeared on Spark's face. He darted in front of Thunder, glaring at her. Snowcrystal was surprised to see that he actually looked angry. "Take…that…back!" he snarled.

"Why?" Thunder replied, not seeming threatened in the least. "It's true."

"It is not!" Spark shouted back. "My trainer-"

"If you loved your precious Master so much, why are you here in the wild?" Thunder replied icily. "Not that I can see any way a pokémon could care about a human."

"Just…Shut up!" Spark cried, firing a pin missile at the scyther's face.

Thunder didn't even flinch, but simply turned her head to avoid getting the spines in her eyes. Leaping at Spark, she slashed downward with one of her blades, and though Spark dodged, he couldn't avoid getting a long cut across his side. Both pokémon looked ready to keep fighting, but Snowcrystal darted between them.

"Stop!" she shouted. "Fighting's not going to do anything!"

To her surprise, Thunder didn't make an angry reply, but instead simply turned and left. Glaring in anger, Snowcrystal rounded on Spark. "What were you thinking?" she cried. "We can't be fighting now! Do you want to end up more injured?"

"But-" Spark began. "Oh come on, _Thunder_ was the one going to get injured. Type advantage!" He smirked.

"She would have chopped your head off," Rosie stated bluntly, and Spark made a face at her.

"Just…stop arguing, everyone," Snowcrystal sighed, her anger vanishing as she realized just how exhausted she was. "Look, it's not raining as hard now. Maybe we should try and find some food."

"Fine," Spark mumbled. "But I'll stay right here."

"Well, goodbye then…" Rosie replied. "I'm going to go find some berries." She bounded into the gloom, while Wildflame joined up with Thunder and headed off to hunt.

Snowcrystal sighed and padded over to Spark. "Look, I'm sorry…I know that humans aren't all bad, but Thunder probably doesn't know otherwise. I think you should just leave her alone."

"Whatever…" Spark muttered, turning away from her.

Snowcrystal quietly stepped away from him, not wanting to argue anymore. If they didn't find a way to work together soon, they would truly be lost.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang and his pack were unable to go on for the time being. Some of the houndour had been injured very badly by the scyther, and they would need a while to rest. That meant that the pack was stuck there for the time being. Blazefang, at least, was glad that Wildflame would still be traveling with the growlithe's group; he knew that if they got any closer to Articuno, she would know. At least that much he could count on.

While the other houndour rested or hunted, Blazefang sheltered from the rain beneath a tree, conversing with two other houndour in low tones.

"C'mon Blazefang, think about what you have here…I mean, that attack killed that scyther instantly!" Boneclaw whispered to Blazefang.

"But it followed him through the air…what sort of attack does _that?_ " Blazefang snarled back. "I have no idea what sort of thing this attack is capable of!"

The third houndour in the group, a mangy-looking pokémon called Flarefire, spoke up, "I don't see what's so terrible about having a really powerful attack, Blazefang, but if you don't like it, that's your choice. Just remember, it did get you out of danger when that scyther attacked you."

"Maybe…" Blazefang muttered, turning away from Flarefire and Boneclaw, "but I still don't understand it…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Darting through the trees unnoticed, an aipom made his way in the direction of a small grove of fruit trees. He didn't usually venture so far from the cities alone, but his trainer didn't mind if he took food from the wild; it was better than getting in trouble after he was caught stealing. Keeping a wary eye out for predators, he scampered from one branch to the next. The aipom stopped suddenly as he noticed what looked to be a near-dying scyther right below the branch he was balancing on.

The aipom's first instinct was to flee, but he stopped himself, realizing that this scyther couldn't do him much harm in its current state. Now over the initial shock, he sat back on the branch and looked at Stormblade curiously. After a minute or so with no movement at all from the scyther, the aipom idly broke off a small bit of the branch and held it over the still pokémon. He stopped for a moment, wondering if it was at all wise to throw something at a dangerous predator.

Then, deciding he didn't care, he dropped the twig on the scyther. Stormblade stirred slightly, but didn't look up. However, the fact that he had moved at all made the aipom dart to a higher branch out of panic. When Stormblade didn't attack him, he lost interest, and continued on his way, unknowingly in the direction of Wildflame and Thunder…

_To be continued…_


	13. A New Threat

At first, the wandering aipom had no idea that he was heading in the direction of two large predators. However, luckily for him, the moment he came upon Wildflame and Thunder, they had been distracted by something else. Quietly bolting up a tree trunk, he watched them curiously for a few seconds, then scampered back toward the area where he'd seen the other scyther before. This was certainly strange…what on earth would two scyther and a houndoom be doing _here?_

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame was losing her patience. Thunder had scared away every prey pokémon they had managed to find long before either of them had gotten close enough to strike. The houndoom was beginning to believe that Thunder didn't know the first thing about hunting. "All right, listen!" Wildflame growled suddenly, turning to the scyther, "This isn't working out at all. Haven't you ever learned to hunt before?"

"Master never taught me," Thunder replied.

"I meant _before_ you were captured!" Wildflame growled in annoyance, lashing her tail.

"I don't remember what it was like before I was captured!" Thunder snapped. "Besides, I was still very young then. And I can't hunt with this chain…other pokémon can hear it…every time I move." She bit down on the shackle around her arm as if in some vain attempt to break it, but as usual, it was barely even scratched.

"Fine, then don't hunt at all," Wildflame retorted. "I'll do the hunting; you just stay here and keep quiet!" She stalked off, and Thunder turned away without a reply, listening to the sound of the houndoom's pawsteps as she padded away.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal didn't like having to wait for the others to return. It was partly that she was worried about their safety, but she also wished she could have gone with them so that she could hunt as well. Everyone in the group needed it, and she wished that she could help out. She also hated having to stay in this rocky clearing where there were sharp pebbles and mud everywhere she stepped. Even the sheltered spot beneath the trees was wet and muddy, making the three pokémon who stayed behind completely miserable. Snowcrystal briefly wondered if the mud would disguise her fur enough to allow her to hunt with the others, but she knew she couldn't leave Stormblade there to try it.

Spark was curled up beneath one of the trees, his back turned to the others. Snowcrystal knew that his burns were not serious, yet there was still the risk of infection. She figured that Spark probably just wanted to be left alone for a while, and decided to go check on Stormblade.

As she approached the motionless scyther, she was reminded of just how serious his injuries were. The burns along his back, arms, and wings looked even more deep and serious than she had remembered, and his leg still looked bad and was flecked with drying blood. "Stormblade?" she whispered, and the scyther barely turned his head to look at her.

She was surprised to see that he was actually shaking, as if cold. "Are you…all right?" she asked, realizing how stupid the question was right after she asked it. Stormblade didn't answer. "Well, the others should be back soon," Snowcrystal continued without waiting any longer for him to speak. "Maybe you and someone else can stay here, while the rest of us go look for a pokémon who can help you."

"Alright…" Stormblade replied without any other comment as he lay his head back down and closed his eyes.

"Wait a minute," Spark called suddenly from where he was resting nearby. "We can't split up! What if Blazefang's pack attacks us again? We have to be strong, and to be strong, we have to stick together!"

"I'm not going," Stormblade said quietly. "I'll be fine staying here for a little while."

"Really…" Spark replied in a worried tone. "Look, we can't stop for long. No matter what, we need to keep going."

Stormblade lifted his head, and though he wanted to stand, all he could really do was sit up slightly. "Well, I'm sure you could keep up with the others, but I probably wouldn't…make it very far."

"Spark, he's right," Snowcrystal agreed. "I think we should-"

"And let Blazefang's pack catch up to us?" Spark shouted, his voice rising to a level of desperation Snowcrystal wasn't used to hearing from him. "I don't think so…You can't give up Stormblade! You were always giving up back in the days when we were trainer's pokémon! Justin thought you were just too lazy to battle for him half of the time!"

"I don't care what Justin thought!" Stormblade shouted, and it shocked Snowcrystal that he had actually yelled, when before he'd hardly made any sound at all.

"Who's Justin?" she asked, puzzled, looking from Spark to Stormblade.

"Our trainer!" Spark replied.

"He's not our trainer anymore!" Stormblade growled, and Spark glared at him.

"I know you don't care…" Spark muttered. "You never liked Justin! You never understood what a great trainer he was…Of course you wouldn't understand that I miss him…"

"Spark!" Snowcrystal cried. "Why are you talking about this now? Don't you see-"

"Well, either way he's not our trainer anymore…" Stormblade said.

"Justin had to _abandon_ us and it was all your fault!" Spark yelled.

"You know what really happened!" Stormblade shouted back, and there was a sense of betrayal in his voice.

"Well it still happened!" Spark growled.

"What did you expect me to do?" Stormblade replied, but Snowcrystal stepped in front of Spark, and he didn't explain further.

"Spark, stop this!" Snowcrystal cried. "Whatever happened, it's in the past…and right now, we have more important things to think about. What has gotten into you?"

"I…I…" Spark stammered, as if he wasn't even sure himself. He looked almost as shocked at his behavior as Snowcrystal did. "I don't know…I'm sorry. Everything's just been-"

Snowcrystal was about to say something, when Wildflame and Thunder reappeared. Wildflame was carrying the limp body of a small spearow, while Thunder just looked exhausted and had no prey to show for it.

"Is…that all you caught?" Snowcrystal asked, shocked.

Wildflame set down the prey and nodded, and Snowcrystal looked dismayed. "Rosie should be back soon, though," she stated. "Maybe she's found some berries, and those who can should eat those."

Thunder didn't speak to the others as she turned and walked away, not even giving a glance when Snowcrystal called out to her. Before anyone could try and stop her, she had already vanished into the trees.

"What's up with her?" Spark muttered, casting an odd glance in the direction Thunder had gone.

"What's up with who?" Rosie's voice sounded from nearby, and the vulpix trotted into the clearing, dragging a small branch of berries.

"Eh…nothing," Spark replied, walking over to sniff the berries.

Snowcrystal walked over to the spearow near Wildflame's feet, but she was stopped when the houndoom placed her paw over the prey. "And were you just thinking of _taking_ it?" Wildflame sneered. "I thought you and those others were going to eat berries. This spearow is hardly a meal, and it was all I caught, yet it _is_ my kill."

Shocked, Snowcrystal backed away, but knew better than to argue with Wildflame. Everyone had been acting strangely, and she suspected the reason for it must be that the shock of Blazefang's attack hadn't yet worn off. Walking back to Rosie, she decided that the best thing to do was to divide the berries among the rest of them. Thunder had wandered off, and knowing that scyther didn't get desperate enough to try and eat berries as easily as more omnivorous pokémon, Snowcrystal realized it probably wouldn't matter much anyway. Regardless, she tried to give some to Stormblade, knowing how badly he needed to eat, but to her dismay, he refused them.

"Come on, Stormblade," Snowcrystal tried to urge him. "Please eat them…You need to get stronger."

"Berries aren't going to do me much good…" Stormblade replied. He paused, his gaze moving in Spark's direction. "I don't like fighting with Spark. I know he doesn't mean it, but…"

"I'm sure he'll calm down once we figure out what to do," Snowcrystal tried to reassure him. "But I don't understand…why did your trainer think that about you? That you give up all the time, I mean. You don't give up easily."

"My trainer only kept me for battling," he explained. "Nothing else. Sometimes it was wise to give up during one of those battles, especially if we were far from a city at the time. At those times, if I got injured in a fight, I wouldn't be treated like the other pokémon; I'd just have to wait until Justin got to the nearest pokémon center. And sometimes that took days."

"But… _why?_ " Snowcrystal asked, shocked.

"It was because my trainer was afraid of me," Stormblade stated simply, turning away from her. "I was little more than an accidental capture…Justin threw a poké ball at me so that he'd have a few more seconds to run away – not that I was going to attack him – but I was exhausted enough that it caught me. Justin was somewhat glad it had happened, for he ended up keeping me for the very same reason that he loathed and feared me…my scythes.

"You see, as 'terrifying' as I was, I could fight well, and he knew that. He kept me for the battles. He had other pokémon who fought for him often; a meganium, a luxio, Spark, and a few others. In the few times I would be allowed out of my poké ball outside of battle, I often saw him running and playing with these pokémon, though I knew he wouldn't dare get within ten feet of me. When I wasn't battling, I was usually in my poké ball or made to stay away from the other pokémon. When he let me out, and he had to of course, he always had his other pokémon near him, guarding him, I think. But the point is, Justin was constantly afraid I would hurt him…or even kill him. He was sometimes too afraid to let me out to feed me, and would put it off for as long as he could. All in all, I know I'm better off without him."

Spark seemed to hear the scyther's last statement and shot an angry glare at Stormblade, but Snowcrystal ignored him and stayed by Stormblade's side, aware that something was troubling him. "If you want to tell me…you don't have to…" she began. "But…why did your…uh…Spark's trainer have to abandon you?" She was surprised that Stormblade seemed to actually want to talk about it.

"He…he didn't…" Stormblade replied, noticing that Spark had gotten up and left just as Snowcrystal finished speaking, "He had to _release_ us back to the wild. I guess in a way…it was…my fault…but I never did mean for it to happen."

"But…I'm sure it couldn't have been your fault…" Snowcrystal said quietly.

"Maybe not, but sometimes it feels like it," Stormblade replied. "It happened around a time humans call Christmas time – in the winter – and Justin had taken us all back to his hometown to celebrate for some reason or other. Spark and the other pokémon were inside with our trainer and his family, and when he finally decided to let me out of my poké ball after realizing he had to, he locked me outside, so I 'wouldn't hurt anyone'.

"I didn't want to stay outside in the snow, at least not in the open, so I headed into the nearby forest. I knew I couldn't hunt there, not that there was much food in the winter anyway, because humans sometimes shot at pokémon they thought could be a threat to the town, and I knew I looked like a desperate wild scyther, because Justin never really took care of me the way he should have."

Snowcrystal listened quietly; she had heard that humans had weapons called guns, and that they could 'shoot' wild pokémon, but she wasn't quite sure what that meant. All she knew was that, somehow, pokémon could die from it.

Stormblade continued, though he didn't sound very eager to finish the story. "I was wandering through the forest when I heard screams…from a human. I ran towards the sound and found a small human girl being attacked by a kabutops. I didn't know what a kabutops was doing in a forest, and at first I didn't understand why it was attacking her, until I noticed a couple of kabuto nearby, weak from the cold. I supposed they must have been released by a trainer who had passed by near the town, and the mother kabutops was so frightened and confused that she attacked whatever she perceived as a threat. They couldn't have been under a trainer's control for long; the way they behaved toward the human girl was just like a frightened wild pokémon would.

"I tried to stop the kabutops, but that only distracted her, and she attacked me instead. While we were fighting, I was hoping the human would run away, but I guess she was too badly injured. The kabutops I was fighting was weak from hunger and exhaustion, and I managed to fend her off without getting injured myself. After she and the kabuto left, I walked over to the human, but she was unconscious, or at least I thought so at the time. I didn't know what to do, so I waited there, afraid to leave her all alone in case the other humans didn't find her. It began snowing very hard, erasing all signs of the other pokémon that had been there before. I couldn't even smell the scent anymore.

"After a while, I heard humans, and a group of them found us at last. But what they saw was me, standing beside the little human who had bad wounds from the kabutops's blades…and I had blood on my scythes from the fight. A human pointed a gun at me, but I ran before he could shoot, and went back to my trainer's house. Spark noticed me from the window and came outside…I told him what happened. Then Justin wondered why Spark had left…and he came out of the house and saw me and the stains of blood. He instantly returned me to my poké ball, and the next time I was let out…me, Spark, and all the other pokémon were being forced into the forest. I found out from Spark that the girl in the forest had died, but I believe it was more likely to have been from the cold than the kabutops's attack. Still, the humans thought I had killed her…and when they found out I was Justin's pokémon…he wasn't allowed to be a trainer anymore." Stormblade paused for a moment, before thinking of something and continuing again.

"When Spark told you…when we first met you…that we had run away and had only been wandering for three weeks…well, we were lying. I knew how much Justin loved Spark, and it must have been terrible for both of them, but I just wanted to get away. We actually wandered for months…Spark had come along with me because I knew the ways of the wild while he had been raised by humans most of his life. And Spark was the only one who believed me when I told him what happened. I tried to tell the other pokémon, but they ignored me and wandered into the forest, going their own ways. We never saw any of them again. I was trying to find a new home…away from humans. And eventually, our travels led us near your mountain, still in search of a place where we could finally live in peace."

Snowcrystal stepped closer to Stormblade, knowing that he still blamed himself for the whole thing, yet it had only really been a mistake. "But it wasn't your fault, it was a misunderstanding…you did the right thing by trying to help that human…" Stormblade didn't reply, and Snowcrystal hoped that her words were still of some comfort. However, she knew they would have to get moving again soon. "Look, I know you want to rest now," she said gently, "but we have to find a healer, and Spark's right…splitting up is too dangerous. I'll tell Wildflame to help you."

Bounding away from him momentarily, the growlithe spotted Rosie and Wildflame, as well as Thunder, who had recently returned. The sad look had not left the scarred scyther's eyes, though Snowcrystal knew she wouldn't want to be questioned about it.

"We need to get moving," Snowcrystal told the others. "I'll go find Spark. Wildflame, can you help Stormblade? I don't think he can walk by himself."

"Fine," the houndoom muttered, her voice sounding anything but optimistic about their situation.

Snowcrystal turned and headed after Spark, following his scent. A moment later, she reappeared with the jolteon, and the two of them walked back to where Stormblade was.

The travelling pokémon were unaware of the aipom in the trees. He had been watching them, Snowcrystal especially. He now snuck off, muttering to himself cheerfully. "A white growlithe? My trainer will be pleased with this…"

Still chattering under his breath, he headed back in the direction of the city, thinking up ways he could let his trainer know about the odd colored growlithe.

_To be continued…_


	14. Disaster Strikes

Snowcrystal knew that the others were exhausted. Even though it was still morning, the growlithe could tell that it was going to be a long, hot day. And while Wildflame and Rosie wouldn't mind all that much, it was certainly bad news for Stormblade.

Beside Snowcrystal, Rosie yawned. "Snowcrystal…how long are we gonna keep walking?" the vulpix asked tiredly.

"For a little while," Wildflame told Rosie, answering for Snowcrystal herself. The houndoom seemed worried and impatient, as if she wanted to get as far away from the site of the Shadowflare attack as possible. Turning her head, she motioned with it toward the others up ahead. "Stormblade, come on," she urged the pokémon beside her. She was still supporting the scyther's weight, only able to move as fast as he could. Stormblade's pace was painfully slow. He was forced to hobble along after the group, unable to put any weight on his injured leg.

"It would help if you could slow down," Stormblade muttered to himself, panting with the effort of keeping up with her. "Do you think we can take a break now?" he asked as Snowcrystal stopped and walked over to him. He was looking at the white growlithe with an almost pleading expression.

"I second that!" Rosie called from up ahead before Snowcrystal could answer.

Wildflame paused, and an annoyed look appeared in her eyes as she glanced at the vulpix. "We're never going to get anywhere at this rate…" she sighed.

"I don't care," Rosie retorted, lying down on her back. "If you want me to keep going, try and make me! I'm taking a break whether you like it or not!"

"Fine," Wildflame mumbled, defeated. "Let's make it a quick break then." She glanced to Snowcrystal, who was talking to Stormblade while the scyther limped over to a patch of grass to lie down. Turning away from them, she found a small spot to herself and sat with her tail curled around her paws, alert and waiting.

The others soon found their own places to rest. Though she was impatient with the rest of the group, Wildflame had to admit to herself that the journey _was_ starting to take its toll on her as well. A rest didn't sound so bad after all.

"You know, Wildflame," Spark called to the houndoom. "I think we should be taking more breaks…we can't keep going like this forever."

"Besides," Rosie agreed, "I bet Blazefang's just as tired as we are!"

  
**-ooo-**  


In the shelter of a group of trees in a small park, a young blonde-haired girl of about fourteen sat on a small bench, holding her shinx, as she watched her other pokémon play. Sitting next to her was a boy her age. As the girl's shinx jumped out of her hands and onto the bench, the boy reached out and petted the little pokémon, who curled up beside him.

"If you loved your pokémon so much, Justin, what on earth made you give up pokémon training?" the girl, Katie asked, giving Justin yet another confused look. She had never understood why he didn't train pokémon anymore, and he had never told her anything about the matter except to say, 'I gave it up.'

"I don't know…" Justin mumbled, avoiding her gaze. "I guess…I guess it just…wasn't working for me…"

The young girl turned away, aware, as always, that there was more to it that he just wasn't telling her. Glancing toward a small piece of paper on her right, she was reminded of the news that had been broadcast everywhere that day. Poachers and their vehicles had been spotted near the city, and all trainers had been advised not to leave the city alone, at least until the perpetrators were caught. "Poachers…" she muttered through clenched teeth. "I sure hope the police catch them soon. I can't stand to think about what they do to pokémon."

A movement from the bushes nearby distracted her, and she looked in the direction of the noise just as her aipom bounded up onto the bench. "Aipom?" she questioned, surprised. "Where have you been? We just heard there are poachers around."

Aipom pointed excitedly in the direction of the plains near the outskirts of the city and ran off, before stopping and waiting for the humans to follow. He turned around, holding up a small book with a picture of a growlithe in it. "Where did you get that?" Katie demanded. "You didn't steal it, right?" As Aipom smirked and ran off, Katie sighed and turned to Justin. "He's done it again… Well, we better follow him, and make sure he gives that book back to whoever he took it from…"

"Ever think you should try to control that pokémon better?" Justin muttered as he stood up, picking up Katie's shinx while his friend returned her other pokémon to their pokéballs. "All right, though…" he agreed reluctantly with a sigh. "Let's go."

  
**-ooo-**  


As Blazefang's pack moved on, some of its members were noticeably missing. The houndour leader had finally realized that the injured pack members were only slowing them down, and eventually, he had decided to leave them behind to wander back to the mountain. It hadn't been a pleasant decision, but it had been for the good of the rest of the pack.

Blazefang turned as Boneclaw approached. "What do you want us to do now?" the other houndour asked his leader.

"Stick with the same plan…follow the growlithe, but not too closely," Blazefang replied. "Wildflame reported back to me while the growlithe thought she was hunting. She hasn't heard anything about Articuno yet, and she told me the scyther I fought survived the attack, but is badly injured. If we find him alone, I give you permission to kill him. We want the growlithe to lead us to Articuno as soon as possible, and an injured pokémon will only slow them down."

Boneclaw nodded slowly, remembering the several houndour who had been injured and fallen behind after Blazefang had ordered the rest of the pack not to slow their pace for them. He was sure they would eventually find their way back to the mountain, as none of them had been near death, but the thought of the wounded group staggering back to the tribe alone still bothered him.

Boneclaw shivered, wondering if, had circumstances been different, he would have been in their place. He began to worry that Blazefang cared about nothing but pleasing Firedash…and that not even his own pack mates mattered to him.

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame quickly grew impatient with waiting again. She knew that Stormblade's injuries were the main problem; as Rosie really _could_ keep going, despite her stubbornness on the matter. The houndoom had wanted to continue the journey as soon as possible, so they could actually get closer to wherever Articuno was, but at the moment, she mainly wanted to leave because she had a bad feeling about the area. However, she couldn't explain why, and she wasn't about to try and make the others understand.

Feeling restless despite her tiredness, she decided to look for a stream and maybe find some prey she could hunt. Padding away from the others, she glanced back at Rosie and Stormblade for a moment before moving on. Once on her own, Wildflame trotted easily over a large group of rocks and into an area where more trees grew. Prey was far more likely to be found among the trees than in the rocky areas, even if Wildflame was used to hunting in more open spaces.

Suddenly a strange sound caused her to glance to her left, and she crept closer, until she heard voices nearby. Two of the voices belonged to humans, and another to a pokémon. Wildflame crouched down in a clump of bushes as an aipom ran by, followed by two trainers.

"What about the poacher warning?" the boy called as he ran after the female trainer.

"We'll be fine!" she called back to him, though the boy didn't look very convinced.

Once the humans and their pokémon had passed, Wildflame raised her head, realizing that they were headed straight for the group. Looking closely at the ground where the humans had passed by, she could see many footprints in the mud; her own footprints from before as well as those of the others she had been travelling with. And that was what the aipom and the humans seemed to be following. Knowing she could outrun them easily, Wildflame turned and headed back toward Snowcrystal and the others by a different way, so as not to run into the humans.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal glanced up as Wildflame suddenly appeared, looking worried and out of breath. "What's wrong?" the growlithe asked.

"Humans," Wildflame growled. "We gotta move, now!"

"Humans!" Rosie cried, leaping up, "All right, let's get _out_ of here!"

"Stormblade will never outrun them!" Thunder snapped. "I say we fight them off before they even make it here."

Snowcrystal glanced at Wildflame, who nodded slowly. "I suppose that's the best we can do," The houndoom said quietly. "Snowcrystal, you and the others should try and go ahead with Stormblade. I'll distract them." Wildflame then took a deep breath, regretting what she had just said instantly. However, there was no changing her mind now, and she was the only one who stood a real chance; the others were either hopeless in battle or they were injured. _'Remember…'_ she thought to herself silently, _'you're a houndoom now…you can fight!'_ Feeling slightly less worried as she recalled herself taking down a stantler in the forest, Wildflame turned and bounded away. "This'll be easy!" she called to the others, hoping she sounded convincing.

Not stopping to see if the pokémon were going yet, Wildflame headed straight for the humans, hoping a warning flamethrower would be enough to send them on their way. She knew they had been following the group, but she wasn't sure why. The last thing she wanted was to be captured, especially considering she was on an important mission for her tribe back at the mountain.

Wildflame heard the sound of the humans' footsteps close by, and paused, waiting. Once they came into view, she leaped from the bushes and in landed in front of them, snarling as she turned to block their path. The humans both stopped and took a step back, and the aipom skidded to a halt right in front of Wildflame.

Katie stepped back, surprised at the sudden appearance of the dark type. "Aipom, iron tail!" she called as she watched her pokémon dart out of the way of the wild houndoom's snapping jaws. Aipom dashed back toward Wildflame and swung around, whipping his now glowing tail across the houndoom's side. Wildflame rolled with the impact and kicked out with her back paws, catching Aipom across the chest and knocking him to the ground. Staggering upright, Wildflame fired a flamethrower at the dazed pokémon, who barely managed to roll away in time to avoid serious injury.

Katie, realizing that Aipom was most likely going to get hurt, became nervous. "Aipom get back here!" she cried, wishing yet again that she still had Aipom's poké ball. He hated being inside one, and would always manage to 'lose' his whenever Katie got a new one. However, this time Aipom could see that the battle wasn't going in his favor. He scampered back over to Katie, before climbing up on her shoulder.

As Wildflame took a step closer, Katie grabbed a pokéball and released one of her other pokémon. The pokémon appeared with a willing cry, standing right in front of Wildflame. The houndoom didn't need to recognize the pokémon to know it was a water type. Short light blue and white fur covered its body, and it stood on its hind paws. It had two long ears and a long jagged black tail with a large blue orb at the tip.

"Azumarill!" Katie cried. "Water gun!"

Wildflame was forcefully hit by a blast of water that sent her flying into a nearby tree. Coughing and sputtering, she stood back up and launched a blast of flame at the water pokémon. "Out of the way, Azumarill!" Katie cried just as Wildflame fired the attack. The water type heeded the warning and dodged the blast of flame. Katie reached into her pocket and took out a pokéball, pressing the small white button in its center to expand it. "I'm going to try and catch this one!" she excitedly told Justin, who stood a little ways behind her, watching the battle.

Wildflame took a moment to listen to Katie's words. "Not on your life, human," she spat as she ran toward Azumarill. Knowing that fire attacks wouldn't work well against her opponent, she decided to use a different strategy. Running behind Azumarill, Wildflame leaped toward her, and though Azumarill dodged, the houndoom still managed to get a grip around the water pokémon's thin black tail with her teeth. Azumarill screeched in pain and whirled around, just as her trainer gave another command.

"Water pulse!" Katie shouted, and once again Wildflame was forcefully knocked back, but this time she recovered quicker. Not having much time for a close ranged attack, seeing as Azumarill was still nearly unscathed, Wildflame launched another flamethrower, which hit its mark.

Wildflame stepped back, watching Azumarill as she stood up and faced her. The attack hadn't seemed to do much damage to the water pokémon, and apart from being singed, Azumarill seemed to be fine. Trying to gather up her strength, Wildflame prepared for her enemy's next move.

An angry battle cry suddenly caused both pokémon to glance to the left, a moment before Thunder darted from the bushes to stand beside Wildflame. "A scyther?" Katie mused, reaching for her pokédex as she stared closely at Thunder's broken chain and collar.

"Katie!" Justin cried, suddenly panicking, as he grabbed his friend's arm. "Get away from there!"

Katie, who had been reaching for her pokédex, glanced around at him in surprise, before hearing Azumarill's cries of pain, which caused her to glance back. The scyther had given her pokémon two long cuts across her back, and Katie quickly returned the water type.

"Let's get _out_ of here!" Justin cried, terror filling his voice as he pulled his friend further away from the two wild pokémon. Finally deciding to listen, she followed Justin, running back through the mud and grass and towards the city. Sighing in relief as the humans left, Wildflame followed Thunder as they headed back to the others.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal looked up as she heard Wildflame and Thunder approach. "The humans have left," Wildflame assured the growlithe calmly.

"Good," Snowcrystal replied, and thought for a moment. "Wildflame, do you think you and Thunder could scout ahead and just check to make sure it's safe? You're strong enough to fight if you run into danger, and I think it would be a lot better for us to know what's up ahead." She looked at the two of them; Thunder showed no reaction whatsoever, but Wildflame didn't seem very pleased with the idea.

"What about me?" Rosie cried suddenly. "I'm not injured! I'll go!"

"But I don't think…" Snowcrystal began, before Wildflame interrupted her.

"Let her go," the houndoom muttered. "I had to fight a pokémon already…I'm tired. I'll stay back here with the rest of you."

Rosie smirked and walked alongside Thunder as the two slipped into the bushes ahead. Snowcrystal stayed at the back beside Stormblade, and Spark and Wildflame loped a little ways ahead.

  
**-ooo-**  


"How far ahead are we supposed to go?" Thunder asked Rosie as the two of them stepped over rocks and small bushes. Though Thunder wouldn't show it, her wounds were paining her, yet she had no problem keeping up with the energetic little vulpix.

"I don't know, Thunder…do you think we should go back now?" Rosie asked casually, stopping and tilting her head at the scyther.

"Yes," Thunder agreed, starting to turn back.

"Wait a minute," Rosie whispered, pricking her ears up. "I think I heard something…I want to go see what it is." She glanced toward Thunder, who sighed and rolled her eyes, lying down in the mud and not seeming to care much that it got in her wounds.

"Go right on ahead," the scyther muttered.

"Uh…okay then, I'll be right back…" Rosie responded, confused at Thunder's attitude, and wondering why she had agreed to go along in the first place. Heading away from the bug type, she followed the noise she had heard until she began to make out what it was. _Someone was calling for help…_

Rosie crept carefully through a group of bushes, away from Thunder. After a short time, the vulpix emerged into a very small clearing, and immediately saw what had been making the noise. A young teddiursa was caught in a net. Rosie stiffened, knowing what that meant, and started to back away. Suddenly she felt a human hand close roughly on her scruff and she was lifted bodily off her paws and into the air.

"Well would you look what I found?" came a man's voice, and Rosie could hear another's footsteps. She tried to twist free from the human's grip, flailing her paws at him as she cried for help, although she didn't know if Thunder was even close enough to hear her anymore. She tried to turn her head around to use an ember attack, but he was holding her neck fur too firmly for her to move her head much at all.

"A vulpix?" the other human called. "Well, lucky us. Toss it in a cage. I'll get the teddiursa."

Rosie found herself being carried away to a truck that was nearby and thrown forcefully into a hard metal cage. Unpleasant memories flooded the young vulpix's mind from the last time she had been locked in a cage. But now, it was far more terrifying. There were other pokémon in cages in the back of the truck, and Rosie had no idea where the humans were bound to take them. At least before, she had been alone in a forest, and probably would have been able to free herself, but now, it was different. There were humans close by, watching, and they were going to take her away to some strange place. A cry of pain filled her ears as the teddiursa was thrown into another cage beside her. Rosie moved forward toward the bars of her cage, staring back out into the trees. "THUNDER!" she cried desperately. "Thunder…help!"

There was no answer. Rosie heard the humans get into the vehicle and start it. The floor of the cage lurched beneath her as the truck moved forward, causing her to lose her footing and fall. As the vehicle picked up speed, Rosie started to panic even more, crying out for help as loud as she could.

"Rosie!?" A voice called back at her this time, and Thunder stumbled out of the bushes and into the clearing that the truck had just left.

"Thunder!" Rosie cried. "Get me out!"

Without answering Rosie's cry, Thunder darted after the human's vehicle. Rosie peered through the cage bars as the truck drove on, noticing with relief that Thunder was catching up. Even injured, a scyther's speed was unmatched. "Thunder, hurry!" Rosie called out, failing to notice one of the humans in the truck lean out the window as he saw that a pokémon was following them.

Thunder was far too focused on Rosie and the cage to notice that the human carried a gun until it was too late. The gun fired twice, and Thunder felt one bullet strike her in the side and the other tear into her shoulder. She collapsed painfully to the ground, blood seeping from the wounds, and the vehicle drove on. "Thunder!" Rosie cried, leaping up and placing her paws against the cage bars as she heard the gun fire and watched Thunder fall.

Crying out in rage, Thunder tried to get back up, but the weakness and shock were finally too much for her. She only collapsed again as the truck drove further away, moving far quicker than it had been and vanishing into a large grove of berry trees.

The moment she had seen Thunder collapse again, Rosie's eyes had filled with tears that came unbidden. "Thunder, get up! Help me!" she cried, even though the scyther was now out of sight. "Don't let them take me…do something!" She was now sobbing uncontrollably in her absolute terror, fearing the humans and everything they could do to her. Desperately she clawed at the cage bars, not stopping even when she tore a claw and stained the bars with blood.

Thunder could hear the cries growing fainter and fainter, but her strength was ebbing away. She tried to stand up, but failed, and gradually Rosie's shouts faded into nothing…

Rosie gave a loud cry of fear as she realized that Thunder could not follow her. All around her, pokémon were crying or yelling for help or vainly trying to free themselves. The vulpix knew it was no use, and now Thunder, her only hope, couldn't save her. Still, even though she knew that there were no rescuers to hear her shouts, she did not stop crying out.

"Help!" she yelled in terror. "Someone help me! Get me out! Heeeeeelllp!"

_To be continued…_


	15. A Small Quest

Once again, the travelers had found themselves forced to stop because of Stormblade's injuries. As they rested, Snowcrystal couldn't help wondering why Thunder and Rosie were taking so long to get back. "Do you think they're okay?" she asked Spark, for the fourth time.

"Of course," the jolteon replied. "Rosie's probably just excited she gets to go on a little adventure and act responsible for once." He shrugged. "They'll be fine, don't worry about 'em."

Snowcrystal sighed and gazed off into the distance. She couldn't help worrying. _'They should have been back by now…'_ she thought. She was about to suggest that they go look for them when heard rustling in the bushes, and Thunder staggered back into the clearing.

Snowcrystal stared in shock. The scyther's side and shoulder were drenched in blood, though how it had happened, she didn't have a clue. The growlithe leapt up, alarmed, and she could tell by the looks coming from everyone else that they were just as startled. Using his own blades for support, Stormblade limped over to her, seeming to know what had injured her.

"What happened?" he asked, sounding extremely worried. "Did you run into humans…you've been shot!"

Thunder whirled around suddenly and slammed the side of her scythe into his face, which was enough to knock him completely off his feet. "You think I haven't noticed that already?" she snarled at him, before seeming to loose her strength completely, and collapsing to her knees. "Look…" she muttered, ignoring the others' stares and struggling to her feet again, "in case you all haven't noticed…Rosie is GONE!"

"Wh…what?" Snowcrystal managed to say, the anger she had been about to direct at Thunder for hitting Stormblade vanishing to be replaced with horror.

"Humans took her!" Thunder growled. "Along with lots of other pokémon too." She paused for a moment to take a few shuddering breaths, then went on. "She went off alone…I heard her screaming a few minutes later and ran after the human's truck…but they were long gone…I came back here…there was nothing I could do." She lowered her head, as if in shame.

Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame glanced at each other in alarm, and Wildflame murmured, barely above a whisper, "I heard the humans I fought earlier mention something about…poachers? Humans who steal pokémon, right?" Beside her, Spark nodded, confirming her beliefs to be true.

Stormblade sat up, closing one of his eyes as he looked at the others. "Well we have to go after them, don't we?" he asked, wincing.

"Why don't _you_ go after them! I'm sure you'll go far with that," Thunder muttered sarcastically, although she was still breathing heavily.

"Don't…treat…Stormblade that way," Snowcrystal growled, but she could plainly see that Thunder was not intimidated by her, or even paying attention. She knew that Thunder had been badly hurt, and the scyther looked like she was about to pass out, but there was no excuse for her anger toward the pokémon who was only trying to help. Still, she knew that they needed to figure out what they could do to help Rosie. She stepped beside Stormblade, giving him a comforting nudge as she glanced around at the others. "Well…what should we do?" she whispered, unable to hide the fear that shone in her eyes.

"Listen…Snowcrystal," Spark replied, turning to face her. "There isn't much we can do. I've lived with a trainer and other humans for as long as I can remember. I've heard about poachers…seen trainers who've had their pokémon stolen. And really, there was nothing any of them could do but move on. When pokémon are stolen, very few ever get reunited with their friends or trainers. Even if the poachers are caught, the pokémon they had stolen before are almost always either already sold, or…" He lowered his head, not wanting to finish his statement.

"But…we can't let that happen to Rosie…" Snowcrystal murmured quietly.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to catch them," Spark replied, barely above a whisper, "and even if by some miracle we managed to find them, they'd only take us too."

"Take us?" Thunder growled. "I'd like to see them try!"

"But…but who knows what they'll do to her!" Snowcrystal shouted, facing Spark with a shocked expression. "And you're saying we should just give up?"

"Hate to break it to ya, but he's right you know."

Snowcrystal spun around, trying to locate the owner of the voice, when she noticed an aipom sitting on a low tree branch nearby. Before she could ask any questions, Wildflame let out a snarl and pounced, knocking the aipom clear off the tree and pinning him to the ground. "Why…are you following us?" the houndoom snarled, letting the aipom get a good view of her fangs. Aipom was caught completely by surprise, and could only stare back at the houndoom in terror. "Speak! Now!" Wildflame growled. "Or will I have to make you?"

"It…it…was just…" Aipom stammered, "I thought you needed help and I…"

"Help?" Wildflame scoffed. "If you wanted to help, can you explain why you tried to lead those humans to us?"

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal whispered, not liking the way she was treating the aipom, enemy or not.

"Stay out of this!" Wildflame snapped back at her.

"Okay…" Aipom continued, seeming to have overcome some of his shock. "I went to get my trainer, Katie, and her friend because I found _your_ friend…the scyther, injured, and I knew they could help…"

"They _attacked_ me!" Wildflame growled.

"Well you jumped out at them…what were they supposed to do?" Aipom replied with the faintest hint of a grin. "I had only seen the scyther and I had no clue until just now that you were friends so…"

"Try and come up with a more believable story next time," Wildflame snarled. "That is…if there _is_ a next time. I'm not going to just let you go so you can run straight back to the humans!"

"Wait!" Snowcrystal cried, before turning to the aipom. "Maybe you can help us…that is…you can tell us what you know about these…poachers."

"Nothing you don't know," Aipom replied, and Wildflame pricked his shoulders with her claws, silencing him.

"Oh…so you were spying on us, huh?" Wildflame growled. "Here's some advice for you; if you're going to spy on someone, don't give yourself away! I assume that would have been obvious."

"But when I heard…about…Rosie," Aipom continued hesitantly, "I didn't want you all to go running off only to get caught by the poachers…believe me, I won't lead Katie back here…just let go of me!"

Wildflame moved to the side, but still kept a paw down on the aipom's chest. "I don't trust you…" she sneered, and glanced down as an object fell from the stranger's paws. "What's this…?" she mused, prodding the object with her other paw.

Spark glanced over, and realized it was a small book that the aipom had been carrying. Wildflame's paw turned some of the pages, revealing a picture of a poochyena on one page, and a houndour on the other. Spark quickly realized it was some sort of book on canine pokémon. "It's a book…" Spark mumbled to himself in a bored tone.

Snowcrystal followed his gaze down to the small object, and suddenly remembered what Spark had said before. "Wait a minute!" she gasped. "Spark, you said humans know about many different things from books…even about other humans. What if one of the human's books tells us where the poachers could have gone?"

"Well…" Spark began, "I don't think…"

"Nonsense!" Aipom shouted. "Humans know everything!"

"No they don't," Stormblade muttered. "Some of them don't even bother to find out the genders of their own pokémon. They always call each one an "it"…"

"Nah, they're just lazy," Aipom replied, trying to sit up, though Wildflame pushed him back down.

"But maybe one of the humans' books will tell us how to stop them!" Snowcrystal cried.

Spark shrugged. "I dunno…but it's not like it matters anyway, none of us can read human!"

"I can!" Aipom shouted. "I can read human! My trainer taught me. Just spare my life and I'll-"

"Oh really?" Wildflame growled, pushing the book toward Aipom with her paw. "Read this then, Aipom. Tell me what these markings mean!"

"Okay, okay!" he replied. "But don't call me Aipom. Katie calls me Aipom. No one else calls me Aipom! My name is Sid!"

"Shut up and just tell us what it means…Aipom!" Wildflame growled.

"There's no need to be mean…" Snowcrystal whispered, but the houndoom ignored her.

Thunder watched the others from where she lay, not wanting any of this arguing to go on any longer. She just wanted to rest, and to be alone for a while, though she had to admit that leaving the group would not be a wise decision when she was in such an awful condition. Laying her head down on the grass wearily, she continued to watch them.

Sid picked up the book, opening it at a random page. "Uh…okay…once upon a time there was a poochyena. See? Poochyena!" He held up the book, pointing to the picture. "And uh…he was standing there…waiting for…"

Wildflame swatted the book away. "You _can't_ read it!" she growled.

"I can! Sort of…just not very well!" he protested. "But my trainer can read! I can find a book about whatever you want, and she can read it to me, and I can tell you what it says!"

"There won't be a book that tells us where the poachers are!" Spark shouted.

"Well maybe not, but you can learn more about them," Sid replied. "All the better if you ever want to find them. And there are books about everything! Even about healing herbs that you can find in the forests and plains…" He aimed this last statement particularly at Stormblade.

Wildflame was about to reply when Snowcrystal stepped up to the aipom. "I have an idea," she told the others. "If he can lead us to a place with books, maybe we'd be able to find one that can help us figure out where the poachers would want to take Rosie! At least the humans have pictures in those books."

"But…Snowcrystal…" Spark began.

"Look, he's right…" Snowcrystal whispered. "We'll never catch up to them in our state. In the meantime, we should find out as much as we can about the poachers, and about what we can do to try and help those of us who are injured…and maybe…maybe even about Articuno."

Wildflame sighed. "I don't see what this will-"

"Look, maybe she's right," Stormblade stated. "Even if we can't find out about the poachers, Rosie would have wanted us to help Snowcrystal find Articuno. If somehow…this can help, I say we try and find out what these humans know. If Sid really wants to help us, like I believe he does, he can tell us what the books say after his trainer reads them."

Spark and Snowcrystal nodded, and Wildflame sighed again. "All right…but only a few of us should go to find these books. I'll go…to make sure you don't pull any tricks…" she muttered with a snarl at Sid, "and if this works, we'll let you go…but we'll make sure we're far from the humans first!"

"All right then," the aipom said cheerfully, jumping up as Wildflame released him. "I'll show you the place!"

"I'll go too," Snowcrystal added, "but we should go at night, when most of the humans are in their buildings. Maybe Spark should go as well; you know a lot about humans."

"No!" Spark stated firmly. "Bring me back a book, and I'll do my best to figure out what it means if Sid can't get his trainer to understand, but that's all I'm doing! I'm not going to get myself in trouble with the humans! At least not until my injuries heal, that is," he added with a shrug.

Snowcrystal wondered if being in the city would bring back painful memories for Spark. Perhaps that was why he was reacting in such a way; maybe the nearby city had been a place that Spark and his trainer had once been to together. She decided not to mention her theory to him.

"Fine," Wildflame growled, "we'll leave you here. Once night falls, the three of us will go to this…place…" As Sid started to climb a tree, Wildflame stamped her paw down on his tail. "And remember…I'll be right by you the whole time…any tricks, and you'll regret it!"

"Don't worry," the aipom reassured her, "no tricks…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Rosie lay shivering on the cage floor in the back of the human's truck; too exhausted to call for help anymore. Many of the other pokémon were still silently crying and occasionally calling out to someone far away. Rosie blew a small ember near the bars of the cage, trying to warm herself up. It was now getting close to evening, and a few other pokémon had been found caught in cages and thrown into the truck.

Rosie sighed, watching the small ember fade away. ' _If only my ember was hot enough to melt the bars…maybe if I knew flamethrower…'_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something tapping against the side of her cage. She turned and looked to see the teddiursa she had seen caught in the net, looking through the bars at her.

"Huh…what?" she mumbled, confused.

"You tried to save me," he whispered in a childlike voice. "Thank you!"

Rosie stared for a moment. She realized that this pokémon was very young, quite younger than her. She thought back to what had happened, but only remembered following the sound of his cries for help, and seeing him in the clearing. "Uh…you're welcome…" she stammered, turning her back toward him as she stared off into the distance.

"Were you friends with that scyther?" he asked, and Rosie merely shrugged in response. "Why did she-"

"Look," Rosie replied, "just…just stop talking to me, okay?"

The teddiursa was silent for a moment, then replied, "If we work together, maybe we can escape!"

Rosie sighed. "How?" she muttered darkly.

"When the humans open the cage we can run away really fast!" the teddiursa replied, enthusiasm alight in his innocent eyes.

"That won't work!" Rosie snapped. "The humans would know we'd try to do that and have a way to stop us! It's…oh never mind…" She slumped down against the side of the cage, trying to push the awful thoughts from her mind…of the poachers…all the captured pokémon…Thunder being shot…

… _Was Thunder even alive?_

"What are they going to do to us?" the teddiursa's voice interrupted her thoughts, now sounding scared again. She glanced back at him, and realized that he looked so naive and confused, with no real idea of the true horrors these humans could possibly put him through.

"I…don't know," Rosie admitted, shaking her head and curling up against the side of her cage as the truck drove on. "I really don't know…"

_To be continued…_


	16. A Risky Venture

Rosie was still shivering by the time the truck stopped. She was cold, hungry, and terrified. The vulpix tried to give a brave growl as a human lifted her cage up and placed it on the ground beside the truck and in front of a large building. Rosie could see no other human buildings anywhere nearby.

Rosie jumped, startled, as a human unlocked her cage. She lunged forward and the human stepped back, but as soon as her paws touched grass she was lifted up by her scruff again, and the human forced something around her mouth; something that held her jaws tightly closed. ' _A muzzle!'_ _s_ he thought, outraged. ' _He's making me wear a muzzle?_ '

Once the muzzle was secure, Rosie found herself being taken toward the building. She clawed and scratched, but the human didn't even react to it at all, not even when she drew blood. She was carried into the building, past rooms she didn't bother to try and look at closely. Before long, she was brought to a rather large room, and put in yet another cage. The human did not take the muzzle off.

Rage flooded through her, and she slammed her small body against the cage bars, in some vain hope that somehow, she would be able to free herself. Though after a few tries, she fell back, feeling exhausted, battered, confused, and most of all…scared.

"What's going on?"

The teddiursa's innocent sounding voice roused Rosie from her thoughts, and she looked up, watching him being taken, held by the scruff as she had been, past the room and to another. "Help…" His eyes grew wide as he realized he was being taken away from his newfound vulpix friend. "Help…wait…Stop them! Help!" he cried, suddenly alarmed. "Don't let them take me! Hel-"

Rosie heard a loud smack, and realized the human must have hit the teddiursa in order to keep him quiet. She moved closer to the bars, but she could no longer see the human. She realized that all around her were different pokémon in cages, though most of them were either asleep or lying still and pretending to be. They seemed to grow especially quiet whenever a human walked by with another pokémon. Since she had the muzzle, Rosie couldn't ask them anything. Sinking slowly to the floor of the cage she allowed herself to cry, not caring who saw or heard. The tough, spunky little vulpix was gone, leaving only a lost, scared, and lonely little pokémon in her place.

  
**-ooo-**  


Rain lashed down against the tall buildings of the city, dark clouds making the nighttime seem even darker. Walking cautiously through the alleyways, two pokémon followed a third as they made their way through the gloom, occasionally glimpsing nearly deserted streets as they crept around the towering human structures. They counted themselves lucky that the rain seemed to be keeping most of the humans away from that section of the city.

Wildflame shuddered. Her fur was soaked through and plastered to her body by the rain. She had always hated the rain; most fire types did, and the houndoom was certainly no exception. "How much farther is this place?" she growled to the aipom up ahead.

"Not far!" he replied, before running off down another side alley.

Snowcrystal, her fur soaked with muddy water from the streets, ran after the others as Wildflame bolted after Sid. After a short while they stopped, and checked around for humans before Sid led them to the side of a large building.

"Here!"

Snowcrystal peered up through the rain at the side of the building, while Sid clambered up onto a windowsill and carefully opened the small window.

"I've snuck in here before," he explained. "This window never closes fully. We can go in through here. Unfortunately, you won't be able to fit, miss houndoom."

Wildflame growled. "Then I'll wait here…" she muttered. "You know about humans, so you help Snowcrystal find what she's looking for, all right?"

"Of course," the aipom replied with a smile before slipping through the open window.

Wildflame expected Snowcrystal to have a bit of trouble climbing, but to her surprise, the growlithe leaped clear up onto the windowsill from the ground. Noticing Wildflame's impressed glance, the growlithe explained, "I'm used to this sort of thing. There were lots of rocks I had to climb back at the mountain."

Wildflame merely grunted in reply, and lay down with her paws tucked under her, after she had carefully scanned the area for any passing humans.

"You'll be okay, right?" Snowcrystal asked, turning to look at the houndoom.

"Sure," Wildflame replied with a shrug.

Snowcrystal sighed, carefully turning back to the window and leaping to the carpeted floor inside, her paws making a dull thud as she landed. She was in a small room, and it was too dark to see much of anything. Lifting her head, she searched around for Sid, and found the aipom standing in a doorway leading to a much larger room.

"Over here," he whispered, prodding the door open wider. "This…is what the humans call a library."

Snowcrystal's eyes widened. The dark room ahead was brightened ever so slightly by the windows near the ceiling, which let in a fraction of dim blue light. Every few seconds lightning flashed across the sky, briefly lighting up the interior of the vast room and allowing her to see more of what was inside. The noise of booming thunder filled the air, somehow sounding more eerie inside the building.

The room was far huger than any of the cave chambers Snowcrystal had known back at her mountain home. Massive shelves of books seemed to tower far over her head, rows and rows of them in all directions. All along the walls were large intricate pictures depicting all sorts of pokémon and humans. Many of the pokémon in the pictures were legendaries; Snowcrystal even spotted one of Articuno.

"This way!" Sid's voice snapped Snowcrystal out of her reverie, and she followed the small aipom as he headed toward one of the large shelves.

"Do you know where we can find the right books?" she asked, whispering, as if fearful some human or guard pokémon would hear her. There seemed to be no one around, however.

"Hmm…I might have an idea," Sid replied, rather loudly. "Oh, I know! Let's split up! I'll look for a book about poachers, you look for one about healing remedies…you know, for your scyther friend…S…s...Skyblade."

"But…but how will I know how to find it?" Snowcrystal asked, worried.

"Just look at the pictures!" Sid shouted, already starting to run off. "You're smart…you'll figure it out! Just bring whatever you find to me!"

"But wait!" Snowcrystal cried. "Shouldn't we…" She stopped, for the aipom was already gone. "Decide on a meeting place…" she finished to herself in a whisper. She didn't like the thought of splitting up, especially in a place as vast as the library seemed to be, yet now, she didn't have a choice. Looking around, she noticed hallways leading off into other rooms that were probably as big or bigger than the one she was currently standing in. She decided to start where she was. Sighing, she headed over to one of the towering shelves.

Noticing a group of thick books near the bottom of the shelf, Snowcrystal tried to pry one loose with her claws, which brought the rest of the books next to it crashing to the ground as well. A few of them landed open, but none of them had pictures at all. Snowcrystal gently turned some of the pages with the tip of her nose, but found nothing that seemed useful. She figured a book about healing herbs would have to have pictures, and moved on, leaving the other books lying on the floor.

Quietly she moved between the dark shelves, pulling down books with her claws and looking for any sort of pictures. She found nothing helpful or of interest to her.

After she had walked along two rows of shelves, she began to feel hopeless. The place was simply too vast, and she couldn't even reach any of the books on the higher shelves. She could barely reach up to the second shelf, and she figured that climbing them would be too risky if she didn't want to be heard; she still had no idea if there were any humans around.

A little while longer, and Snowcrystal had stopped to take a short break. She had explored various areas of the room, and found that, at least as far as she could tell, certain types of books were together in certain areas. She had found one area filled with books all about humans training their pokémon, an area with books depicting various fire pokémon, and yet another area where all the books were small or thin and had bright, colorful pictures on each page, but which had no real meaning, or at least not one that Snowcrystal could see. She decided she needed to look elsewhere for books that had pictures of plants.

Turning towards one of the wide hallways, Snowcrystal quietly padded along it, shuddering as lighting forked across the sky beyond the tall windows, sending bizarre shadows against the walls. She willed herself to calm down, telling herself that she shouldn't be afraid of things like that; she hadn't minded darkness or shadows in the caves back at her mountain.

After having passed a large mural of the three legendary beasts, Snowcrystal made a mental note to herself that humans might have placed books about legendaries somewhere near. Feeling a burst of excitement surge through her small body, she ran forward into a room even larger than the one she had just recently left.

Running up to the nearest set of shelves, she pulled a few books free, which landed on the floor with a rather loud thud.

Then she heard footsteps.

Terror raced through her mind as she realized by the sound of the footsteps that they could only belong to a human. Such was her shock and fear of being discovered that she did not try and control her panic. Turning away without even looking at the books, she fled down the next row of shelves, running as fast as she could. She did not slow down or try to hide, even though some part of her knew she was probably making enough noise for the human to hear her. She didn't take the time to think about where she was running. She didn't think about how the human was not a poacher and would not kill her…she just ran.

Yet in the midst of everything, she remembered what her friends had told her earlier. Pokémon with colors humans weren't familiar with, growlithe that were not orange, would be captured in an instant if seen by a human. She had to get _out._

Shelves of books, large paintings, various hallways and corridors all flew past her as she fled, illuminated every few seconds by a burst of bright lightening. Snowcrystal couldn't even tell if the human was following her or not, she just kept on running.

Then she stopped dead.

She had ended up in what was the beginning of another hallway. She had entered an open doorway to come face to face with a huge white wall, with the hallway veering off on either side of it, stretching both to her left and to her right.

But the thing that had stopped her was the large painting on the wall directly in front of her, illuminated by the glow of her crystal. It was larger than most of the ones she had seen before, yet not the largest. Unlike the others, this painting was circular, and all around the edges were different pokémon, all of various types. A golduck, a vileplume, a mightyena, a raichu, a kadabra, a pidgeot, a golem, a sandslash, a dewgong, a weezing, and a charmeleon, all using different attacks that merged together at the center of the painting.

It was the charmeleon she couldn't stop staring at, for from its gaping mouth came a burst of burning blue-white flames, with small streaks of purple and black flickering across them. She had recognized it the instant she had seen it, and mouthed the word under her breath.

" _Shadowflare…"_

Against her will, memories awakened more vividly in her mind of how the attack had followed Stormblade in midair, and not even hiding behind a tree had saved him from it. She shuddered, knowing all too well the damage it had done to him. Her thoughts drifted back to Stormblade…she wondered how he was coping with the pain. She didn't want to imagine how badly something like that would hurt.

Stepping closer, she studied the other attacks in the picture. All of them were incredibly strange and eerie; the one the vileplume was using seemed to be a huge mass of vines and other plants bursting from the ground with massive thorns. There were not only vines, but also what seemed to be giant carnivorous plants. It looked like some very twisted version of frenzy plant. The other attacks were equally vivid and strange, and the golduck's attack also caught her attention; it seemed to be using something like rain dance, but the 'rain drops' were green and in the shape of burning skulls. Whether the attack really looked like that or it was just the human artist's depiction of it, she wasn't sure, and she didn't think she cared to know. There were human markings at the base of the painting, but Snowcrystal didn't need to read them to understand what the picture was showing; the Forbidden Attacks.

Snowcrystal could not tear her eyes from the picture. She sat staring, not knowing how long it had been since she had entered the library. She wasn't sure if she had sat there for hours, or simply just minutes, but it was yet again the sound of approaching footsteps that snapped her out of her trance.

"HEY!" shouted a voice, a human voice. Snowcrystal glanced up in alarm, seeing a human holding a bright light and advancing toward her. Without a second thought, she got up and fled. The human ran after her, and without pausing to think, she chose the left hallway and bolted blindly down it.

The human with the light seemed to be following closely, until Snowcrystal veered off into another open doorway. After passing through several large rooms, Snowcrystal, by some stroke of bizarre luck, noticed the small room through which she had come into the library. She made a beeline for it, knocking a few books from the shelves by accident as she did so. The human's light flashed across the ground behind her, but Snowcrystal had already entered the room and reached the windowsill. Effortlessly slipping through the window, Snowcrystal leaped to the wet pavement below.

" _Wildflame!"_

"I'm here," the houndoom replied casually, stepping out of the shadows of another nearby alleyway. "What's going on?" she asked calmly. "Did you find the books?"

"Humans," Snowcrystal gasped. "A human chased me. We have to get out of here!"

"Where's Sid?" Wildflame asked as they started to run.

"I dunno," Snowcrystal replied breathlessly, "but he said he's snuck into human buildings before…he'll know what he's doing!"

Wildflame merely nodded in reply as the two sped off.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Aipom!" Katie shouted, stopping right as she glimpsed her pokémon, just beside the wall of the city library. Reaching out, she managed to grab the normal type before holding him at arm's length and glaring at him. "What do you think you're doing? Running off again!" She sighed. "I sure wish you'd listen to me once in a while…"

Justin caught up with his friend, stopping to catch his breath by the side of the building. "You know…" he gasped, "do you think maybe Aipom was trying to lead us here or something?"

No sooner had he said that then he noticed two pokémon bolting into an alleyway up ahead. Katie seemed to have noticed as well, because she had stopped scolding Aipom, and due to her surprise, dropped him.

"That…that growlithe was white!" Katie whispered, awed.

Sid mumbled to himself as he stood up, staring in the direction of Snowcrystal and Wildflame. "She escaped?" the aipom mused to himself. "Hmm…interesting. Well, not exactly according to plan, but still…if Katie catches the growlithe, that means I'll be rewarded since-" He paused, realizing that neither trainer was paying any attention to him. "Hey!" he shouted. "You only saw the growlithe because of me!" Of course, neither human understood him.

"Let's try and find where it went," Katie told Justin excitedly. "Aipom, do you think you can help us follow the growlithe?"

Sid stopped yelling and instead stood up straight, giving a polite nod and for once looking every inch the helpful, obedient pokémon.

"All right," Katie replied, "let's go and find out where it came from. I doubt a pokémon like that lives in the city. Someone would have told people about it…I've heard that growlithe can be golden, but not white! Think of what a discovery it would be if we caught it!"

Justin nodded as Katie and her aipom sprinted off, and reached down into his pocket to pull out a poké ball that Katie had given him. Technically, he wasn't allowed to have one, since his trainer license had been confiscated. Yet Katie had given it to him, secretly hoping that he would resume training; not knowing the truth behind why he had 'quit.' Justin had kept the poké ball, in memory of the pokémon team who had been so close to him; Jungle the meganium, Thunderbolt the luxio, Magma the growlithe, Whirlpool the buizel…and Spark the jolteon. All good friends whom he would never see again, thanks to that accursed scyther…

Justin sighed as he stared down the alleyway to where Katie and Aipom had just disappeared. He then looked down at the poké ball intently, memories of his days as a trainer flooding unbidden through his mind. He pictured the white growlithe, such an incredibly rare and even unknown pokémon, running away as he looked up back towards the alley. He whispered to himself under his breath as he gripped the poké ball tighter.

"It's time to redeem myself."

  
**-ooo-**  


Spark paced impatiently back and forth across the clearing, wondering when Snowcrystal, Wildflame, and Sid would be back. He was pleased to see that his wounds were healing; already he could walk with hardly a limp at all. Just out of curiosity, he did a few experimental sprints to test this. His wounds still hurt, but he felt a lot better even after running.

Pausing for a moment, but still feeling restless, he looked over to Stormblade, who, unlike him, looked no better than he had the day Blazefang had used that attack on him.

Spark walked over to him, noticing that for the first time since being injured, Stormblade had dozed off. "Probably the first time he's slept in days," Spark muttered to himself, glancing over the scyther's wounds. Suddenly he stepped back, a look of alarm on his face. He hadn't noticed before, but now that he'd gotten a closer look, there was no mistaking that Stormblade's wounds were beginning to show signs of infection.

And infection would spread.

Worried, the jolteon looked at his own wounds. The burns didn't look as bad anymore, and were obviously healing, and fur was starting to grow back on his shoulder where it had been scorched away before. Glancing back at Stormblade, he could see that his friend's wounds just looked worse. Spark stood still, thinking back to something Stormblade had told him before about the wild. In the wild, infection was deadly. If a pokémon's wound became infected badly enough, a slow and painful death awaited them.

Spark tried not to panic. Everything about the wild used to scare him. He remembered when Stormblade was trying to teach him how to hunt and survive when he was new to it…the horror he had felt at learning that if anything _really_ bad befell him, there would be no humans to help. No pokémon centers, no potions. Spark shook the thoughts from his mind. The others needed to know about Stormblade.

He turned around, realizing that the only other one there at the moment was Thunder. Running past a few trees to where she had been resting, Spark shouted, "Thunder, I-"

He stopped. Thunder wasn't there. Confused, he looked around before approaching the place beside the large tree where she'd been lying before. The grass was stained with blood, and Spark turned his head away in disgust. Confused, he wondered why Thunder hadn't even attempted to make a comfortable nest. He may have been raised by humans most of his life, but he knew enough to make a nest from leaves and moss whenever he slept outside.

"Thunder?" he called, carefully sidestepping the patches of blood while peering through the trees. "Where could she have gone now?" he mumbled to himself, wondering why she had even left in the first place. Judging by the fact that her scent was somewhat stale, he figured she must have left a little while ago.

Padding forward, Spark soon noticed a small trail of blood leading through the trees, which alarmed him further. Even though Thunder had never particularly liked him, or anyone else for that matter, he was worried about her.

Spark followed Thunder's scent, growing even more concerned. No pokémon in her condition should be out there on their own…even if she was a scyther. He knew he would have to find her before the others came back, or she might get captured by poachers, or worse…killed.

_To be continued…_


	17. A New Owner

Rosie wasn't sure how long she had been left in the dark room, but after a while, a human opened the door and walked inside, followed by another. Rosie tensed, baring her fangs as the humans walked right up to her cage.

"A vulpix…well, it's not often you manage to catch one of those…"

Rosie growled at the speaker, who reached his hand toward the cage. Leaping forward, Rosie sank her small teeth into his hand as it strayed too close to the bars. The man pulled his hand back, but to her surprise, he smiled. "A feisty one…this pokémon has potential…I can see her becoming a skillful fighter."

"So this is the one you want?" asked the other man.

"Yes," he agreed, "as well as that teddiursa and the espeon you showed me earlier."

' _Teddiursa…'_ Rosie thought. She hadn't noticed an espeon being brought here, but there were many other pokémon already in the building. She wondered what the human wanted with them…to train them to fight? She shuddered. She didn't want to be trained, especially not now. She was too inexperienced for battles…she would get ripped to pieces!

"Well, then she's all yours!" one of the humans was saying, making Rosie glance in his direction. The man opened the cage, but before she even had the chance to move, she felt something small and pointy prick her in the shoulder, and before she could take a single step further, her senses faded to black…

  
**-ooo-**  


…It was night…she could tell…there was moonlight coming through the windows…windows? Rosie opened her eyes more fully, trying to make sense of what had happened. Sitting up, she looked around, feeling dizzy and only half-awake. She realized she was in another cage in a human building…it looked like a gym. However, this gym was much newer and more nicely kept than the one she had seen in the abandoned town hidden in the dark forest. Something itched at her neck. She tried to scratch it with her hind paw, when she realized that there was something in the way. Reaching her forepaw up, she felt a thick leather collar around her neck.

Gasping in surprise, she tried to tear it off, but it was too tight, and her claws did no damage to it. Finally giving up, she looked around and noticed that there were other pokémon in the gym building, all with collars like her…and all either chained up or in cages. Looking at them more closely, she noticed that they all looked thin, but none of them had any serious wounds.

"The vulpix is awake now," a human voice sounded through the darkness, causing Rosie to jump. The vulpix stepped back as the human walked closer. The tall man was followed by another with an espeon beside him. The psychic eevee evolution also wore a collar similar to Rosie's, and Rosie realized that must be the espeon the other man had taken. Like Rosie, the espeon looked scared, crouching low with her forked tail tucked between her legs.

Neither the espeon nor any of the other pokémon made a move to try to attack the humans, and as much as Rosie hated to admit it, she figured there must be a good reason for that. Maybe they knew they would starve to death in the cages if they made any move to harm their captors.

"You really think this one could be a fighter?" the second man asked. "It's…rather small…"

"Not for long," the first smirked, leaning closer to Rosie's cage. "But our job is to make pokémon strong. People pay a lot of money for a good fighting pokémon these days, especially a rare one." He eyed Rosie carefully, and then opened the cage.

Rosie raced out the cage door, firing an ember at the humans, who backed away. She noticed the young espeon flinch at the heat from her attack. Rosie was just about to run towards the men again, when suddenly she felt a horribly painful and sudden jolt of electricity rippling through her small body.

Giving a cry of pain and surprise, Rosie collapsed to the ground, lying on her side. Her paws thrashed as the violent energy surged through her. She tried to make sense of what had happened, but at the same time, she was silently begging…wishing for it to stop…

And all at once, it did. Rosie lay gasping against the cold floor, her eyes darting to the human, who held a strange device at her. She realized that if she made another attempt to attack him, she would feel that terrible pain all over again.

Seeing that Rosie had abandoned her attempt at fighting, the man smirked. "Looks like it gets the picture. Let's see how it does in a real fight…how about against Espeon? Neither of them have had any experience."

Before Rosie had completely recovered from the shock, she was roughly dragged by her collar to the center of the room, which was marked like a normal gym battle room, only it was much smaller. She figured this must be a practice or training area.

The small espeon was made to stand at the other end, looking more frightened than Rosie had ever felt. Standing shakily to her feet, the vulpix glanced at her new 'trainer,' and noticed him holding that same device. She knew she didn't have a choice. She would have to fight. "If only I wasn't so small and didn't only know such pathetic attacks…" she muttered under her breath, shaking as she faced the espeon.

"All right, Espeon," one of the 'trainers' shouted clearly, though sounding less than enthused, "try a psybeam!"

The espeon, who couldn't have been any older than Rosie herself, visibly flinched, and didn't move. The man repeated the command, and when she didn't comply, he gave the small pokémon a kick. Espeon cried out, landing on the ground and refusing to get up again. "Pathetic…" the man whispered.

"Doesn't seem like much of a fighter to me," the other agreed. "But of course, if it doesn't get better at battling, it could still be sold as a pet, or if not…then its pelt could be valuable…"

Rosie shuddered, watching the espeon being taken out of the room, crying out as the man held her collar a bit too tightly. "As for you…" the human continued, startling Rosie, "I'm still curious as to how you fight a battle…" He threw a pokéball, and Rosie stepped back as the form materialized.

The human's pokémon reminded the young vulpix somewhat of Wildflame, only it had no horns, and its fur was a light gray color, with two thick black stripes leading from its head to its back. The pokémon's legs were also covered in black fur, and its feet were clawed. A long, bushy black tail lashed from side to side as the pokémon's yellow and red eyes stared straight into Rosie's amber ones. Rosie flinched away from the wolf-like pokémon, knowing that it was a fully grown adult, while she was still a young adolescent. She didn't think she could fight this enemy; her most powerful attack was ember.

"Mightyena," the human said calmly with a smile, "do what you wish."

At once, Mightyena leaped towards Rosie, pinning her to the ground with her claws. Rosie tried to break free, only causing the dark pokémon's claws to twist deeper into her fur. Turning her head, she blew a small stream of flame at the mightyena's paw. Mightyena leaped back with a small snarl, but before Rosie could even stand, the larger pokémon had rushed towards her again, her black tail glowing silver.

Rosie cried out as the tail slammed into her side, sending her skidding across the rough floor. As the mightyena came closer, Rosie rolled over onto her paws, feeling some of her strength miraculously returning as she leaped at the dark type, trying to get close enough to use ember again.

Effortlessly the black and gray pokémon dodged, before spinning around and launching a shadow ball. Rosie ducked a split second before the glowing black orb zoomed over her head and slammed into the wall, vanishing in a cloud of thin blackish smoke. As Rosie looked up, Mightyena had leaped toward her again, trying to tear at her with her fangs. Rosie darted frantically to the side, and Mightyena turned around with only a mouthful of tail fur. Rosie stopped, exhausted, and then suddenly recalled one technique she hadn't tried yet…confuse ray. Her eyes began to glow, and at the same time, Mightyena become disoriented.

Shaking her head from side to side, the canine pokémon failed to react in time as Rosie ran forward and used ember again, this time creating a burn on the mightyena's foreleg. Mightyena growled in pain and attempted another iron tail, which missed. Rosie sped toward her opponent with a quick attack, but realized too late that Mightyena seemed to have gotten over her confusion, or at least for the most part. Even quicker than she could run, the mightyena turned and lashed at her with iron tail again, but this time across her face. Rosie fell to the ground again, and found she couldn't get up. The last words that echoed in her ears as her senses faded once again were the mightyena's…

"….I'm sorry…"

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder sat alone beside a small pond, away from the others. Crouched down by the pond's edge, she spat a small black object into the water, the bullet from the human's gun. She had finally managed to remove it, though she'd had to cut open her shoulder and pull it out with her teeth to do so. It had been painful, but necessary. Thunder wasn't going to risk a greater chance of infection. The bullet wound in her side, however, was a different story. There was nothing she could do about that.

Glancing at her shoulder, which was now bleeding again, Thunder attempted to stop herself from shaking. She tried to force all thoughts of pain to the back of her mind, get her thoughts back under control, like she always did…

She lifted her head at the sound of a snapping twig somewhere behind her. A moment later, Spark appeared.

"Thunder…" he gasped, sounding relieved that she hadn't tried to follow the poachers. "Why did you wander off like that? And…what happened to your shoulder?" he added, noticing that it looked a lot worse.

"Nothing…" Thunder replied angrily. "Now leave me alone!"

Spark sighed, shaking his spiky head. "You have to come back! Don't you know that there are poachers around?"

"I know that," she replied, her tone low and barely above a whisper as she crouched beside the pond. "I'm not afraid of them…"

"Oh come on!" Spark cried, sounding impatient. "Just come back to where Snowcrystal and Wildflame were going to meet us!"

"Don't want to…" Thunder muttered. She sounded annoyed this time.

"But we really need to stick together you know," Spark told her, "just in case-"

"I'll come when I feel like it!" Thunder snapped. "Now GO AWAY!"

Startled by her sudden shout, Spark turned and scampered back the way he had come, not wanting her to get any angrier at him. She had been rather unpredictable lately, and the last thing he wanted was to be attacked. He briefly cast a glance back, seeing Thunder once again staring into the pond. He then started to head back toward Stormblade, but feeling thirsty, he turned off course to find a stream, while making sure not to stray too far from his friends.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal and Wildflame skidded to a halt once they realized that they were in the safety of the hills. Wildflame shook droplets of rain from her coat. "Great…" the houndoom muttered, "I can't tell where the others are from here…the rain's disguising their scent!"

Snowcrystal lifted her head up and sniffed the air a few times, confirming Wildflame's statement. "Guess we'll just have to look for them," she muttered.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Wildflame replied, shivering from the cold. "Let's just go…I don't like this place…"

Snowcrystal nodded and the two headed off.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade wasn't sure what had awoken him, but he figured it must have been the pain. What surprised him, however, was that Spark had gone. He knew Thunder had been resting nearby, so that didn't worry him. He sat up, shivering, and glanced around to see if the jolteon was anywhere nearby. The rain was falling much harder now, feeling painful every time it struck his wounds. He thought it was strange that Spark would just wander off like that.

However, something else was on his mind. He needed a drink of water, badly, and the rain wasn't enough. He knew it had been a while since he had found water, and he could not remember being so thirsty. Looking around, he could see that the rain was simply turning the ground to mud. Stormblade didn't think he could make it all the way to a stream by himself, so, noticing a group of large rocks somewhat nearby, he decided to head in that direction, as water had probably collected there. Slowly he staggered upright, making sure he didn't put any weight at all on his injured leg. Using his blades to help support himself, he headed in the direction of the rocks, using the trees to keep himself from falling as he hobbled along. He found it was much harder to walk now, and he doubted he'd make it much further if the others decided to travel again soon. Plus, his wounds looked infected, so his future in general seemed anything but bright.

When he made it to the rocks, he was relieved to see that some water had collected in a large crevice in one of the stones. He was just starting to lap at the water when he heard splashing. Stormblade turned around, having heard the sound coming from beyond a large group of bushes near the rocks. He stayed completely still…and listened.

The splashing sounds grew louder…closer, and Stormblade abandoned the water and crawled into a space between two large rocks, which together formed a sort of small cave. Peering out carefully, he could see the bushes rustling, and an aipom stepped out, followed by a human girl. Stormblade felt his blood run cold…the aipom was Sid. _Why was he leading a human here?_

"It's no use," the girl mumbled, stopping to stand near the rocks. "We won't be able to find the white growlithe in this weather. We should wait until it's lighter…"

Stormblade narrowed his eyes.

The human turned and shouted back to someone apparently looking elsewhere in the direction she had come from. "I'm over here! I think we should stop and rest for a while!" Turning to Sid, she returned the aipom into yet another new pokéball before looking around for some sort of shelter from the rain.

Stormblade watched the human, not daring to make any sound or sudden movement. He was thoroughly confused…why was that human looking for Snowcrystal? And what did Sid have to do with it?

Stormblade suddenly became alarmed as the human started to walk right towards his hiding place. He tried to crawl further back into the narrow space, hoping the human would look elsewhere for shelter. But it was too late…the trainer had already started to peer inside. Any second, and she would notice him. Stormblade could think of nothing to do but shout at her to go away and hope it would startle her enough that she'd run.

Katie had just begun to feel as if something was watching her when she heard some pokémon… _a pokémon within the cave itself_ , yell at her angrily, though she couldn't understand its words.

"Sssscccyyyyyttthhheeeeeeeeeeerr!"

Katie jumped back, shocked, and stumbled away from the small cave, looking visibly startled at hearing the pokémon's cry so suddenly. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but think that there was something strange about a pokémon…a _scyther_ …hiding in a small cave alone in the middle of a rainstorm.

Stormblade could see the human hesitate; see the shock and fear on her face. He expected her to run away, to not want to come anywhere near the cave.

Yet she didn't run. She walked right up to the cave again. Stormblade prepared himself for a battle he knew he couldn't win; a battle against fully trained pokémon which would be at full health…

But the human didn't send out any pokémon. She peered through the darkness until her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she could see him somewhat clearer. A look of surprise and shock crossed her face and she stepped back, calling out over the sound of the rain, " _Justin! Come here!_ "

  
**-ooo-**  


It had been a rather…strange day. More reports of poacher traps, and just now, he'd heard a few people talking about a white growlithe that had been running around one of the city buildings. That was even stranger…

The man shielded his eyes with his hand as he peered out over the trees and hills. He'd arrived after hearing about the first poacher traps. Those poachers were fools, trapping pokémon so near to one of the cities. Yet for him, it was good fortune. He could easily turn some of the poachers in to the police for a sum of money, and he could take a few of the pokémon they'd caught for himself if he saw any with potential.

But the white growlithe…it was here? Sitting down for a moment, the man gently stroked the head of the pokémon sitting next to him, pondering. "If that growlithe is around here," he muttered, "it's worth looking for it…who knows, maybe the poachers will do the job for us, eh?" He smirked.

His quilava smirked back.

_To be continued…_


	18. An Unwelcome Return

Rosie awoke to find herself in the same gym-like room, in her same cage. To her surprise, the mightyena from the battle was seated not far from her. For the first time, Rosie studied her carefully, and noticed a rather strange-looking collar around her neck, one that seemed to spark slightly. It was a lot similar to hers, only it seemed…more dangerous. Rosie shuddered. She then realized that the mightyena wasn't in a cage. Why didn't she run away? Did she _want_ to be in such a horrible place?

"What are you doing?" Rosie yelled out suddenly, unsure why. "Why are you just standing there?"

The mightyena turned her head in Rosie's direction, and the vulpix detected a hint of sorrow in the dark pokémon's red eyes. "I'm their guard," the mightyena replied quietly. "My job is to make sure no one escapes."

Rosie scowled, some of her older self returning as she stalked angrily up to the bars of her cage. "Oh? And you just let them order you around, so if anyone happens to be clever enough to escape, you can end their hope for them once and for all!" Her fur stood on end, and she bared her fangs.

The mightyena didn't look threatened by the small vulpix in the least. She reached a paw up to her collar, running a few of her claws lightly over it. "You see this?" she stated plainly. "If I go so much as half a mile away from this place without one of the trainers deactivating it first, the shock will kill me." She lowered her paw and said nothing more.

Rosie felt her anger vanish, to be replaced with pity, yet she did not know what to say. "It's…horrible…what they're doing to us…" she mumbled at last. "What are they training us for anyway?"

"You and most of the others are being trained as battlers, and will be sold…well the ones that succeed that is," the mightyena added uncomfortably. "Otherwise they sell you for your pelt."

Rosie flinched at the statement, but decided to ask another question. "How many humans train pokémon here?" she asked.

"There's quite a few," the mightyena replied. "They all work together to catch or steal pokémon, or buy them from other poachers." She shook her head sadly and went on, "But let's not talk about that…my name is Eve, and you?"

"Rosie," came the vulpix's reply. She knew that the mightyena was just trying to distract her from their predicament, and though she couldn't stand the idea that Eve would deliberately change the subject when she had so many more questions to ask, she realized that itwas probably for the best. There wasn't much she could do about her current situation anyway.

"Rosie," Eve said with a smile. "That's a nice name. Are you from Stonedust?"

"Stonedust?" Rosie repeated, confused.

"Oh…it's er…a human city," Eve stammered. "I heard that's where a lot of pokémon…well…"

"Got caught by poachers," Rosie finished for her.

Eve nodded.

Rosie sighed. There wasn't much she could talk about that wouldn't lead to a conversation about the poachers anyway. "I hope my friends haven't been caught…" she mumbled, almost inaudibly. "Snowcrystal…she's a growlithe with white fur…I'm afraid they'll catch her…and Spark…" She shook her head hopelessly before continuing. "I bet he's walked into a trap already simply by not looking where he's going." She smiled a bit, in spite of the situation. "At least I know Wildflame will be fine…" she continued. "She's a great fighter…but the others…I'm not sure…"

A sudden shout from another room distracted Eve from Rosie's ramblings. "I must go," the mightyena whispered. "But they'll put me back in this room to guard the cages again later…" With one final glance at the vulpix, she got up and left.

  
**-ooo-**  


At the sound of Katie's shout, Justin shined his flashlight over in the direction of the rocks. He felt a rush of excitement. She must have found the white growlithe after all! Pushing his wet brown hair out of his eyes, he ran toward the group of stones, ignoring the fact that he was splashing through deep mud. When he reached Katie, however, she snatched the flashlight out of his hand.

"Give me that!"

"Hey!" shouted Justin. "What do you think you're doing?"

Katie didn't answer, and instead began crawling into a small cave. Justin saw her stop near the entrance and crouched down beside her in the hopes of seeing the white growlithe…

But what he saw made him jump back, which in turn caused him to slip and fall onto the muddy ground. _A scyther…what on earth was a scyther doing here?_ Quickly he scrambled to his feet. "Katie, what are you thinking?" he shouted. "Get away from there!"

In the cave, Stormblade froze for a second. The voice sounded familiar…

He didn't have time to think about it long, for the female trainer who'd been looking for Snowcrystal earlier shined a bright light in his eyes. Stormblade backed up a bit further, as close as he could get to the rock wall, and glared straight back at the trainer, swiping at the air with his blade in a feeble attempt to give her a warning to stay away.

Katie, however, didn't back away. The scyther obviously wanted her to leave, yet wasn't attacking. She merely watched the bug type, perplexed.

Justin had been trying to pull his friend away, and when he saw the scyther swipe its blade at the air, he picked up a rock and hurled it at the pokémon. " _Stay away!_ " he yelled. The rock struck the scyther near its eye, but to Justin's surprise, it did not get up and try to attack.

"Will you stop it?" Katie growled, pushing Justin back down onto the ground. "What good will that do? Stay here…I want to get a better look at it…it's not moving much, and that's strange..."

Justin knew he couldn't stop Katie from crawling into the cave, but he called out, "Shouldn't you at least let one of your pokémon out for protection?"

"No," she replied, her voice echoing slightly from within the cave. "It hasn't attacked us yet, what's the big deal?"

"It's a scyther! They're _dangerous!_ " Justin called back, but she ignored him.

Reluctantly, Justin crawled into the cave after her, fearing for his friend's safety. He watched as Katie stopped a few feet away from the scyther, and he was aware of just how dangerously close she was. Though as he peered over her shoulder, he noticed something, and realized why the scyther hadn't been attacking them.

Its upper body was covered in deep, scalding burns; from the more minor ones across the pokémon's face, to the truly _terrible_ ones all along its back. They looked beyond any sort of healing a pokémon center could offer. In addition to all this, its leg was damaged too, and it had a mark near its eye from the rock he had thrown. The scyther's fangs were bared in a formidable snarl, and both rage and pain were clear in the pokémon's expression. Justin backed away.

"Let's…get away from here…" was all he managed to say.

"No!" Katie cried. "Can't you see it's hurt? We have to do something!" Before he could stop her, she had crawled further into the cave until she was right in front of the scyther.

Justin knew that there were some ways to ensure that one wouldn't be attacked by a wild pokémon. Approaching an injured, cornered scyther on the verge of panicking wasn't one of them. He was about to try to pull Katie back, when he realized the scyther wasn't doing anything. In fact, it seemed fairly relaxed compared to the way it had been acting before. Katie was rummaging through her backpack for supplies, and the scyther was just watching her, not seeming to know what she was doing, but tolerating her presence. However, it still unnerved Justin to see her sitting so close to it. ' _What is she thinking?'_ he thought to himself. ' _That THING is going to kill her!_ '

Just as he thought that, the scyther turned its gaze toward him. Justin shrank back. There was something about the look in the pokémon's dark blue eyes that he didn't like. Even when Katie got a potion out of her backpack, the scyther continued to stare at him. Justin had always thought scyther looked intimidating, but all the same…this wasn't a good stare…even for one of its kind. Though why the thing was staring at him and not Katie, who was sitting right next to it, he didn't know. Shuddering, he looked away, though he could still feel the wild pokémon's eyes boring into him.

"I'm afraid this won't do any good," Katie muttered, looking at her potion bottle.

"No," Justin agreed, wishing she would just leave the cave, "it's beyond any sort of help…we should just leave it here."

"Fine," Katie snapped. "You go…if you're so afraid…"

Justin felt stung by the remark, but he didn't show it. Crossing his arms, he glared at his friend. "I'm not leaving you here to get killed! And for goodness sake, let out one of your pokémon already!"

"Calm down," Katie replied. "He's not dangerous…I think he knows we want to help!"

"He?" Justin repeated. "How do you know it's a he? And yes, it's dangerous! Just look at those scythes!"

"If he wanted to attack me, he would have done so already," Katie stated calmly. "And I honestly don't think he could do much in this state…he could barely lift his arm before. Everything's fine. Look, see?" Katie reached out her hand and laid it on the wild pokémon's head.

The scyther flinched at the touch, but otherwise didn't move. After a few moments, he seemed to get used to it, or simply stopped caring, and relaxed. Slowly Katie began to stroke the scyther's head, being careful not to touch any of his injuries. Justin stared at her.

"Katie," he said slowly, as if she were crazy. "That is not a growlithe puppy, that is a scyther. Don't _pet_ it!"

"He seems tame…" Katie mused, ignoring him. "Do you think he has a trainer? Maybe he's had one in the past…I think I'd have to capture him to bring him to the pokémon center, but I don't know if he already has a trainer or not…"

Justin wanted to say, 'What sort of trainer wants a pokémon like _that?_ ', but he held his tongue. He hoped it _did_ have a trainer. He didn't want Katie to catch this pokémon. He didn't want to see it again. Simply the name of its species brought back memories far too painful for him.

Katie looked through her backpack for a poké ball. "We need to get to a pokémon center as soon as possible," she told him. "The white growlithe can wait…let's see if I have a poké ball…I can at least try it…then I'll know whether or not it has a trainer…"

"Wait!" Justin interrupted quickly. "Why not use your pokédex? Then you won't risk wasting a poké ball. The pokédex should tell you if the pokémon has a trainer or if it's wild."

"You're right," Katie replied, taking her pokédex out of her pocket and holding it in front of the scyther, who watched her warily but did not try to move. "He seems too calm around me to be completely wild though…maybe he's had a trainer before? This should tell me…" She pressed a few buttons on her pokédex and waited a minute before stating, "He's wild. But I think he's had a trainer before. Let's see…original trainer…original trainer…" She stopped, a look of surprise crossing her face. "Hey Justin," she said, turning to him, "did you ever release a scyther?"

Justin just stared at her blankly. " _What?_ " he replied, confused.

"Your name shows up on the pokédex," she replied, sounding more confused than he was. "Here, under 'original trainer'…"

"Let me see!" Justin yelled, yanking it roughly out of her hand. He scanned the small screen carefully, and there, unmistakably, was his name. He felt cold fear grip him, and, not worrying about what Katie would think of his actions, he ran over to her and grabbed her arm, yanking her away. "GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!" he yelled.

"What? What are you-" Katie seemed too shocked and confused to form a proper sentence. Justin was staring at the scyther. With all those injuries, it had been impossible to recognize it, but now that he had given it a close glance, he realized it did look similar… Same size, same shape of its scythes…same cold blue eyes… _this was the murderer_.

Justin pulled Katie out of the cave, and she was too shocked to resist. Once away from the scyther, Justin released her. "What's going on?" Katie demanded, sounding angry.

"Alright, look!" Justin replied firmly. "I had a scyther, okay? And it's the reason I stopped being a trainer…I didn't give up, I got my trainer license taken away because of what that _monster_ did!" He stopped for a moment, shaking as he pointed toward the cave entrance, and went on, "It escaped from me…and killed a little girl…in cold blood! So you wanted to know why I quit training? Well, now you do! Are you happy?" Without another word he turned and ran, not caring where he was going, just blindly stumbling through the darkness, while Katie stared after him with a mixture of shock and horror on her face.

Justin kept running, even after he stumbled on a rock and badly cut his knee. He simply got up and kept going, the white growlithe momentarily forgotten. His voice shaking with rage, he muttered under his breath as if the scyther could still hear him, "Farewell for good, Scyther…I sure hope you _suffer_ for what you've done!"

Katie, meanwhile, stood near the cave. She briefly glanced back at the entrance, remembering the suffering, injured pokémon she had been trying to help. She wanted to go back and help him in any way she could, but after what Justin had said…she wasn't sure. She could tell Justin hadn't been lying.

For a moment, Katie turned and walked toward the cave with the intention of continuing to try and treat the scyther, but then stopped. Finally making up her mind, she turned and left, not intending to return.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade waited a little while before finally venturing out of the cave, staring emptily in the direction the trainer had gone. He couldn't believe it... He could have gotten help, real help…a real chance of survival. He could have been given food at a pokémon center, had treatment for his wounds, and relief from the pain…

_He could have had help_ …but now he would have no way of getting any, unless he could miraculously make it to the city.

He thought about the way the female human had treated him. She had cared about him even though he was a stranger, a wild pokémon. She had dared to get close to him and hadn't judged him simply for what he was. He had never met a human like that, but now…because of what Justin had said, she simply saw him the same way his old trainer saw him…

…As a _monster_ …

Stormblade felt hopeless…truly hopeless. The nice trainer had left and he wasn't sure any other human would be so willing to help him as she had. The trainer was gone…as were his chances of ever recovering before the infection became worse…

…If he'd had a chance that is. Though the others had tried to keep it secret from him, he'd heard one of them slip and mention that the Forbidden Attack wounds might never heal. He cringed at the thought. _Would he have to live the rest of his life in agony?_

And would the humans…probably the only ones who could truly help him… _ever see him as anything but a merciless killer?_

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal proudly set down a dead pidgey, beaming at Spark as she stopped in the middle of the clearing. "Guess what?" she said cheerfully. "I caught my first prey away from the mountains!"

"She got lucky," Wildflame stated with a teasing grin.

Snowcrystal swiped her paw in mock-anger at the houndoom, before turning to Spark again. "So…where are Thunder and Stormblade?" she asked, looking around.

"Oh uh…" Spark stammered, "well…Thunder wants to be alone, and Stormblade…well he…oh look, there he is now!" the jolteon shouted, sounding suddenly relieved.

Stormblade had staggered back into the clearing, and Snowcrystal noticed the injury to his eye. Seeing that she'd noticed, Stormblade turned his head away to prevent her from seeing the wound. Realizing that he didn't seem to want to talk at the moment, Snowcrystal picked up the pidgey and ran over to him, setting it beside him. She knew that he had gone without food the longest; in fact, she hadn't seen him eat anything, even since she met him by the ghost-haunted rocks. But to her surprise, he just brushed right by her, not even glancing at the prey.

"I'm not hungry," he muttered.

"What? But-"

"I just want to be left alone," he replied in a dull tone, and limped through the bushes and into the grove of trees. For a moment, Snowcrystal started to follow him, but she decided against it. Maybe it was better if she did leave him alone for a while. Sighing, she lay down with her prey between her paws, waiting for his return…

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder was still sitting beside the small pond, thinking. She had grown tired of traveling with the others. _What did she need them for? Why was she even traveling with them anyway? She should leave…there was no point in her staying with them_. Thunder stared at her reflection in the water, noticing old wounds that had opened up again. With a growl she turned away. She started to walk toward the hills and away from the pool. _She was going to leave…go off on her own…she didn't need them at all…_

Making sure once again that no one was near, Thunder slipped off alone into the night. She felt too tired to run, so she simply walked, believing that the others wouldn't care enough to follow. _She didn't have to worry about them seeing her leave._

Thunder hadn't gone far when she scented blood. She quickly identified the source, a poacher trap…though the pokémon that had been caught was long gone. The snap of a twig behind her made her whip around.

" _So…how did you enjoy your short-lived freedom?_ "

Thunder backed away. Standing framed in the moonlight between two thick trees was the human she thought she'd been rid of for good. _Master…_

Master walked toward her, not seeming too concerned about her running away. After all, she looked a lot worse off; she was even thinner than she had been before, and with worse injuries. He knew she wouldn't be running anywhere. Volco, his quilava, hopped down to the muddy ground from the man's shoulder, grinning wickedly at the scyther. His trainer smiled. Thunder's recapture should be easy…she looked close to death already. He would punish her, yes…but not until she'd recovered a bit; he had invested far too much time in training her for her to simply be killed, but when she was strong enough, he'd certainly make her feel pain as she never had before.

Thunder growled, backing away. She stumbled over the chain attached to her arm and landed in a heap on the ground, which caused her shoulder to bleed more.

Her former master smiled, reaching for a poké ball. "Still feeling defiant?" the human said coldly. What he did not let his escaped pokémon know was that, besides Volco, he had only brought one other pokémon with him as he explored the hills. He hadn't dared risk carrying around any of his fighting ring pokémon while so close to the city where he had talked with the police. And the spare pokémon he had used to fight a few poachers were recovering in the pokémon center.

But one pokémon would be enough when Thunder was in such a weakened state. He threw the red and white sphere into the air and in a flash of white, a familiar shape appeared.

Or at least, Thunder thought, somewhat familiar. The Redclaw Thunder remembered had been a growlithe; this was an arcanine. Yet she knew instantly that this was the same pokémon…

Master watched impassively, noting Thunder's reaction. It had been risky enough carrying Redclaw around with the wounds the arcanine bore. However, they had been treated enough that he knew he would have gotten away with saying Redclaw was a rescue taken from an abusive situation.

They wouldn't believe the same story about Thunder. He would have to recapture her and bring her back to the old town before he could resume his business here. He reached for her poké ball and watched Thunder step out of range. Knowing he couldn't simply return her, he nodded to his arcanine.

Redclaw's eyes widened; clear shock on his face. He lifted his head to look at Thunder, ignoring the thick metal collar that scraped painfully against his neck. Behind him, his Master smiled, while Volco watched eagerly.

"Go ahead Redclaw," the human ordered. "Weaken her."

Redclaw stood still. His gaze was fixed on Thunder, who looked too weak to be able to run. His expression was a mixture of surprise and sadness.

Master looked annoyed. "What?" the trainer muttered, looking amused. "Not smart enough to make decisions on your own? Fine then…flamethrower!"

Still the arcanine did not move.

His trainer narrowed his eyes. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded. " _Move._ "

Redclaw slowly turned around, and shook his shaggy head. He gave a low growl, a clear indication that he would not fight.

"Fine then…" Master muttered. " _Learn the hard way._ " He reached for a small device in his pocket, and pressed a button.

Thunder's eyes widened as Redclaw suddenly let out a terrible scream, collapsing in the mud as he thrashed his paws. Master had activated the electric collar.

"Want it to end?" the human shouted, loudly enough to be heard over the arcanine's cries. "Then _fight._ "

The shock stopped for a moment, and Redclaw lay gasping. Master waited for a moment, but the arcanine did not rise. He pressed the button again.

This time Redclaw's scream was far more terrible, filled with such pain that it startled even Thunder. The arcanine thrashed on the ground, his shrieks growing louder. Master and Volco watched impassively, their expressions calm and unreadable. Redclaw's cries began to grow weaker, his struggles feebler. In a desperate attempt to free himself of the agony, the arcanine lifted his paws and tried to slash at the collar with his claws, but to no avail. The electricity still pounding through his body, he focused every last bit of his strength on trying to remove the collar…to end the pain…

And at last he could do no more. Falling back on his side, the arcanine lay still, electricity crackling over his fur as the last spasms finally left his body. Master's cold gaze fell upon him.

"Very disappointing…" he muttered, before turning to Thunder. Then he took a step back.

The scyther he had tormented for so long was looking at him in a way he'd never seen her look before. She was standing straight and firm, which surprised him. She had seemed so weak…so feeble before, but now she looked ready to fight despite her terrible injuries. Both of her scythes were raised. Through the moonlight he could clearly see each gleaming edge. The light reflected off her blades and onto her fangs, which were bared. But her eyes…he had seen pokémon give him hateful stares many a day; he was used to it, but this…this was something he'd never seen before. He had never seen a stare so full of hatred and anger. Master watched her in horror. Her blades had never scared him before, only fascinated him. He knew how to deal with dangerous pokémon, how to force them to submit to him. He had never been afraid of one…until now.

Thunder stepped closer, her eyes locked onto her former master's. She walked almost easily, without a limp. Before, her pain had caused her an unbearable amount of torment; now, it only fueled her anger.

" _You filthy murdering scum!_ " Thunder shouted, no longer caring that Master couldn't understand her words; her meaning was clear enough. "You'll regret what you've done! You'll regret everything you did. And I'll make sure you do! I'll make you _pay!_ For all the pokémon you've hurt, I'll make you feel their pain a _thousand_ times over!" Then, ignoring her wounds, the scyther took a running leap forward.

_Master was going to pay…_

_To be continued…_


	19. A Change of Plans

Snowcrystal was having a dream again; one very similar to the one she'd had before. She was back at the mountain…or was she? It seemed like the mountain, but everything around her was hazy, and she seemed to somehow be in another area at the same time. It was almost as if the mountain surroundings were actually a thick mist which she could barely see through, and that she was really in a place she had never seen before.

The cages containing strange pokémon were back, only this time, she was trapped as well, though not in a cage. A chain, much like Thunder's, was around her back paw and driven deep into the snowy ground; she could not pull it out. Oddly enough, she wasn't very concerned at all with her own predicament; she just wanted to help the other pokémon. And one of them was speaking to her.

" _Stop trying…there's nothing you can do! Not anymore!"_

Snowcrystal was confused at this statement…and why the caged pokémon seemed to want her to stop trying to free herself and help them. Just as she thought that, she heard one of them shout for help, but not to her.

Snowcrystal turned around and for the first time noticed Stormblade standing a little ways away. It was him they had been calling to for help, but he turned and ran, vanishing into the dark mists that were disguised to look like mountains. Suddenly the haze seemed to clear, and Snowcrystal found herself staring around at familiar surroundings; she was once again awake, and the others were sleeping nearby. It was a bit lighter now, so she figured it must be close to dawn.

She stood up, shaking scraps of dead leaves from her fur. She then lay back down on her side, wide awake and alert despite the fact that she'd only had a few hours of sleep. The same worry she had been feeling earlier returned. They hadn't found out anything about where to look for Rosie, or what to do about Stormblade's wounds. Not one of them was sure about what they should do now. Snowcrystal wanted to try and find Rosie and help her, while at the same time, she knew Stormblade wouldn't be able to keep up. Thunder might, but not Stormblade.

Looking around, she suddenly realized that Stormblade was still missing. Feeling worried, she glanced toward the dead pidgey that lay in the center of the small clearing. _Stormblade should have been back by now…_

Padding over to Spark, who was sleeping soundly, she prodded him in the shoulder a couple of times before he stirred, looked up at her, and blinked sleepily.

"Snow? It's still dark…why'd ya wake me up?" he mumbled drowsily.

"It's Stormblade…he's not back," she whispered.

"Who?" Spark murmured, obviously still half-asleep.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal shouted, rather loudly.

Over by a thick oak tree, Wildflame stirred. "What's all the shouting about?" she growled, not seeming drowsy in the least. She added in a sarcastic voice, " _Are we under attack again?_ "

"Stormblade's not back!" Snowcrystal yelled. She was a bit worried about Thunder as well, but when she thought about it, she really didn't expect her to be back, at least not until it was fully morning. It was Stormblade's disappearance that really worried her. Why would he leave and not come back all night when he knew he couldn't defend himself if he was attacked by anything?

"Don't get so worried over nothing," Wildflame muttered, standing up and shaking her coat free of moss and leaves before glancing over at the pidgey. "And unless you want some scavenger to steal your prey, I suggest you eat it. If Stormblade doesn't want it, that's his problem."

Snowcrystal scowled; she knew Wildflame and Stormblade had started out as enemies, but she had thought that problem had been at least somewhat solved after the battle with Blazefang's pack. She wished Wildflame would at least try to care a little more.

After a moment, she relaxed, knowing that after all, Wildflame could be right. But she still wanted to save the only food they had for Stormblade when he returned.

"I'm sure Stormblade will be back soon," Spark agreed, sitting up and shaking his spiky head. "Oh, and if no one wants the prey, I'll have it."

"No!" Snowcrystal growled, irritated, as she placed her paws over the pidgey. "You didn't catch it, I did. And I say it's for Stormblade!"

"He didn't want it," Spark mumbled in a surprised voice, looking at her with what he hoped was a pitying expression. "And aren't I special enough for a gift from you?"

"No," Wildflame answered for Snowcrystal, "apparently you're not. Now, go find Thunder…me and Snowcrystal will go and look for Stormblade."

Spark made a face at her and stuck out his tongue, but nonetheless, he bolted through the bushes and in the direction of the pond where he'd seen Thunder earlier.

Wildflame headed one way, and pointed with her tail in a different direction, indicating that Snowcrystal should look there. "We'll meet back here, alright?" the houndoom called to her.

The growlithe nodded, then picked up the pidgey and vanished into the surrounding bushes.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Blazefang," A voice hissed through the bushes. Blazefang was startled into wakefulness as Wildflame's horned head broke through the thick cluster of leaves.

"Wildflame," the pack leader growled, "what took you so long? You've waited-"

"Yes, I know," Wildflame muttered. "But Snowcrystal hasn't revealed anything about Articuno. In fact…I don't think she knows anything about where he is at all."

"Not even an idea?" Blazefang replied, his face blank.

Wildflame shook her head. "Don't think so," she mumbled. "Plus her group has a badly injured scyther and a vulpix that was taken by poachers…Stormblade, the scyther, is slowing them down and now they can only think about rescuing Rosie…the vulpix. Either way, they won't find Articuno anytime soon. We're better off looking on our own."

"Fine," Blazefang muttered. "It's about time I got the pack moving away from this place…I don't like being so close to a human habitat." He spat the last few words with distaste as he got up and walked away, Wildflame following. "What are you doing?" Blazefang growled at her. "Go back with them…you need to stay there in case they find something!"

"But…" Wildflame began, confused.

"You heard me!" Blazefang growled. "Go back…stay with them, and report to me if you find out anything!"

"But how will I find you?" Wildflame asked.

"We won't be too far ahead," Blazefang replied. "Just stay there in case they do know something…or they find out…or just happen to get lucky. I'll send a few scouts to find the growlithe from time to time so we still know where they are."

"But-" Wildflame began again, but Blazefang cut her off.

"The growlithe knows something!" he growled suddenly, startling Wildflame into silence. "I know she does! Even if she doesn't know Articuno's exact location, she still knows something we don't. Why else would she have started this journey of hers?"

Wildflame was silent, and Blazefang was walking away, back toward the pack. Something told her not to argue with him. With a deep sigh, she turned and headed back to Snowcrystal and the others, strangely not feeling too angry about it. Sure, she wasn't certain that any of them really knew anything, but somehow it seemed like a welcome relief to go back. If anything, she would be somewhat free of Blazefang's newfound tyranny.

  
**-ooo-**  


Master took a step backwards, watching as his own scyther leaped toward him, scythes gleaming and ready to kill. Words escaped him; he couldn't think quickly enough. His terrified thoughts were focused only on the pokémon in front of him. He had not expected her to try to fight back against her own trainer in such a state…

"Volco!"

Volco, who had been just as shocked as Master, snapped to attention. As the scyther was nearly close enough to strike, close enough to rip Master in half, the quilava darted in front of his owner. He fired a blast of flame at Thunder, sending her sprawling backwards into the mud.

The scyther skidded to a halt and righted herself, turning to look straight at Volco. The fire pokémon was standing protectively in front of Master, growling. This seemed to snap Master out of his reverie.

"Good job Volco," he called out, his usual confidence returning. "You can take her. She's weak."

His flames blazing, Volco darted ahead of Master, crouching down and watching Thunder through narrowed eyes.

But his nerves failed him. Thunder was staring straight at the quilava, her gaze boring into him. He had never seen such a terrifying look in a pokémon's eyes before. Thunder didn't just look infuriated…she looked almost insane. She was standing firm, despite the blood that dripped steadily down her side and trickled from her other wounds. Some of the blood was running down her scythes. Her mouth was open wide enough for Volco to see every one of her razor sharp fangs. He wanted to look away, but his body refused to obey him.

Thunder could tell he was afraid. Fear was plastered all over his face. And this time it was _he_ who was scared…this time, he was at her mercy. Volco was backing away, his flames flaring up to their brightest.

_He thought he could win by a type advantage…_

Thunder stared hard at the flames, not showing the least bit of fear. Volco was a pet. A pampered, spoiled pokémon who had never been forced to endure what Master had put her through. He had not been tortured day after day since he was very small. He had not been starved or beaten. He had not been forced to fight until he passed out from blood loss.

_He was no match for her…She would rip him to shreds!_

Volco cried out in horror as the scyther ran toward him. The look on Thunder's ravaged face was something out of a nightmare. Dimly, he heard Master shout, "Flame wheel!" And, more out of fear than actually comprehending what his owner was saying to him, he fired the blast of searing flames straight at Thunder. The scyther was too injured to be able to move quickly. The attack didn't miss.

Thunder collapsed, and then staggered upright, her head lowered. But Volco did not hear a cry of pain. It startled him, because even Thunder had cried out whenever she had been struck with a powerful fire attack in battle. He knew she had a weakness to fire and Master obviously knew it as well, for he had used it as punishment on her many times. Her lack of a reaction seemed even stranger due to the many other wounds she had; the attack could only have made the pain worse. A few seconds later, Volco suddenly realized that Thunder _was_ making a sound, though it was not one of pain. Instead of crying out, Thunder was laughing…at him…as if he had just done something rather silly and embarrassing. But it definitely wasn't a pleasant laugh, and it unnerved him even more. Thunder slowly lifted her head up toward him, her eyes glaring as she grinned wickedly at him in a way that made him want to run as far away as possible. Yet once again, he found that his body wouldn't move.

Thunder suddenly stood up straight, acting as if the attack hadn't even happened. " _You and Master tortured me all those years, and now, you think a simple FLAME WHEEL is going to stop me?_ " the scyther cried out mockingly, a jeering tone in her voice.

Volco didn't have any time to react to her statement before the enraged scyther was upon him, gashing him across the side of his face with one of her blades, while the other swung toward him at the same moment, and if he hadn't moved his paw to the left by accident in that very instant, the scythe would have severed it completely.

The quilava screeched in pain and tumbled backwards, one paw held lightly over the deep cut on his face. Master was shaking as he watched the scene, but he still called out, "Flame wheel again!"

However, Volco didn't have the chance to fire another attack. Thunder continuously slashed at his weakening body, ignoring his cries of pain as he lay helplessly in the mud, no longer having the strength to even keep his flames up. Volco could hear Thunder shouting, " _See what it's like NOW? How do you like it?_ " He didn't even try to reply; he could barely comprehend her words and the pain was too great, only becoming worse with each new attack.

In a panic, Master reached for Volco's poké ball, only to find that he couldn't return him. Thunder kept getting in the way. He watched as Volco finally managed to stagger backward and away from Thunder, but only collapsed a moment later as the scyther stood over him. Volco weakly placed an injured paw in front of his bloody face, holding it out in a pleading gesture for her to stop, staring fearfully up at his tormenter as he remembered…

…He had seen Thunder being beaten, both by Master and in battle. He'd even carried out some of her punishments in the past and never thought anything of it. He'd often watched her being hurt badly as a penalty, even laughed at her, but never had he once thought that he would one day be in her place. And now, Thunder absolutely terrified him. He had seen her being defeated, but he had also seen her being made to fight battles to the death, watched her as she was forced to kill her opponents…seen the terror in their eyes…the very same terror he was feeling now. Then suddenly it struck him fully. _She was going to kill him._

And something snapped.

Volco's eyes narrowed as they suddenly filled with a terrible rage…rage at the thought that she, nothing but a lowly _servant_ of his Master, would ever dare harm him. And with a strength he hadn't known he possessed, he dodged the scyther's next blow, landing spryly on all four paws. Then his fur started to glow.

Thunder staggered back, momentarily blinded as the brightness intensified and the quilava's luminous form began to expand. Behind her, Master smiled and placed Volco's poké ball back into his pocket. There was no need for that; the tables had just turned…

When at last the dazzling glow subsided and Thunder could see clearly again, Volco was more than twice his previous size. The fire type now stood on two legs rather than four, and was taller than she was. His fur was still the same yellow and dark blue, only it was thicker, and she could barely make out some large red spots on the back of his neck before he turned to face her completely.

The newly evolved typhlosion's ears lay flat against his head and he bared his large fangs at the scyther. Now it was his turn to laugh. "Who's stronger _now?_ " he cried, running forward as huge, bright flames erupted around his neck, much bigger than the flames he had had as a quilava. With a roar he ripped his claws into the startled Thunder's face and slammed her to the ground.

Startled by how quickly the attack had come, Thunder twisted free from Volco's grasp and brought her blades upward toward the typhlosion, but he had moved out of the way. As Thunder struggled to stand, Volco bent down on all fours, feeling strangely excited as he discovered a new outlet for his power. He had used flame wheel many times before as a quilava, but this was his first flamethrower. And it was made all the more powerful by the strength gained from his evolution. Thunder darted to avoid the blast, and although she managed to get out of its direct path, the flames still seared across her side and leg.

The scyther tried to get up again, only to find that her leg wouldn't move. She tried to stand anyway, but the mud was far too thick and slippery; she only stumbled. She didn't think she could fly; her wing hurt terribly and when Volco had pushed her down before, she had landed on it the wrong way. She could still see the typhlosion standing at a distance, ready to use another fire attack.

"Coward!" she spat at him, raising her blades in as threatening a manner as she could in her current state. "Are you afraid to get close enough to face me in a real battle? Are you just going to cower over there and hope your fire attacks hit me?"

Volco merely smirked in reply, and fired another blast of flame. Thunder ducked and managed to crawl out of the way just in time, suddenly finding herself on firmer ground. With a cry she sprang up and, ignoring the pain that shot up her leg every time she tried to stand on it, charged toward Volco with a speed that surprised him. The typhlosion whipped around, ready to fire another flamethrower. Thunder reached him before he could, swiping her blade at him with cunning accuracy. Volco tried to dodge, but still felt the sharp blade edge slice into the side of his face.

With a roar of agony the typhlosion lifted his paws to the jagged cut, ignoring Master's shouts to attack. When he pulled his paws away from the injury, he realized with shocking horror that he could no longer see out of his left eye. It had been mutilated, damaged far beyond repair. Growling in rage, he charged toward Thunder without even trying to launch a fire attack, staring at her furiously with his remaining eye.

Thunder swiped at him with one of her blades, but he caught it in his paw, holding the weakened scyther's arm firm and refusing to let go even when the scythe drew blood. Gritting his teeth, he twisted her arm sharply to the side to deflect any attacks and flung her to the rocky ground. Thunder merely closed her eyes and didn't cry out; though she was starting to feel that the battle was already lost. Her strength was nearly gone, and Master no longer had any control over this enraged typhlosion; Volco would try to kill her whether his owner wanted him to or not. However, she was not willing to give him the satisfaction of watching her give in.

With a growl she lunged toward Volco, who merely slammed her back into the muddy ground again. Feeling some of his anger fade into calm, Master's typhlosion walked over to the scyther, ignoring the blood that flowed from his ruined eye socket. "It's good to see you back in your proper place," he growled, standing over her. "Alone…defeated…and under Master's control!" Using the flames around his neck, he heated up his claws before bringing them down on the weakened scyther as he kept talking, accenting each word with another blow. "You…worthless…excuse…for a…pokémon!"

"Volco!" Master's sudden shout resounded over the area, causing Volco to look up a moment before a pokémon…another scyther, crashed into his side and brought him staggering backward into the mud.

Thunder looked up, and through her hazy vision, she could see the other scyther slashing at the typhlosion's side and shoulder. "Stormblade…" she muttered in confusion.

Volco could sense that this new opponent was weak as well. Whirling around, he quickly locked his claws around Stormblade's throat before easily lifting the weaker scyther up and sending him sprawling to the ground. Stormblade felt what little remaining strength he had leave him completely; the initial attack had cost him too much.

Volco dug his claws into Stormblade's burned shoulders, pinning him against the mud-slicked rocks. "What's this?" Volco smirked, glancing back at his other foe. "Did you find yourself a friend while you were gone, Thunder? Maybe I should finish roasting him properly!"

Stormblade tried to twist free, knowing that any second he'd feel more terrible pain. But the fire attack never came. Volco was too exhausted; the flames around his neck extinguished and the strength to use fire attacks was gone. Volco gave a growl of annoyance before he suddenly tore his claws as deeply into Stormblade's wounds as he could before ripping savagely sideways.

Thunder looked up as Stormblade gave an agonized scream, her blurry vision seeming to clear slightly. _Volco was attacking Stormblade._ The typhlosion was too worn out to use his fire attacks, and was instead using his claws, finding it much easier to cause damage to a normally tough pokémon by attacking him where he was injured. Every time Stormblade cried out, Thunder flinched, as if she could feel the blows as well. Then all at once Volco backed away, a bad wound in his side from Stormblade's scythe.

Stormblade had not simply given up. Master, who had been standing at a safe distance, suddenly looked fearful as Volco toppled over onto the ground; the wound was obviously serious.

"V…Volco?" the man whispered, quickly taking out the injured typhlosion's poké ball and returning him. Then he darted away, leaving the two scyther and Redclaw's motionless form where they lay.

Thunder sat up slowly, feeling her anger fade away into shock as she looked around at what had been their battlefield. Her gaze fell toward a spot on a rockier patch of ground that was stained with dark blood, where she had attacked Volco before he evolved. She wasn't sure how she felt about it. The sound of approaching human vehicles interrupted her thoughts.

Alarm flared through her; she recognized the sound. It was just like the sound of the truck that had taken Rosie away. "Poachers!" she hissed, staggering to her feet and making a run for the bushes. She could make it…if she left now…

Suddenly she stopped, looking back toward Stormblade. She realized there was no way he'd ever make it away from the humans in time. The cuts Volco had inflicted were deep and still oozing blood, and she was sure they would make the already infected wounds even worse. He was unconscious now, as he had probably passed out from the pain. Only the fact that she could see him breathing told her that he was alive. Thunder turned, looking back toward the bushes.

For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to leave. Realizing she was probably missing her only chance of escape if these humans _were_ poachers, she stumbled over to Stormblade and stood near him. It didn't seem right to leave him there, and despite the fact that the human machines were obviously getting closer, she didn't want to run away. She readied herself, hearing the sounds of the vehicles grow louder. She knew that whatever was coming, it was a battle she couldn't win. Yet she was certain she wasn't going to back down.

_To be continued…_


	20. Deception

"Still no sign of him?" Wildflame asked Snowcrystal as the growlithe returned to the clearing, looking defeated.

Snowcrystal shook her head. "I've looked everywhere around here," she replied. "And all this mud and rain disguised his scent, so I couldn't even follow that." She was worried; they still hadn't found Stormblade, and she would have thought that an injured scyther would be easy to track.

Wildflame nodded and was about to reply when Spark came stumbling back to the clearing, his spiky fur plastered with mud. "Thunder's gone," he stated rather simply before tiredly collapsing in a heap.

" _What?_ " cried Snowcrystal, running over to him. "I thought you knew where she was!"

"I did," Spark mumbled, lifting his head. "I _knew_ where she was. I don't know anymore." He then lay his head down again.

"We'll have to find both of them now!" Snowcrystal cried, running ahead. "Follow me…Spark! Show me where you saw her last-"

_BANG!_

Snowcrystal stopped in her tracks, frozen in place by the sound of the gunshot, as she and the others looked around fearfully.

"Poachers," Wildflame growled. "We need to get going…I'd bet there are poachers and traps everywhere!"

"We're not leaving without Stormblade and Thunder!" Snowcrystal cried. "What if the poachers are attacking _them?_ " Without waiting for a reply, she sprinted off towards the sound.

"NO!" Wildflame shouted, quickly intercepting her. "Do you want to get shot?" Seeing Snowcrystal's panicked expression, she sighed. "Look, you would only get yourself killed. I'll go check it out…I can hide better than you can. You two stay here, and I _mean_ it!" Before Snowcrystal could object, Wildflame had run off.

  
**-ooo-**  


It did not take Wildflame long to reach the area where the gun had fired. Sneaking ever so cautiously and using whatever cover she could find, the houndoom managed to get close enough to see two humans clearly. Both were holding guns, but there were no signs of any scyther. And in the slowly brightening dawn, they would have been easy to spot. Wildflame relaxed a bit; Thunder and Stormblade were not there.

As she peered closer, she noticed that one of the humans was holding the limp body of a small spearow. Figuring that the spearow was what the humans must have shot, she quietly turned around and headed back, careful not to make any unnecessary noise.

However, as she walked back towards the others, she could not get the image of the poachers out of her mind. _They had guns…_ and it terrified her. She wanted to get away from this poacher trap-ridden place, far away, but they would never be able to leave until the two scyther were found. And even then, it would be slow going with Stormblade in tow. They were very lucky, she realized, to not have been captured yet. But that luck wouldn't last long. The only relatively safe place anywhere near the area was the human city, and that was, in a way, almost as dangerous as the poachers. She wanted to get moving as fast as possible, far away from the human threats, where Snowcrystal could then possibly lead her to finding a clue about Articuno.

' _Articuno…'_ Wildflame thought, a plan beginning to form in her mind. Blazefang had almost seemed like he'd wanted to get rid of her, and made her stay in Snowcrystal's little group. But what if…what if she somehow managed to find Articuno first? She'd go straight to Firedash and receive her reward, maybe even a higher-ranking position within the tribe, while Blazefang either wandered aimlessly across unknown lands ruling his little 'pack,' or simply came in second place. It seemed possible; after all, the growlithe tribe _did_ know a bit more about Articuno than the houndour tribe did. Maybe Snowcrystal actually did have some sort of clue she wasn't telling anyone about. And after all, Blazefang had no idea of where he was leading the pack. If anything, he was just as lost as they were.

Speeding up now that she was out of both sight and hearing range of the poachers, Wildflame raced eagerly back toward Snowcrystal and Spark. She would somehow find a way to reach Articuno before Blazefang did, and reap the rewards herself. Blazefang didn't deserve them. The biggest obstacle to her plan was, at the moment, Stormblade. She knew they'd be lucky to get half a mile in a whole day if they moved at his pace. And of course, there was still the threat of humans. They could be caught easily…and what if Stormblade and Thunder had already been caught while everyone else was looking for them? She narrowed her eyes, trying to imagine what Snowcrystal would do. She and Spark would set off to go free them before they could be taken away, or if they had, they might try and find them anyway, and end up getting themselves caught. Then Wildflame's chance of finding out if the growlithe knew anything about Articuno would be completely ruined.

She started to pace slower, still thinking. ' _Well…what if they haven't been captured? What if…what if…_ ' She stopped, and finished out loud, "What if they've been shot?" And suddenly another idea formed in her mind. Snowcrystal and Spark had both heard the gunshot, but they didn't know it had been a spearow that the humans had shot. What if she didn't tell them that? What if…what if she told them it had been Stormblade or Thunder?

With this new idea in mind, Wildflame ran off again, feeling that their traveling problems might just have been solved. With Thunder and Stormblade no longer in the picture, everything would go much faster.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal looked up anxiously as Wildflame bounded back into the rocky clearing. Spark sat up, looking just as worried. The look on Wildflame's face only served to make them even more concerned.

"Wildflame, what happened?" Snowcrystal asked.

The houndoom turned as if to walk away. Wildflame stopped, and didn't answer, her head held low. She was breathing hard; they figured she must have run a long way.

"Did…did you find them?" Spark asked uncertainly.

"Yes…" Wildflame replied. "But…" She stopped for a moment, looking up at Spark and Snowcrystal, whose expressions turned from hopeful to panicked. And then, for some reason she couldn't explain, she couldn't bring herself to lie to them about the two scyther being dead. ' _Captured…'_ she thought, _'I'll just say they were captured…and far away by now…'_ Looking back up at the others, she continued. "Poachers have captured them…their machine drove away just as I arrived. I couldn't chase after them…they had guns…but I don't think…I don't think they actually managed to shoot Thunder or Stormblade. But they're probably already miles away…and what's worse…there are other poachers heading this way. We have to leave as soon as possible."

She waited a moment, unsure of how Spark or Snowcrystal would react. For a moment, the two just stood silently, then Spark whispered in a confused voice, "They…got captured? But…but how! Wasn't there anything you could have done?"

"No," Wildflame replied, shaking her head, "I was too late…"

"But how could you just-" Spark shouted, but Wildflame interrupted him.

"You said so yourself, Spark," the houndoom whispered quietly, "when poachers capture a pokémon, there's nothing anyone can do but move on…and if we don't leave now, they'll get us too…do you think Stormblade would want that?"

Spark was silent again, while Snowcrystal just looked horrified, unsure if she could believe it all. After a moment, the jolteon shook his head. "No…" he answered. "But I don't know how I'll survive out here without Stormblade…he…he taught me how to hunt and all about the wild…"

"You still have us," Wildflame told him, trying to sound comforting, "but not for long if we don't leave. The poachers are coming, and the only thing we can do right now is to get out of here…we can't stay here and worry, not while they're coming…we have to leave, head to new lands away from poachers, and seek out Articuno once more. It's what the others would have wanted, anyway."

Spark nodded sadly and the three headed off through the trees, Wildflame in the lead. The houndoom urged them to go faster, and despite their shock, Snowcrystal and Spark could sense that urgency was needed. Snowcrystal could hardly believe that more of her friends had been taken away from them, probably forever. _'Maybe…'_ she thought, _'maybe they'll find Rosie…and find a way to escape…'_ Just as the thought crossed her mind, she began to doubt it, wondering if it really was hopeless. _'No…'_ she thought, _'it's not hopeless…and when I find Articuno…I'll find help… I'll find a way to free them someday!'_

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder was pretty sure there were two human vehicles, and that seemed strange. Knowing that any second they'd appear over one of the hills, she turned toward Stormblade, nudging him. He didn't move. She nudged him again, but got no response. "Come on, wake up!" she growled, frustrated. She glanced toward a group of bushes, and not knowing what else to do, she grabbed one of his wings in her teeth and started dragging him through the mud and toward the bushes.

She managed to get him into the shelter of the bushes just as one of the human vehicles stopped a small distance away, closer to where Redclaw was. Thunder backed up further into the bushes, but not so far that she couldn't see the humans through the branches. The second vehicle stopped not far away from the first, and Thunder stood completely still, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

Unfortunately, at about that moment, Stormblade started to stir. Fearing he might wake up and attract the attention of the humans, she sharply brought the dull side of her blade down on his head, and he fell still again. That being done, she turned her head in the direction of the humans, watching. After a moment, she began to realize that they probably weren't poachers after all. For one, they had pokémon – pokémon that didn't look battle-worthy - with them. Thunder was mildly surprised to see that these pokémon were growlithe, and there were about four or five of them. They looked healthy and well-fed, so she figured they must either be pets or had been recently captured.

Another pokémon appeared, and Thunder was surprised to recognize Sid, and not just Sid, but _his trainer_ as well. Thunder stared at them in surprise. What was the human she and Wildflame had to fight off earlier doing here? To her surprise, Katie ran right up to Redclaw, kneeling beside the fallen arcanine. Thunder was just barely close enough to hear her words.

"The poachers must have heard us coming!" she cried to the others. "And it seems like they've hurt yet another pokémon…"

Another human stepped up to the girl, and though Thunder wasn't sure, she thought he might belong to the police. The police were a group of humans Master had dealings with, sometimes to turn in what he considered 'petty criminals.' She wasn't entirely sure what that meant. Needless to say, she wasn't about to trust anyone – pokémon or human – that had any connection with Master.

The 'police-human' turned to another and shouted, "I'll take some of the growlithe and see if we can track them down…and I'll send one of them back if we find anything!" One of the growlithe barked eagerly. Thunder only caught a few of his words, and he and three other growlithe raced off, in search of Master or the poachers.

By now, one of the other humans was examining Redclaw, particularly his collar. "This one was probably caught by the poachers a long time ago…then escaped," she was saying. "He's alive, but just barely…by the looks of this collar, it must have been a very powerful shock that did this. I suppose the one who owned him decided he was worthless…" She gave the arcanine a sad look and turned to the last remaining police officer. "We need to get him to the pokémon center."

Still confused and unsure of what was going on – and surprised that Redclaw was still alive – Thunder didn't know whether to run and help the arcanine or stay put. Looking at the growlithe, she decided to stay put, knowing they'd be able to take her down very quickly if she had no way of surprising them. She had used up almost all of her strength.

"We can't leave yet though," Katie was saying, which brought Thunder's attention back to her and the other humans rather than Redclaw. "We still haven't found that scyther…the one the poachers must have attacked. He couldn't have gotten far from the rock cave but we didn't have much time to look."

"But we heard the battle going on," the police officer replied. "We had to come straight here, but for now, Nurse Joy is right…we have to take this arcanine back to the city."

Thunder saw Sid's trainer nodding understandingly, then focusing her attention on trying to keep her aipom from running off as the other humans prepared to leave. They were carefully working together to lift Redclaw into the back of one of their vehicles. Thunder wasn't quite sure what to do; the humans sounded concerned for Redclaw, but she assumed they must have had a reason for it; maybe they would wait for him to recover and then force him to fight for them; a human wouldn't just suddenly decide to go out of their way to help a wild pokémon.

As Thunder watched the remaining growlithe run towards the other human machine, she saw one of them stop. He lifted his nose to the air a few times and sniffed, before shouting to the humans in poké-talk, "There's something over here!" He then started running…right in Thunder's direction.

Thunder backed away, realizing that they'd just been discovered. Sid's trainer and one of the other humans – the police officer – got out of the machine and started following the growlithe, who was now quickly nearing her hiding place. "Well…" the scyther muttered bitterly, mentally preparing herself for another battle. "Here we go again…"

Just as the growlithe was close enough, Thunder sprang from the bushes, taking the canine pokémon completely by surprise and knocking him clear off his feet. The growlithe then stood up shakily; a large but shallow cut across his fluffy white chest. Katie screamed; Thunder's sudden appearance had taken her by surprise. The police officer's growlithe opened his mouth to fire a flamethrower, but at a shout from his trainer, stopped, and dodged Thunder's next attack instead. As Thunder turned towards him, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned briefly to see another human holding a strange type of gun. Before she could panic, the human fired the gun, and whatever was inside it struck her in the shoulder, but it wasn't a bullet and it wasn't killing her, so she ignored it and ran toward the growlithe again.

To her annoyance, the growlithe seemed to do nothing but dodge her attacks and run in random directions, trying to throw her off. It was making her dizzy, and it probably wasn't wise for her to be running while she had such serious wounds. She felt something small and sharp strike her in the back, much like what she had felt before, but it hardly hurt. She was sure the humans must be crazy if they thought that was going to take her down.

Then suddenly, for seemingly no reason at all, she collapsed, her vision starting to fade into darkness. Unwilling to give in so easily, she tried to stand up and fight, but her body didn't seem to want to move anymore. For a couple moments she struggled to stand again, but she was starting to lose consciousness. The last thing she saw before everything faded completely was one of the humans walking up to her…

  
**-ooo-**  


Hesitantly, Katie approached the unconscious scyther with Nurse Joy and a pokémon ranger, the one who'd fired the tranquilizer gun, beside her. "Is this the scyther you were telling me about?" Joy asked Katie, giving her a worried look.

"N-no…" Katie whispered, shaking her head and looking over Thunder's thin body. "The other one didn't have a collar. And this one…" she looked closer and stepped back, horrified. "This one looks like it's been shot…and it must have belonged to the poachers for a long time, from the look of it. I don't know how it was even able to stand, let alone fight!"

Katie didn't wait for the others' responses. She walked away, while Nurse Joy and the others went to help get the scyther into the pokémon ranger's truck where the arcanine was still lying. She had seen enough injured pokémon for one night, and she had never liked having to see a pokémon hurt. It was partly for this reason that she had decided to go back after she had left Justin's scyther by the rocks, and bring help.

She did believe what Justin had said about the scyther; there was no way he would lie to her about something like that. Maybe about the reasons as to why he quit pokémon training, but _not_ something like that. Yet, she had still thought that no matter what a pokémon had done, no pokémon deserved to be in that much pain.

However, when they'd brought help and found the place where she'd seen the scyther before, he had already left, and the rain had washed away his scent, so the police growlithe couldn't follow. At that point, Katie had given some thought as to _why_ the scyther might have been injured in the first place. She had realized that since there were no fire types powerful enough to have caused such damage anywhere nearby, the culprits must have been poachers. The police had agreed with her.

It hadn't been long before they'd heard the distant sounds of a battle, but by the time they had arrived, the poachers had left, and all that they found was an injured arcanine and a different scyther. With a sudden surge of anger she realized that the growlithe probably wouldn't be able to track down the poachers who were responsible. Everything was too wet and muddy, and it was starting to rain again.

A sudden excited barking from one of the growlithe caught her attention, and she saw the police officer parting the branches of a group of bushes, revealing the still form of a second scyther…Justin's.

Katie realized, after a moment of surprise, that the female scyther must have been protecting him. She watched the others bringing Justin's scyther to the ranger's truck as well, before climbing into it herself. Her shinx stood up as she stepped inside, happily jumping on her lap. She knew it was better to leave with the rangers and the nurse now; there was nothing she could do to help the police catch the poachers.

She also wanted to see if the pokémon would be all right, and it was important that they got to the pokémon center as soon as possible. As Nurse Joy got in the truck, Katie heard what sounded like muffled whimpering, and turned to the back section of the truck, realizing that the arcanine was beginning to come around. Reaching her arm over the back of the seat, she softly petted the fire pokémon's head, trying to calm him as the vehicle drove off, back toward the city.

  
**-ooo-**  


The police officer watched as his group of growlithe came back, panting and exhausted. He could tell from their looks that the poachers had not been found. He sighed. "It's all right," he told them, petting the fluffy pokémon. "I'm afraid we won't be able to track anything in this weather. All we can do is go back and see if there's anything left we can find."

Regretfully, he and the pokémon turned and headed back to the site of the battle.

  
**-ooo-**  


By the afternoon, Rosie was exhausted. Battered, weakened, and alone, the vulpix lay curled up against the bars in her cage, without even Eve to keep her company. The humans had rotated the pokémon guards, and she didn't feel like talking to the granbull who kept giving her angry glares.

Throughout the day, it had been one battle after another, and Rosie had only once been allowed to have a drink of water. The humans had also given her a small amount of food, the hard brown pellets that most trainer pokémon ate. It had tasted vile, as if it was starting to go bad, but she had been too famished to care. The battles she had fought had been difficult, and from what she could tell, the humans were disappointed in her, and according to the other pokémon, that was _not_ a good thing.

Rosie jumped, startled, as the door opened and a human walked in, stepping beside her cage. Some of the other pokémon in the room gave her worried looks; obviously it wasn't good if the humans approached a pokémon's cage at a random time after that pokémon had repeatedly failed them. Solemnly, the human unlocked her cage, activating the shock collar briefly to stun her before dragging her out and onto the floor. However, just as Rosie was preparing to fight her hardest to get away, she realized that the human didn't seem intent on punishing her. Instead, he reached into his pocket.

"If you aren't a good battler," he was saying, more to himself than to her, "you'll still fetch a high price from collectors." Rosie stared as he brought the object out of his pocket. It was a fire stone.

The human pointed the device that activated the collar's shock at her, threatening her into staying still as he loosened the collar. Before Rosie could even try to free herself of it, the man pressed the fire stone against the top of her head.

At once, both stone and vulpix began to glow. Involuntarily, Rosie closed her eyes as the surprisingly warm object was pressed against her fur. She felt a sudden, odd sensation, and with a flicker of excitement, despite her current situation, she realized…she was _evolving…_ The strange sensation grew stronger, and she could feel her tails lengthening, and three more like them growing in place. At the same time, she could feel herself growing at a seemingly impossible rate; her legs becoming longer, sleeker, her muzzle lengthening and becoming more pointed, and her fur growing thicker.

And for a reason she could not understand, she felt older…wiser. She also no longer felt weak or exhausted. She felt as if she could run for miles, defeat any opponent, do anything…

Rosie's eyes flew open. The transformation was complete. Feeling the loosened collar still tight around her neck, Rosie twisted away from the human and reached up with a forepaw, feeling her claws snag on the collar as she pulled, enjoying the satisfaction that came with the resulting snap as it fell to the ground. With a growl, she turned on her captor, racing forward towards him.

However, it was at that moment that another human appeared from the doorway, and before Rosie could take notice of what he was doing, he had thrown a rope around her neck. The ninetales was yanked back, shocked and wondering if the poachers had anticipated an attack. She struggled on the floor, seeking to free the rope from her neck.

But the human only pulled tighter, and with shocking alarm, Rosie felt her windpipe being forced closed. Coughing and struggling, she thrashed about on the floor, until her struggles grew weak enough that the other human could fit a spare collar around her neck. Only then did he loosen and remove the rope, and by that time, Rosie was weak and still gasping for breath, unable to resist.

As she lay still, trying to recover, she thought bitterly about how much she wished she could place a curse on both of the poachers…no, all of them. But there was no way a young, barely evolved ninetales could accomplish that feat, and she had no real idea of how it was done. In fact, she didn't even know how to use flamethrower.

Through a haze of pain she felt one of the poachers stroking her long, thick fur, and wished she had the strength to turn and bite him. At least, she thought, this would mean an end to the battles…now they would just try and sell her to a collector. If anything, maybe they'd try to make her appear as healthy and strong as possible, and at least give her a decent meal.

Yet all the same, as she was dragged back forcefully into her cage by both of the humans, she couldn't help but wonder…if her troubles had only just begun.

_To be continued…_


	21. The Hope of Escape

Cyclone was lost.

All the vaporeon could see was sand. In every direction, there was nothing more, simply miles upon miles of sand and dunes. Where was his trainer when he needed him? Gone. Long gone. Miles away by now. He would never find him again, and truthfully, he didn't care. That boy was a traitor.

The vaporeon wearily stumbled across the shifting sand, ignoring the pain that seared across his scorched paw pads. He was far too dehydrated to manage even the simplest water attack, even now, when he needed it most. He regretted the day he'd made the decision to travel with the boy instead of being released into a forest. But the water stone had been far too tempting.

As the weary pokémon carried on, his paw slipped, and he was sent crashing into the burning sand. Why had his trainer been foolish enough to think he could travel all the way through this desert? He was probably just as lost…that fool… The vaporeon was glad he had left the boy, left before he lost the strength to perform water attacks. He had needed the water more than that stupid human and his other worthless pokémon.

Realizing that he needed to keep going, or else perish, the vaporeon staggered to his feet, only to fall. He tried yet again; once, twice, and a third time. All his attempts failed.

Cyclone was hopelessly lost…

…Yet he would not let himself die. No, his trainer didn't deserve that satisfaction.

Wearily, his paws scrabbled in the sand as he slowly dragged himself forward, when a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off of something nearby caught his eye.

There were rocks close by, and it looked as if they had once been deeply covered in sand. Another bright flash of light made him blink. He crawled closer. His eyes widened as he reached the burning-hot stones, noticing what looked like a deep green emerald placed firmly into a crack between three different rocks. He stared, perplexed, at the stone. It looked far too tightly jammed to be pried loose, but out of curiosity, he reached out with his paw and touched the center of its shiny surface. What felt like raw energy surged through his body, and his eyes widened in shock, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Then it all went dark.

  
**-ooo-**  


Rosie's cage now seemed very, very small. After evolving, she was quite a bit bigger than she had been before, and although still small by a ninetales's standards, she wasn't small enough for the cage. The ceiling was far too low to allow her to stand, and she found it hard to turn around in the narrow space.

Irritably, she clawed at the cage's door, but more out of frustration than actually thinking she could escape. Eve was nowhere to be seen, and the guards were being switched out often. For a while now, the humans had ignored her. She was no longer being trained for battle, and probably wouldn't ever be. Now she was just a rare pokémon to be sold for a high price.

However, since her evolution, she had not been feeling afraid. Angry and aggravated for sure, but no longer scared, not even when the poachers had brutally stopped her from escaping. She was done being frightened of these humans…she was a ninetales now, and a ninetales didn't need to be afraid of anything. Glaring angrily through the bars of the cage and looking around the room, Rosie figured it was about time she found a way out of the place.

The problem was…she didn't know how.

Sighing, she glanced down at where the bars met the cage floor; a few of them were scorched black, a result of her previous attempts at trying to use ember to help her break the bars. Looking back up at a few of the other caged pokémon, Rosie wondered how long they had been trapped in there. "Hm…" she mumbled, realizing something. "Wonder if any of them know how long they keep the pokémon here before they sell them…" Reaching her paw out, she tapped her claws against the cage of another pokémon, a linoone. "You," she muttered quickly, "how long are we gonna be stuck here?"

The linoone stirred and looked at her drowsily; he must have been asleep. "Er…what?" he muttered.

Rosie rolled her eyes. "Never mind, you're hopeless. Uh...you. Idiot guard…how long do I have to wait before I'm sold to some stupid trainer?"

The tropius standing as guard gave her a rather un-amused look, then shook his head and looked away. "Fine!" Rosie growled in annoyance. "Don't answer!"

"Why does it matter?" the linoone in the cage next to her suddenly mumbled. "You'll probably just end up being treated the same way whatever trainer you're sold to. I suppose we'll be living in cages for the rest of our lives." He sighed. "That's a long time…"

"You think it's bad for you?" Rosie replied. "That's a thousand years for me, and I don't plan on spending it all belonging to some worthless human!" Turning away from him, Rosie started to think to herself about escape. She had found a slightly loose bar at the side of her cage, but no amount of moving it had made it any looser, and she had abandoned that plan a while ago. She could do nothing to open the cage door, and the only way the cage would ever be opened was when the humans came to feed her. If she attacked them, she would get electrocuted. "Maybe I can be stronger now…" she whispered quietly to herself. "Maybe I'll be able to stand it long enough to get out and run…If someone like Thunder can do it, I can…"

A noise from the room beyond interrupted her thoughts. One of the humans was shouting at another, and Rosie tried to peer through the doorway, hoping to be able to see what was going on. To her annoyance, she couldn't see anything, though she could hear what sounded like fighting, and it wasn't a normal battle considering that both humans and pokémon were screaming.

"What's going on?" a pokémon in a cage somewhere near to her cried, equally confused.

Rosie listened carefully, hearing the sounds of battle and cries of pokémon and humans alike rising in volume from the room further on. Could it be that some of the pokémon were actually managing to fight back?

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder awoke slowly, dazed and confused. She realized she was still outside, but in a much grassier and less rocky place than she remembered. Confused, she opened her eyes, instantly closing them again at the brightness of the sun.

_Wait…brightness?_

Thunder opened her eyes again. Last time she remembered, it was barely reaching dawn, but now, it looked like midday.

Confused, Thunder stood up, looking around for any signs of humans. But all she could see were several trees and many strange-looking plants, but not far away from where she was standing, something else startled her. Through the leaves of the plants and trees, she could see the bars to some sort of gate. Confused, she walked closer, and as she did, the glint of metal from another direction caught her eye. Turning, she could see bars on the opposite side of the area.

As she ran towards those bars, she noticed something strange. Looking down at her arm, she realized with surprise that the chain was gone. The shackle was still there, however, though the chain itself had been severed. Reaching up with her arm to the collar around her neck, she could feel that it was still there as well; maybe if the humans who'd put the gate there had wanted to remove it, they hadn't found a way to do so yet.

Looking down at her other arm, she noticed it had been bandaged, as had many of her other wounds. Both confused and annoyed, she quickly tore each bandage off, before hastily running alongside the barred gate, realizing that it completely encircled the small area she had found herself in. There was a similar set of bars above the enclosure, meaning she couldn't fly out. Carefully, Thunder peered at some of the bars that stuck up from the ground to form one section of the gate. They didn't look very strong…

Mustering all her strength, she swiped both of her scythes at the nearest two bars, though despite them being rather thin, they were incredibly strong, and seemed barely scratched despite her efforts. She kept trying, and finally stopped when a small piece of one of her battered scythes chipped off.

Frustrated and angry, Thunder thought with a hint of panic, ' _I'm in a CAGE…a very large cage…_ '

"Thunder?" A voice startled Thunder into turning around. Another pokémon had approached the bars from the other side. Thunder quickly recognized Redclaw, and though many of the arcanine's wounds were bandaged, he looked much healthier than he had before. Thunder peered further through the bars and noticed more a ways away, and realized that Redclaw wasn't outside, he was in another large 'cage' just like hers, which was also grassy and had several plants and trees within it as well. However, if the humans thought they were replicating an arcanine's natural habitat, they were doing a poor job; Thunder didn't recognize most of the plants and she doubted if some of them were even real. However, Redclaw seemed calm. "Relax," he told her, "the humans have been gone for a while. And there's food here. It isn't poisoned. There should be some-"

"Where are we?" Thunder snapped, glaring at him. She could only begin to wonder why Redclaw was so calm when they were clearly once again in the possession of humans.

"I don't know," Redclaw admitted. "There's a large building near all these pokémon enclosures, but there are nicer humans there. You've been knocked out all morning so you wouldn't have seen, but they gave me medicine that made me feel less pain. They're trying to help us, I think…"

"If they were trying to help us, then why are we in _cages?_ " Thunder spat.

"I…I think it's more to keep other pokémon out," Redclaw stammered. "There are lots of other pokémon here, though I think they bring the larger or wilder pokémon to these areas outside. Just be glad they didn't keep you in that building; it's kind of frightening, there's strange smells and _lots_ of injured pokémon. I wonder what's happened to all of them…I think…I think they put us out here because there were too many pokémon in there already, or maybe it's because they thought we'd be more comfortable outside. The gates might be to keep us from running off into the wild before our wounds have healed…"

"But why didn't they give us a choice?" Thunder growled. "I'm not dependent on humans, and if they're going to force me to stay here I won't believe they're trying to help. And by the way, what do you think they're going to do with us once we've recovered enough, huh?"

Redclaw stiffened, and Thunder could tell he was uncertain, but he replied, "There's nothing we can do now. I suppose we should wait until we're stronger and then we can find a way to-"

"I feel stronger already," Thunder remarked, knowing that, if anything, the humans had treated her wounds-not even the bullet wounds hurt as much anymore. "I'm ready to leave. Now. I won't stick around to find out what these humans have in store for us. I say we find a way out and…and…where the heck is Stormblade?"

"Stormblade?" Redclaw repeated, puzzled, before realizing who Thunder meant. "The other scyther? He's one of the ones they kept inside…he was one of the worst injured of all the other pokémon I saw…and there were many with really horrific injuries…"

"Well that's just great!" Thunder muttered sarcastically, looking down at where the end of the gate bars were stuck into the ground. "Redclaw!" she said suddenly, looking up. "Do you think you could dig underneath the bars?"

"Well…" Redclaw began hesitantly, "they must have made it so that pokémon can't dig under them…I mean…"

"Just try!" Thunder told him. "I can't dig well, and if you can dig an opening big enough for me to fit through, you could dig another way out of your cage and we can both get out."

Redclaw said nothing and only nodded, starting to scrape his claws against the damp earth, and, surprisingly quickly, he had dug deep enough to see the end of the bars. "I can dig under them," he told her, "they don't go very far underground, but they're really sharp at the ends." Careful to avoid the pointed ends of the metal bars, Redclaw swiftly scraped out more earth, soon creating a large pile of dirt behind him. Thunder stood by and waited, though she could see that Redclaw was quickly tiring. He was still weak, she realized, from the electric shock.

After a minute of digging deeper, Redclaw realized the earth had become much harder to dig through, and more rocky. Thunder tried to help dig from the other side, and eventually they made a hole to crawl through, though it was very shallow. "Are you sure it's big enough?" Redclaw asked her uncertainly.

"It's fine!" Thunder replied, annoyed, and began to crawl through the small opening. Redclaw knew that it wasn't big enough for any scyther who wasn't as thin as Thunder to fit through, but despite the fact that the sharp ends of the metal bars scraped across her back, Thunder managed to make it through and into Redclaw's enclosure rather quickly. "Come on," she muttered, "let's find a way out of here…"

"Wait…" Redclaw told her, still sounding a bit uncertain, "I think we should wait a little while first. I'm far too tired to dig any more right now, but we'll both be stronger if we rest for a little bit. I don't think we'll have any trouble from the humans for a while; they're all too busy inside the building. And it will be easier to get away from here during the night. They left food and water here, so I don't think they're planning on coming back soon."

Thunder looked about ready to argue, but simply muttered, "Fine…" and turned away. She didn't seem at all pleased with the idea, and Redclaw noticed her staring through the bars, not at the other outdoor pokémon enclosures, but beyond them. It was quite clear how she felt about being trapped in such a place, though he couldn't help but wonder if she was really mistaken about the humans who had put them there.

  
**-ooo-**  


Both Justin and Katie had been shocked to discover the amount of injured pokémon who'd been taken to the pokémon center. Katie's pokémon couldn't even be checked on, as everyone working there was far too busy caring for pokémon with worse injuries. Katie was confused as to why so many pokémon had gotten injured, though she figured that poacher traps were at least part of the cause. Some of them had been caught in traps meant for bigger pokémon; she'd seen someone bringing in a poochyena that had gotten its leg severed by one such trap. She shuddered as she walked away from the pokémon center with her shinx and Justin walking beside her.

Justin had returned, and had gone to the pokémon center to wait for her. He had seen her arrive, and to his great surprise, she had brought three injured pokémon with her, with the help of Nurse Joy and a pokémon ranger. When asked by a nurse, she had said that the three were wild, not mentioning that one of the scyther had once belonged to Justin. Katie had not said anything to Justin about what had happened the previous night when they'd found the hurt scyther, and he was very glad of it.

Katie had grown a bit tired of Justin constantly pestering her to search after the white growlithe again, no matter how many times she told him that it would be nearly impossible for any of their pokémon to track it. However, she had eventually relented, and thought that maybe her shinx would be able to find a clue as to where the growlithe had gone. It seemed pointless, but she figured it was worth a try, and the best place to start would be the rocks where she'd found Justin's scyther. Sighing as Justin suddenly raced ahead, she ran after him toward the outskirts of the city, her shinx following closely behind.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal and Spark were exhausted; Wildflame had insisted they travel as quickly as possible, and even though Snowcrystal was used to running long distances, she felt weak and tired after walking for so long. At last, however, they stopped to take a break. During that time, no one said a word. Snowcrystal was still too shocked, but at the same time she realized that Wildflame was right, and that they needed to keep moving on.

After their little break, which was all too short, Wildflame told the others that it was time to move again, and they carried on.

"Will ya slow down?" Spark grumbled after a short while, far behind the other two. "I can't run for THIS long! I…hey wait! What's that?"

Snowcrystal and Wildflame stopped. Spark was sniffing the air, and Snowcrystal did as well, soon noticing an enticing scent. "There's food nearby!" Spark shouted to the others as he ran off through the bushes. Snowcrystal watched him in confusion.

Then a thought struck her. "Spark! Wait, don't-"

Her words were cut off by a scream.

_To be continued…_


	22. Danger Arises

Snowcrystal jumped in surprise as Spark's scream reached her ears. She and Wildflame darted forward, Wildflame leaping over the bushes and Snowcrystal crawling through them. They found Spark lying dazed near the base of a thick oak tree, his left hind leg clamped in the jaws of a metal trap.

Snowcrystal walked forward, sniffing the trap, and Wildflame pushed her aside. "Let me look at it," she muttered to the growlithe, who backed away. Carefully looking the trap over, Wildflame sighed. "It'll be hard to get it open…" the houndoom muttered. "If only Stormblade were here…he could probably pry it apart…" Sighing to herself, she tried to think of the best way they could free the jolteon. She noticed that because Spark's paw was caught between the 'teeth' of the trap, it was open slightly…enough for Wildflame to carefully squeeze her paw in.

Spark looked up, giving Wildflame a frightened look as he muttered, "Don't…you'll only make it worse…"

"You want me to leave you here?" Wildflame cried, pulling her paw out of the trap. "Look, at least this trap is a small one…your paw isn't broken. All we need to do is get it open a little bit, and you can pull your leg out."

"Oh yeah?" Spark rasped, his voice sounding strained although his usual attitude seemed to have returned. "Sounds real simple doesn't it? And just how do you plan on doing that? You put your paw in there and try to pull it open and you'll only get all cut up!" He glanced down at his trapped leg, giving it a sharp tug.

"Stop that!" Snowcrystal hissed at him, agitated. "You'll make it worse! Hold still…I'll try and find something we could use to open it at least a bit wider…" Her voice trailed off as she turned around to search, eyes scanning the rocky ground. All she saw were rocks, sticks, a couple flimsy broken tree branches, mud, and…wait, _rocks…_ "Hang on, Spark!" she cried, turning to the jolteon, who seemed ready to try and pull his leg free again. "I think I have an idea!"

Spark watched as Snowcrystal searched around a bit before walking back to him with a long, thin, and almost pointed rock. Snowcrystal set it beside the trap and nudged it inside as far as it would go until it got stuck. She then placed her paws on the other end of the pointed rock and pushed downward.

Nothing happened. "This isn't working!" Spark muttered through clenched teeth. "And you two better think of something that _will_ work soon, because this HURTS!"

"We're not idiots," Wildflame replied icily. "We can figure out that it hurts by ourselves." Spark merely scowled in response. Ignoring him, she walked toward Snowcrystal, who was still trying to use the sharp rock to lever the trap open. "Let me do it," she told the growlithe, nudging her aside. "Spark, the moment you feel the trap open a little, pull your leg out, as quick as you can, all right?" Spark nodded, and Wildflame paused a moment before pushing down on the pointed end of the rock with both forepaws.

Spark felt the metal teeth of the trap pull out of his leg, and, fighting the pain, he pulled his leg away as hard as he could, feeling the trap's steel claws scrape through his fur and flesh as he did so. However, he'd done it fast enough, and he half collapsed on his side, his leg a bloody mess, but free of the trap.

"There," Wildflame stated calmly. "Problem solved."

"Problem solved?" Spark cried, looking down at his injured leg. "You call _this_ solved?" The jolteon staggered to his feet, keeping his bleeding leg held above the ground. "Look! I'm injured! Who knows how long it'll take to heal…and how do you expect me to travel all day like this? And it hurts even worse than the burns from those stupid houndour!"

"Quit making a big deal about it," Wildflame snapped. "The trap wasn't very strong. Your leg's only badly cut up. You can still walk."

Spark's eyes narrowed and he gave Wildflame a seething look but made no reply.

"Look, Spark," Snowcrystal began, hoping to calm the tension between the two pokémon, "I can see a small forest not far from here. We can rest there and maybe Wildflame can try to hunt, plus there might be some berries we can eat if there's nothing else."

Spark merely nodded sullenly, and the three set off, Spark occasionally complaining about the traps and his wound. The sky was beginning to darken by the time they reached the forest.

Stopping to rest in the shelter of the leafy trees, the trio felt too exhausted to search for food, and surprisingly, none of them were particularly hungry. Instead, they had stopped to drink from a small stream and then settled down to rest, making small nests from moss in the undergrowth.

Snowcrystal was asleep almost instantly; all that traveling had taken a toll on her small body. Spark was kept awake a little longer by the stinging pain in his leg, but despite that, the jolteon was soon asleep as well. Wildflame stayed awake longer, several conflicting thoughts clouding her confused mind.

To her annoyance, she had found herself worrying over Stormblade and Thunder – and Rosie too – wondering where they were, when she had far more important things to think about. Her main concern was finding Articuno; she didn't have time to worry over Snowcrystal's friends. After all, they weren't really _her_ friends…were they?

Sighing, she laid her head against her paw, the faintest traces of doubt that her plan could have any success nagging at her mind. She knew that her main focus should be helping the other houndour and houndoom…those at her homeland…but did she even want to go back? Thinking of what things had been like, she wasn't quite sure anymore…but did she really want to be here? With _them?_ She wasn't sure about that either, and it bothered her. Why should she want to travel around the wilderness, facing humans and whatever other dangers happened to come upon them, and having to see pokémon with horrific injuries and not being able to do anything about it…? But yet…serving under Firedash, even with a reward if she somehow managed to find Articuno, didn't seem pleasant either. As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, Wildflame was doubting her mission.

But it didn't last long. Pushing her conflicting thoughts away, the houndoom settled on the fact that her life with her tribe back by the mountains would be far better than it ever was before, once she returned. She would make sure to succeed, make sure that life would be better…for all her tribe. And she'd never have to worry about these other pokémon ever again…

And with those thoughts, Wildflame soon lulled herself into sleep…

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang wasn't far off. In fact, he and the rest of the pack were quite close to where Wildflame, Spark, and Snowcrystal were resting, but they were unaware of it. The houndour was in a dark mood.

The journey had been slow. One houndour had been caught in a trap, and it had taken a long while to get him free. Blazefang had been angry about the entire thing afterward and as soon as they had stopped to rest, the other houndour had given him a wide berth.

Blazefang sat moodily on top of an old tree stump, his claws digging into the rotting wood. Angrily he tore a large chunk from it, swatting it with his paw into the undergrowth below. Leaping down from the stump, he started to head deeper into the trees…when he heard a voice.

"Leave…!"

The hairs on the back of Blazefang's neck stood up straight, and he turned toward the sound of a large pokémon crashing through the bushes. In no more than a few seconds, a grizzled old ursaring stood before him. The larger pokémon's eyes bored into Blazefang's, and the houndour, feeling intimidated, stepped back.

"You…" the ursaring muttered in a low growl, pointing a shaky claw in the direction of where the pack was resting. "You and those others…leave. This part of the forest belongs to us. We don't allow other predators here."

Blazefang didn't answer, but paused to look the ursaring over. The bear-like pokémon's fur was matted and dirty, as if he hadn't bothered to take care of it in a long time. The fur around his muzzle was tinged with silver, and he looked shaky and feeble. He was also very thin, and Blazefang suspected that he had frequently had to deal with competition from other predators. Thus, he and whoever else was a part of his group had probably lost a lot of their territory. The old ursaring was obviously going through rough times.

Blazefang smiled. He didn't seem like much of a threat. "Don't worry," he muttered, "we aren't staying here. We're just resting. We'll be gone well before sunrise. So leave us alone until then, and we can all get on with our lives!"

The ursaring bared his teeth in a snarl. "No," he growled, "there are plenty of other resting places. As long as you and those others are here, you endanger my family!"

Blazefang felt his temper rising. "We're not here to harm anyone but prey!" he spat. "We-"

Before Blazefang could speak further, the ursaring had latched his claws around his throat and lifted him clear off the ground with a forced that greatly surprised the houndour leader. A moment before, the ursaring had looked weak and feeble.

Blazefang gasped and sputtered as the ursaring brought him close to his face, his claws closing around Blazefang's windpipe, leaving him struggling for breath and unable to focus on creating any fire attacks. "Lissen…" the bear pokémon hissed, "you take what little prey we have…you threaten my family! Now either you leave…or I'll drag you and every other houndour here out of the forest myself!"

The ursaring suddenly released Blazefang, who lay coughing on the ground, gazing up at the larger pokémon in cold fury.

He felt…angry…far more angry than he thought he should feel, considering the ursaring's poor condition, and the obvious predicament he was facing. Yet, that seemed to matter less and less the more that anger grew. Baring his fangs, he snarled back at the ursaring's face, "Make me!"

A look of fear and disbelief crossed the old ursaring's face as he realized he'd have to put up a fight. Yet fighting was something he was clearly no stranger to. With a roar, he charged at Blazefang with a speed that surprised the houndour, slicing his claws across Blazefang's flank and knocking him to the ground.

That was it.

Without thought, without contemplation, Blazefang rose as if he hadn't even felt the pain. He opened his mouth, and saw, without thinking, his vision fading into a blinding yellow and white, and then white flames erupting from his jaws.

The ursaring's scream of agony hardly registered to him; he barely saw the old pokémon flailing in anguish as the bright flames surrounded him in a small, fiery tornado. He didn't care, he didn't think, he just saw.

And then the brightness faded, and Blazefang's senses returned. He looked forward, and gave a startled cry of shock. The ursaring was dead. The smell of burning flesh was overpowering, and Blazefang felt himself choke.

He had killed a pokémon…and not for prey. _It felt so wrong…_

He averted his head from the sight of the ursaring's charred remains, horrified. A memory of one of Wildflame's meetings passed through his mind. While telling him about the growlithe and the other pokémon accompanying her, she'd told him what one of them had said about the 'Forbidden Attacks.' Blazefang remembered it too well, and he became even more horrified. Why had he used that attack? And why had it seemed…so beyond his control? And even…more powerful?

Shuddering, Blazefang forced himself to look back at the ursaring, but immediately had to turn away again. He was shaking uncontrollably, still in shock from what happened.

" _What have I done…?"_

He looked up again, averting his eyes from the dead ursaring, as he glanced at all the burned foliage. So much of it was burned to nothing, and other trees and plants had started to burn, small white flames with bluish-black streaks flickering over their branches and leaves.

Blazefang stared at the scene in a trance.

Then the sudden realization of what he'd done hit him like a freight train. Whirling around, he suddenly darted back toward the pack, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"GET OUT! EVERYONE OUT!"

A frantic energy seemed to pulse through him, giving him seemingly boundless energy as he bolted toward the pack. He'd felt this energy before, several times, but this time he didn't like it. It hurt. It throbbed through his veins, making him almost wince with every step. It was odd...it didn't really hurt physically, but the feeling...he couldn't stand it. It felt dark and foreboding, and although it made his frantic dash swifter, he felt as if he had to fight against it to move in that particular direction, like it wanted him to stay and witness the destruction he had caused.

It wasn't long before he spotted the pack. "GET OUT OF THE FOREST!" he yelled, looking frantic and wide-eyed as he skidded to a halt in front of them. "GET EVERYONE OUT…NOW!"

"What?" one of the houndour asked. "I thought we were here to rest-"

"GET OUT!" Blazefang cried, his voice rising to a fearful howl. "GET OUT OF THE FOREST YOU IDIOTS! UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!"

Startled, all the houndour stood up and started to back away. One of them still looked hesitant. "But what's-"

"OUT! GO THAT WAY! NOW! JUST GET OUT!" Blazefang started to race ahead, and the others, though confused, felt like they had no choice but to follow. Blazefang was moving so fast, they had to struggle to keep up, knowing that they would not get any answers until Blazefang thought they were in the clear. Luckily, they didn't have too far to run.

In a deeper part of the forest, unaware of the commotion, Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame slept soundly…

…as the fire burned.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade opened his eyes, finding his surroundings new and unfamiliar. Because there was currently no light in the room, it took him quite a few moments to realize that he was inside a pokémon center, but in a very unfamiliar pokémon center. He tried to lift his head, but the movement only sent pain shooting down his neck and the wounds in his back. He lay still again, the memories of the past events, and the battle, slowly coming back to him. In a panic he wondered just how much damage Volco's attacks had caused him. At the moment, however, he had no way of knowing. He couldn't see much of the room, which surprised him, as he could usually see well in the dark, but he could tell that he was lying on some blankets on one of the beds he'd seen so often used in pokémon centers he'd been to in the past. He could still feel quite a lot of pain, but nothing close to what he'd been enduring before, and if he lay still, it was at least tolerable.

Gradually, as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see the faint shapes of other pokémon, though they weren't very close to him and he couldn't really tell what species they were. As he tried to make sense of how he had gotten here, he vaguely wondered if the humans' medicine could heal a wound from a Forbidden Attack, and whether what Spark had said had been a lie or simply just a myth. But remembering Blazefang's attack, how completely unnatural it was, he found it hard to believe that what he'd heard from the others over the past few days had been lies.

After a moment, another thought came to him. If he was here…where was Thunder? Suddenly alarmed, he lifted his head, slower and more carefully this time, so he had a better view of his surroundings. He couldn't identify Thunder's scent, or the scents of the other pokémon for that matter; there were too many strange and confusing scents in the place and he still felt dazed and only half-awake.

As he turned his head toward the side, he noticed that a bowl of water had been placed on the bed right beside him. Ignoring it, he tried to push himself up to stand, but found it harder and more painful than he had imagined, and only managed to stand very awkwardly on all fours before he collapsed from exhaustion.

He heard someone moving in another part of the room, and realized it must be one of the nurses' pokémon.

"I…I need to find out where my friend is," Stormblade called, surprised by how weak and frail his own voice sounded. The pokémon didn't respond, and he lay his head down, realizing that whoever it was, they had already left … Dazed, he tried to ignore the pain that raced up his leg like fire; standing on it hadn't been the best of his ideas, as he thought to himself that Thunder would be all right. If he was here, she had to be here too…right?

At the sound of approaching human footsteps, Stormblade fell completely still; for some reason he himself was unsure of, he didn't want the humans to know he was awake. As they came closer, he opened his eyes slightly, and noticed one of the humans who worked at the pokémon center, and a pokémon ranger, who was carrying an injured poochyena.

"Right here?" the ranger asked, as she walked out of Stormblade's line of sight and to what had to be another bed.

"Yes," Nurse Joy responded, and Stormblade heard the poochyena whimper as it was set down.

"Was this one wild or trainer owned?" the ranger asked.

"Wild," Nurse Joy replied. "A lot of them were."

"What about the three we brought here this morning?" asked the ranger, and Stormblade held still, listening. _One of those 'three' could be Thunder._

"Well," began Nurse Joy, "the arcanine is recovering, but he still has some serious wounds that have been untreated for a long time. The female scyther seems a lot stronger, but we haven't been able to get near her since she woke up. I suppose in the morning we may have to tranquilize her again. As for the male scyther…well, I honestly don't know what to think."

Stormblade relaxed a bit; Thunder was here, and doing better from what the human had said. The scyther felt relieved at that statement, but he was quickly becoming afraid for himself. What did that human mean? _Didn't know what to think…_

Stormblade heard the pokémon ranger sigh and move across the room, Nurse Joy following. "Well, I just wish I knew what caused it," she whispered. "That'd probably be at least a bit helpful. It had to be a trainer's pokémon; there aren't any wild fire types anywhere near this area strong enough to do that much damage…and the scyther couldn't have gotten far in that condition…"

Their voices faded, and Stormblade realized that they had left the room. Out of curiosity he lifted his head and tried to peer towards where they had left, but immediately regretted it as pain flared up his back and neck again. Letting out a faint groan, he lay back down.

Outside of the room, Nurse Joy and the pokémon ranger were still talking. "I don't think one of the poachers injured the scyther," the ranger was saying, "or at least didn't give it those burns. From what you told me, it seems like the scyther had been injured like that for days."

"His trainer could have wanted to abandon him," Joy replied sadly, "and those wounds could have happened in a battle."

"If so," the ranger replied, "whoever owned the pokémon that used the attack was breaking the law. That's taking a battle _way_ too far."

Nurse Joy nodded dejectedly and peered into another room, where many injured or sick pokémon were also resting. "I always try my best to help pokémon in need," she mused quietly, "and I know my assistants do as well. But it's been a long time since I had to treat so many…and several have been lost already. The male scyther might end up having to be put to sleep…"

The ranger sighed. "Well, I'll make sure I do everything I can to prevent things like this from happening again. I will do my best to help make sure that the poachers are stopped."

  
**-ooo-**  


Night had fallen upon the Stonedust City Pokémon Center. Thunder and Redclaw had rested throughout the day, wary of the humans who passed by the enclosures frequently to tend to the pokémon. However, thanks to Thunder's aggressiveness, no one had dared to venture near the scyther, so the freshly dug hole beneath the gate where her enclosure bordered with Redclaw's had gone unnoticed.

Thunder had gone back to her own fenced in area, and both she and Redclaw had eaten all of their food. Now that darkness had fallen and the humans wouldn't be coming back for quite a while, she was eager to leave.

She quickly crawled through the hole again, moving into the arcanine's enclosure without a sound. Redclaw motioned toward a new hole he had dug beneath the gate, one that led into an open enclosure which currently held only a few ponyta and tauros. "It'll be easy to get out from there," Redclaw muttered quietly, sounding worried. Thunder could tell he was still not very enthused about the escape plan.

Thunder glared at him, then approached the hole. She muttered to Redclaw, not for the first time, about it being too small for him.

"I'll be fine," was all Redclaw said.

With a sigh Thunder walked forward, and Redclaw noticed her limping. He found himself staring at the nasty burn across her leg that Volco had inflicted. He could also see that her wing was still in bad condition; she'd have a hard time clearing the fence once she made it into the ponyta's enclosure. She was in very bad shape, obviously, but Redclaw knew enough about her to know not to say anything on the matter. Thunder didn't like others to think of her as weak or in need of help, it seemed. He shifted uncomfortably, pausing to lick a bandaged paw, as Thunder made it through the hole he'd dug and into the open area of the next pokémon enclosure.

"Well…" Thunder began icily, startling the arcanine for a moment, "aren't you going to dig the hole…bigger?"

"I…" Redclaw began uncertainly, unsure of how she would take what he was about to say. "I'm not coming. I'm going to stay…to stay here."

"And be a slave to the humans?" Thunder scoffed, not seeming surprised in the least. Redclaw knew she must have been suspecting this by the way he was acting, but she hadn't said anything on the matter until now. "Look," the scyther continued, "I know they gave us food but they still imprisoned us. Obviously they don't want us to leave but are still trying to gain our trust…nothing more."

"I…I think they're going to let us go once we're healed," Redclaw replied. "Trainers bring their pokémon here so obviously _they_ trust the other humans…"

"But we _aren't_ trainer pokémon!" Thunder growled. "We belong to no one, so to them we're free for the taking! And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a slave!"

Redclaw sighed; he had expected Thunder to react this way, but even just looking at her wounds made him even more determined to convince her to stay. "Look, Thunder," he told her, looking her in the eyes, "I know why you feel this way…you've been Master's pokémon your whole life, or as long as you can remember, but I haven't, and I have seen that humans _can_ help poké-"

"Sure!" Thunder retorted, her voice almost rising to a shout. "When it's convenient for them, right? When they have something to gain. Don't you see? These humans are taking advantage of our weakness to gain our trust, but they aren't letting us leave! Look at the bars of these gates! Does that not mean _anything_ to you? Do you just suppose these humans are all on our side and want nothing more than to help when they've tried to rob us of our _freedom?_ THINK, Redclaw! These humans are up to no good and it seems like I'm the only one who notices! Am I the only one who sees these bars, and that they've got Stormblade locked up inside?"

Redclaw looked shocked. "Thunder, Stormblade's-"

"Listen!" Thunder shouted, and Redclaw was shocked that none of the pokémon near their enclosures had woken up. "What reason would a human have to go out of their way to help us? They want fighters! Pokémon to battle for them, and they want healthy ones! Why else would they run a place like this?"

"But Thunder, we don't really know-"

"Forget it," Thunder snapped. "If you want to stay here and be their prisoner, then fine. Don't say I didn't warn you. As for me, I'm getting out while I can!" She turned abruptly away, walking further into the small field of the ponyta's enclosure.

"Wait!" Redclaw shouted, and to his surprise, Thunder stopped. "You shouldn't…" he began, but once again, Thunder cut him off.

"All right, listen," she told him, "where was Stormblade? If I can, I'm going to try to get him out too-"

"Don't," Redclaw said with a sigh. "Stormblade wouldn't last another day out there. At least here…he still has a chance."

Thunder paused for a moment, calming down a little and realizing that what Redclaw said was right. "Okay…" she replied. "I guess you're right…Stormblade was injured by a Forbidden Attack. He has no future out in the wild or…or any future at all, actually."

"Injured by what?" Redclaw replied, confused.

"A Forbidden Attack," Thunder responded. "Some sort of super powered attack or curse or something…that inflicts wounds that won't heal. Unless of course, the jolteon was making the whole thing up…" Redclaw looked confused and Thunder began to turn away. "Look, not that having pointless arguments with you hasn't been _fun_ , but someone's going to wake up, or the humans are going to hear us. So I should get going. But remember, you still have your chance to escape…and if I were you, I'd use it!"

She started to walk away from Redclaw for a moment, then stopped. A look of surprise and anger crossed her face and she ducked back into the shadows by the barred gate. "Look," she hissed in anger, "the humans heard us!"

"What?" Redclaw replied, peering through the gate as Thunder pointed out a dark figure strolling by one side of the fence that made up the ponyta's enclosure.

"Well at least he's not coming this way…" Thunder continued, watching the human head toward the pokémon center. "False alarm I guess…" She stood up straighter, as Redclaw's ears suddenly perked up and he stiffened.

"Wait…" he murmured. "Something's not right."

The tone of his voice made Thunder pause; she couldn't tell what was troubling him, but a look that was almost fear had crossed his face. " _What?_ " she asked, sounding annoyed.

"I…I don't know," Redclaw admitted, "but look…that human's going into the building but not from the main doors…"

"So?" Thunder asked, watching as another human stepped out of a much smaller door in the building's side and told the other human something before running off towards one of the pokémon enclosures. "Let the humans do what they want…I'm getting out of here!" She walked out of the shadowed area and into the moonlight, heading for the far fence. Redclaw could tell her limp was getting worse.

For a moment Redclaw felt torn; he did not want Thunder to go off on her own; she would starve! And if he couldn't convince her to stay, what good was he to her here? He struggled with his thoughts for a moment, then a final decision reached his mind.

" _Wait!_ " he called to Thunder, as loudly as he dared. "I'm coming!" Thunder stopped and turned, and Redclaw frantically widened the hole beneath the gate, until he could squeeze under it. Being very careful to avoid the sharp ends of the bars as much as he could, Redclaw tried not to get dirt in his bandages. Unlike Thunder, who had torn hers off the moment she'd noticed them, he was quite determined to keep his on. Redclaw wasn't interested in getting an infection. Once on the other side, he stood up and limped toward Thunder, gritting his teeth against the pain the new stinging cuts across his back caused.

The arcanine opened his mouth to say something to Thunder, but a new sound distracted him. Whirling around, he watched a struggling ponyta break free from a bright red beam coming from a red and white sphere that lay open on the ground. A moment later it was hit by another, and this time it didn't break free. The other pokémon nearby had already woken up, but Redclaw and Thunder hadn't been noticed.

"Glad you decided to come with me?" Thunder asked from up ahead, not seeming at all concerned about the ponyta's plight. However, she looked wary and alert, waiting for Redclaw to catch up so they could make their escape.

The arcanine didn't reply but merely hurried to catch up, turning his head in alarm as for some strange reason, a fleeing ponyta stopped running. A second later he realized he'd hesitated a moment too long. A strange, glowing energy surrounded his body and began lifting him into the air. Redclaw tried to struggle but found he was frozen in place, suspended eerily over the grassy field. Only his eyes moved, and they darted back and forth as he frantically gazed at his surroundings in terror and confusion.

Redclaw could then see the strange humans…the ones that didn't belong there, standing alongside psychic pokémon of various types. Off in the distance, from what sounded like somewhere on the other side of the pokémon center, some type of battle had broken out, and he could hear a few humans shouting. He wondered why none of the good humans were stopping these other ones. Maybe they were trying to help wherever that battle was taking place. Then he realized…a lot of the humans like the ones who had helped him – the rangers and the police – would be in the forest, helping other victims of the poachers.

Thunder had seen the humans and psychic pokémon as well. She turned and ran toward the nearest human, who had a lithe espeon sitting by his side. As the espeon was concentrating on holding Redclaw and one of the ponyta still, he did not see the scyther coming until the last instant.

Turning his head toward Thunder, the psychic pokémon's concentration was lost, and Redclaw and the ponyta fell to the ground. In the same instant, an almost transparent barrier of psychic energy materialized in front of the espeon; Thunder's scythes met it instead.

Quickly realizing what had happened, Thunder wasted no time in sidestepping the barrier and running toward the espeon from the side. The psychic type skillfully leaped out of the way, but a moment too late, and Thunder's scythe slashed a deep gash in his back. Espeon landed on all fours, hearing his trainer back away and shout a command.

Espeon's head turned towards Thunder as his eyes began to glow. A strange bluish glow, just like the glow that had surrounded Redclaw, appeared around Thunder. However, this time, Espeon's concentration was broken by the pain searing across his back, and Thunder managed to break free.

Redclaw, meanwhile, was still recovering from the effects of the psychic's attack, struggling to stand as he willed his trembling paws to move. He could hear the fight that had broken out between Thunder and Espeon and wanted to help, yet he felt so weak…

Espeon growled as his eyes began to glow again, summoning yet another psychic attack. Once again the glow surrounded the scyther, but Espeon, knowing he couldn't keep it up for more than a few seconds, jerked his head to the side, and in the same movement, the psychic energy forcefully shoved Thunder against the nearest object, a rather large tree.

Thunder's eyes widened as she felt her outstretched scythe forcefully pushed deep into the tree's trunk, with so much force that her entire scythe and arm, up to her shoulder, were embedded into it. She could feel dozens of sharp pieces of splintered wood being forced into her open wounds. Enraged, she began trying to tug her arm free, while fiercely hacking at the side of the tree with her other blade. Espeon wasted no time in attacking the struggling pokémon, and ran towards her, his tail glowing bright silver.

Thunder managed to free herself just as Espeon was in range of attack, and leapt forward to slash the psychic pokémon with her blades, but at the same time Espeon dodged and attacked. Espeon's attack hadn't been aimed well, and the iron tail struck the scyther in the leg. However, it struck a particularly nasty wound from the fight with Volco…hard. The attack created a gash in the scyther's already damaged leg, reopening the old wound. Blood leaked onto the grass. Thunder dropped into a crouching position involuntarily, and it was at that moment that Redclaw recovered enough to start running towards her.

Standing up, Thunder stared the arcanine in the eyes. "Redclaw, run!" she yelled, watching the angry espeon carefully and not noticing the psychic pokémon's trainer reaching for a poké ball. Just as the human lifted his arm to throw, Redclaw came racing toward the espeon.

Startled, the trainer tossed the poké ball at the snarling arcanine and before he reached Espeon, Redclaw vanished inside in a beam of red light. The poké ball dropped to the ground and twitched a few times before finally becoming still. Thunder stared in horror; whatever type of poké ball it was, it must have been a powerful one to capture Redclaw so quickly, injured or not. Seeing Espeon standing in front of his trainer, Thunder ran towards him, striking him three times in quick succession across his shoulders and chest. Bleeding, the espeon collapsed from the pain, but still looked up at Thunder long enough to create an orb of dark energy in front of his open mouth. A shadow ball attack.

The orb hurtled toward Thunder, creating a small explosion that knocked her off her feet. Feeling weakened and drained of energy, she staggered upright, facing the espeon and his trainer again. She ignored the sound of chaos from other areas nearby, where small fights and struggles had broken out. Running past the weakened espeon, Thunder headed straight for the human who now had Redclaw's poké ball in his hand…

At that moment, another of the humans who'd heard the struggle came to the espeon trainer's aid. "Get away from him!" he shouted, lifting his gun and firing.

Thunder saw and ducked, feeling the bullet zip past her wing. Knowing there was no other option, she turned and fled, running toward the fence that bordered the enclosure. The human fired the gun twice more. Thunder didn't slow her pace; the bullets had missed. Leaping clear over the fence, she headed away from the pokémon center and toward the outskirts of the city. The human made as if to follow, but the espeon's trainer stopped him.

"Leave it," he muttered. "Let's work on getting the rest of them." He then walked toward his fallen espeon.

  
**-ooo-**  


As soon as she was out of sight of the pokémon center, Thunder collapsed in an alleyway. Breathing heavily, she lay still for a few minutes, unable to force her exhausted muscles to move. Her wounds were on fire with pain, and she felt too weak to get up.

But she wasn't willing to stop until she was out of the city. Struggling upright, Thunder took one step forward before collapsing again, more from pain this time than exhaustion. Reluctantly, she came to realize that Redclaw had been right. Now, she'd only managed to make her wounds worse, and she hadn't been able to bring Redclaw with her…

Thunder could feel her senses beginning to fade. The pain was becoming too great; she was losing consciousness. Struggling to fight it for a few moments, Thunder soon realized it was no use, and she slipped into unconsciousness. She was simply too worn out, and was now forced to lie alone in an alleyway in the midst of a human city.

  
**-ooo-**  


Back at the pokémon center, Solus was seething. Some makeshift bandages made from strips of clothing had been wound around the espeon's shoulders and middle. As he sat obediently by his trainer, he didn't even look up as the other trainers helping his own returned from the building, many carrying poké balls. Some of them belonged to trainers and had been stored in the pokémon center, others they had used to catch unclaimed pokémon themselves.

The eevee evolution was glad his psychic abilities were able to block some of the pain from his wounds, though that took effort. He found it even harder to focus, remembering the shameful event that had just taken place all too well.

He…a strong eevee evolution, a cunning fighter …beaten by an injured, half-starved _scyther!_ The stupid pokémon hadn't deserved to win. If he hadn't been distracted…if he had been ready, he would have made her wish she'd never been born.

Trying to distract himself from his angry thoughts, Solus lifted his head and watched the trainers, the members of Team Rocket. They were safe for now. Most of the humans his trainer called "police" had left the city earlier, trying to catch poachers. The ones that had come to defend the pokémon center had been dealt with already.

Solus looked up as another trainer approached his own, followed by a younger, not yet fully grown human. "Did you find all the pokémon that could be of use to us?" the espeon's own trainer asked.

The other experienced trainer glanced at the younger one, who nodded. "I caught all the ones inside the pokémon center that looked strong enough to battle," the boy stated.

"Good," Solus heard his trainer answer as he turned to look at the older of the two humans. "And the healthy ones?"

"There weren't many," the other trainer replied sheepishly. "I suppose the nurses were too busy helping injured pokémon to check on relatively healthy ones. But I brought the ones that were there." He set down a backpack, which was filled with poké balls of various kinds. Solus leaned forward to sniff them curiously, wondering what new pokémon he would be helping to train in the future. Around him, several of the other Rocket members nearby had sent out a few abra, and some of them had already teleported away from the area.

Solus stood beside his trainer, listening to the man speak. "Well, it's not as good as what I was hoping for, but I'm sure we got quite a few decent pokémon. Luckily you didn't seem to have much trouble taking them, did you?" The other trainer simply smirked and he continued, "Now all that's left to do is to make sure the police who are left can't try to follow us quickly."

"How do we do that?" the younger trainer asked, feeling nervous now that he and the other two were the only ones who hadn't teleported yet. The last abra sat beside Solus, who turned his back to her disdainfully.

"Simple," Solus's trainer replied, returning the psychic eevee evolution. "While you two were in there, others placed explosives in some of the rooms. Oh don't look at me like that!" he added, seeing the boy's shocked face. "The nurses and the ranger all came outside during the commotion. They're well away from the danger. The main building will be the only thing damaged." He lifted up a small device, and the boy noticed the man's finger move over a button. "Stand close to Abra, you two," he ordered, and the two trainers hurried to obey him.

Still, the boy looked worried and shocked. "What about the other pokémon?" he asked. "The ones that were too weak? What will happen to them?"

Solus's trainer shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They're weak…worthless. And for all I care…they can burn and die." He quickly pressed the button.

Abra then teleported the three trainers, as the main building of the pokémon center went up in flames.

  
**-ooo-**  


Justin and Katie had not gotten very far, but somehow they had managed to keep out of sight of any dangerous pokémon or poachers and also, though they didn't realize it, the police. It had grown dark, and there had been no sign of the white growlithe. The two had reluctantly headed back to the city.

Upon reaching it, Katie immediately knew something was amiss. Huge columns of smoke were billowing up from somewhere near the center of the city, and though most of it had been obscured by the trees and the dark, cloudy sky before they'd reached the city, the bright lights of the buildings made it very easy to see. Justin and Katie gave each other alarmed looks before racing toward the source of the smoke.

By the time they got close enough, panting and out of breath, they could see that entire sections of the pokémon center had collapsed completely, and the flimsy looking remains of what was still left standing were blazing brightly. Several humans, including those who worked at the center, and water pokémon had gathered around the building, trying to put out the fire. However, there was little left of what had once been the main building of the Stonedust City Pokémon Center. Unable to look any longer, Katie turned away.

"Let's get out of here…" the girl whispered to Justin. "I don't want to watch this…"

Justin said nothing, but sullenly followed Katie, not knowing what he could say or do to comfort her.

"Those pokémon…" Katie whispered. "All those pokémon that were in there, and the three that I helped…they must all be dead now…there's no way they could have survived…there's hardly anything left of the pokémon center! They probably weren't able to get out in time…"

Justin nodded his head sadly. He couldn't bear to think of what it would be like for him if one of his own pokémon had been in there, supposedly safe…only to die. At least from what he'd seen of the building's remains, the people who worked there had somehow gotten out safely, but they must not have had time to rescue all the pokémon. Up ahead, the faint rumble of thunder told Justin that it would probably rain again soon, but he didn't care. He still couldn't believe what had happened to the pokémon center…and all the pokémon who had been in it. He knew that now, or very soon, several trainers would have to go through the pain of losing their faithful companions. Suddenly, Justin felt angry, though at first he was not exactly sure why. He felt his thoughts wandering back toward the three pokémon he had seen Katie help bring into the pokémon center. Not looking at Katie, he muttered quietly, "Scyther deserved it."

"What?" Katie replied, turning to look at him.

"He deserved to die," was Justin's only response.

Katie turned away and said nothing.

After a few moments, she stood up again, noticing a few small drops of rain hitting the sidewalk. "Let's go…" she sighed, starting to walk forward. Justin didn't ask where; he wasn't sure Katie even knew. She just wanted to get away from this place, and possibly start to head to another city…maybe one not so isolated as Stonedust was. Maybe one where she could get another badge.

The two said nothing as Justin followed Katie through alleyways and across streets, ignoring the rain that had started to fall down harder. It wasn't until Katie stopped suddenly that he spoke. "What's…"

But Katie didn't give him time to finish. She ran forward, quickly disappearing into another alleyway. Justin followed her quickly and stopped, seeing her standing beside the unconscious form of one of the three pokémon she had helped earlier.

The female scyther.

  
**-ooo-**  


Rosie could hear the angry cries of pokémon and humans alike, all coming closer to the doorway. Leaning her head as far into the bars as she could, the ninetales hoped to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

Before she could even register what was happening, the large form of the granbull guard burst through the doorway and into the room, lifting the limp form of a persian high in the air. With a growl he flung the pokémon to the ground, where it gave a weak cry as it collided with a group of empty cages. Rosie felt her own cage rattle, and she grimaced and looked away, back toward the doorway through which the granbull had come.

Various pokémon, captives who had escaped, were fighting with several others who were clearly on the humans' side. After a brief struggle, several escapers bolted into the room, the granbull guard soon charging after them. One of them, a nimble glameow, managed to slip away through another door and down a hallway, out of sight of everyone else. Rosie's ears pricked as she strained to get a better look of the hallway, and although she couldn't see much, the scent of fresh air slowly wafting from that direction told her that the glameow had managed to open a door. _That was a way out…_

Her thoughts were interrupted as her cage was suddenly knocked over by two struggling pokémon, an escaped absol and a grovyle guard. From the looks of it, the guard was winning. The leaf attached to the grovyle's forearm began to lengthen and glow, and with a sudden, fluid motion, he whipped the now blade-like leaf across the absol's face, causing him to scream.

Rosie glanced away as flecks of the absol's blood splattered over the bars of her cage. A second later, the two pokémon had moved away from her in their struggle. Rosie looked up, calling out to anyone who would listen, her voice blending with those of the other still caged and helpless pokémon. "Let me out! Open the cage! How did you all escape?"

She needn't have called for help. Almost as soon as she had shouted, a billowing plume of red-hot flames moved swiftly in her direction from the other side of the room. Ducking instinctively to avoid the blast, Rosie didn't even think to try to convince herself that the flames wouldn't harm her much…

After the blaze passed, Rosie looked up to see that the bars of one end of her cage were twisted and melted. Seizing her opportunity, she painfully squeezed her way through the opening, ignoring the heat of the metal against her cream-colored fur. Once out, she started to make her way towards the hallway she had seen the glameow escape through, when something stopped her.

Eve was lying prone on the ground near the opposite doorway, the granbull standing over her. After a moment the guard turned away and hurried after another escaper. Dodging a few ranged pokémon attacks, Rosie ran to the mightyena's side, noticing that her black and gray fur was thickly matted with blood.

"Eve…?" she whispered, fear and worry making her voice sound shaky.

The mightyena looked up, recognition dawning in her eyes. "You got out of your cage…" she whispered happily. "You can run free again now…"

"But Eve, you need to get help! You have to get away from here and quickly!" Rosie was aware of the fighting around her, but only vaguely. As she wasn't trying to escape, none of the guards seemed to care that she was standing there.

"Don't worry," the mightyena replied weakly. "The humans won't let me die. Traitor to them or not, I'm still a valuable pokémon in their eyes. Now look," she continued, seeing that Rosie was about to argue, "I can't get rid of my collar, but I can take off yours. You need to get out of here while you still can. The humans and guards are bound to restore order soon."

Before Rosie could reply, Eve sank her teeth into the collar around her neck and began to pull. Rosie gasped as minor shocks flickered over her fur. Eve bit down harder. Rosie felt a large shock surge through her body for a split second, then the collar was gone. The ninetales gasped for breath as Eve flung the collar away. "Go," the mightyena ordered.

Rosie hesitated for a moment, but she knew that to stay there and be recaptured after Eve's efforts to help her would be foolish. "Th-thank you…" she managed to stammer.

"GO!" Eve yelled, and, suddenly realizing the danger she was in as more humans and pokémon entered the room, Rosie made a dash for the hallway.

Suddenly well aware of the battles around her, Rosie barely managed to dodge stray attacks as she turned into the corridor, her claws skidding against the smooth floor. Light shone through a still-open doorway down the hall, and relief flooded through her as she realized that miraculously, the humans and guards hadn't noticed it yet.

But when she had been looking at the door, Rosie had also been distracted. Taking the ninetales completely by surprise, the granbull guard leaped toward her, his powerful paws slamming her to the ground.

Rosie's eyes widened in shock as she was forcefully knocked against the tile, her right foreleg crumpling beneath her. She then gave a cry of agony as she felt the bone snap. Turning her head, she bared her fangs in an angry snarl and launched an ember attack, right in the granbull's face. Howling in pain, he turned away, allowing Rosie to painfully haul herself upright and limp toward the doorway and to freedom, holding her broken leg above the ground.

Once outside, she broke into a hobbling, stumbling run, gritting her teeth tightly against the pain shooting up her forelimb, not stopping despite the agony the broken bone was causing her. After what seemed like hours, but what really couldn't have been anywhere near that long, Rosie finally allowed herself to stop in the shelter of some bushes and trees.

Lying on her side against the soft grass, Rosie closed her eyes and tried to forget everything that she had seen. There were so many pokémon who, unlike her, hadn't made it to freedom. She spent a few moments in silence, listening. Apart from a few distant bird pokémon, no one was nearby. She was safe…at least for now. Softly licking her broken leg, Rosie closed her eyes, letting exhaustion overcome her.

_To be continued…_


	23. New Troubles Begin

Surprised, Katie walked over to the still form of the unconscious scyther. A quick look determined that the chain around the scyther's arm had been removed, but the collar and shackle still remained. Her wounds didn't look any better, and she had new injuries in addition to the old ones. Katie knelt down beside the pokémon.

Justin backed away, his eyes narrowed as he watched the motionless figure at Katie's feet. This scyther looked smaller than the one he had owned, even if only slightly so. It was also much thinner than he knew healthy scyther were supposed to be. That, combined with its injuries and the fact that it was _unconscious_ did not make it a threat, but Justin didn't like the thought of getting closer to it regardless. However, he ignored his fear and walked over to stand beside Katie.

Stepping up to the scyther's side, Justin sneered at it, mumbling under his breath, "Stupid thing…probably didn't know how to find food for itself…must have been too busy attacking other pokémon and people and getting into fights, by the look of those scars…" He gave the scyther a sharp kick, but the pokémon didn't stir. He quickly glanced at Katie, but she was looking through her backpack for supplies, too focused on her task to have noticed. Crouching down, Justin peered at the scyther's wounds closely, calling over to Katie, "Forget it, you're not a nurse. Quit trying to act like one. None of your supplies are going to help."

He expected her to yell at him, but to his surprise, she only sighed and stood up. "You're right," she agreed. "Maybe I should go find help…and I'm NOT going to leave her here!" she added, giving Justin a glare.

"Why do you care so much?" Justin scoffed, but Katie was already walking away, intent on finding someone to help the wretched pokémon. Realizing that she probably wanted him to wait there, he sat down, watching the scyther. It still wasn't showing any signs of waking up, and from the looks of it, Justin suspected that it would be unconscious for a while longer. He was about to get up and follow Katie when he noticed something strange. The glint of metal in the dim light reflecting off the scyther's neck caught his eye, and as he peered closer through the gloom, he realized the pokémon was wearing a battered, heavy iron collar.

Curious, Justin ran his finger over the collar, feeling many shallow scrapes and scratches along its surface…that from the looks of it had to come from something thin and sharp, like a scythe. Moving his hand away, he noticed the shackle and remains of a severed chain around the scyther's arm. This too was covered in scratch marks, though some looked like the marks of sharp fangs rather than scythes.

He paused to wonder, had this scyther, time and again, slashed and bit frantically at this shackle and collar, out of sheer desperation, in some vain attempt to get them off? And if so, why had it been so desperate? _Why did he care…?_ That was a better question. Standing up on the dusty concrete, he kicked dirt over the scyther, strangely feeling disappointed that it did not move. He realized then that it wasn't going to move. Not anytime soon. It was out cold, and would be for a while, considering that it hadn't woken up yet. His least favorite pokémon, which had fueled his hate ever since his trainer license was taken away…was simply lying in front of him.

And it was defenseless.

A slow smile crept across Justin's face, one that shocked even him. But what did it matter if he took out his anger on this one? Even if it was awake, it would simply shake off any pain he caused it anyway; scyther were fighters. They were violent pokémon who were used to pain. What did it matter?

Narrowing his eyes at the scyther, he walked toward the side of an old building, picking up a large piece of a dusty, broken brick. He hesitated-would Katie know he had hurt the pokémon? Forcing the thought into the back of his mind, he tried to think of his pokémon, the friends he had lost along with his chance of competing in a pokémon league, when all the other trainers his age had gotten to continue their journeys…

A sudden rage took hold of him, and he hurled the brick down at the scyther, feeling strangely disappointed once again when it didn't react. Annoyed, he picked up another brick and got ready to throw, when he hesitated. The emaciated scyther was starting to stir. As it lifted its head, blinking in confusion, Justin panicked. Backing away, he was painfully aware that he was without protection if it attacked; he had no pokémon and Katie was gone. He didn't know whether to run, but somehow the thought of running didn't seem like a good idea. ' _Scyther go after the weak, right?'_ he thought to himself frantically. _'I just can't appear weak to it…'_

While the scyther was trying to stand up, Justin threw the other brick, watching it strike the scyther's shoulder and knock it down. Staying put, Justin watched, his fear ebbing away, as he realized the pokémon was probably too hurt to attack him anyway.

He was surprised when the bug pokémon sat bolt upright, its head turned toward him and its eyes fixing him with a piercing glare. Its mouth opened and it muttered a few words under its breath; words that Justin couldn't understand.

" _What's this? A little Master?"_

Justin froze as the scyther stood up, swaying slightly, but standing all the same. Backing up against the wall of the building, he reached down for another brick and threw it. After all, the scyther was injured…badly. What could it do to him?

To Justin's surprise, Thunder calmly stepped aside, dodging the brick and narrowing her eyes. _This was just another human trying to cause her pain._ She walked closer, her eyes focused on the terrified boy, then leaped straight toward him, scythes raised.

_She would show this human a thing or two about pain!_

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal woke up with an odd feeling. Glancing at her two companions, she could tell they were still asleep. Deciding not to wake them, she turned and headed toward a stream that she had scented through the trees. She had not gone far when she sensed something wasn't right. Frightened flocks of bird pokémon soared over the trees, calling warnings to others of their kind who were still asleep in their nests.

Snowcrystal padded toward a small hill that overlooked another part of the forest, wondering if something was wrong. Before she got three paces, she was knocked off her feet by a linoone who was racing the other way. Quickly scrambling to her feet again, she called after him, "What's going on?" However, he was too panicked to answer her.

Before she could try to follow him, several other pokémon darted past her through the trees, all looking wide-eyed and panicked, and all heading in the same direction. Confused, she turned to the hill and quickly climbed it.

What she saw took her breath away.

The forest below was ablaze, but it was no ordinary forest fire. The flames were bluish-white and streaked with black and violet, and the rate they consumed the trees, burning them into nothing but dark ashes, was startling.

In very little time, that inferno would reach them. Still frozen with shock, Snowcrystal concentrated on the distant flames, watching the white blaze rapidly destroying the forest, as weird blue smoke rose high into the air. It was then that she realized…

_Blazefang had used Shadowflare again…_

Tearing her eyes away from the sight, Snowcrystal bolted back toward the others, startling Spark and Wildflame into wakefulness.

"Hurry! Get up!" she cried, fear filling her voice. "We need to get out of here now!"

Seeing Snowcrystal's expression, Wildflame stood up quickly, and Spark, still half asleep, just groaned, "I'm still asleep…wake me up later…"

"Spark!" Snowcrystal shouted. "Blazefang used Shadowflare, and the forest is being burned to the ground!"

At that statement, Spark leapt up. "Shadowflare!" he repeated. "Well then…then let's get out of here before we all burn to our deaths!"

Spark limped off, though he hardly seemed to mind the pain now, and Snowcrystal and Wildflame followed closely. By now the blue smoke was visible above the trees. Wildflame noticed it too, not needing to ask Snowcrystal about Blazefang. Still, she was shocked. Hadn't she told him during one of their meetings about what Spark had said about the Forbidden Attacks?

As she ran further, Snowcrystal was so focused on getting away from the danger that it took her a moment to realize that they had lost sight of Spark. "Wildflame!" she cried. "Where's Spark?" Somewhere behind her, a tree toppled over, and Snowcrystal could hear fire crackling over it.

"He's somewhere up ahead!" The houndoom replied. "Keep going!"

Still worried, Snowcrystal kept running, when she noticed some of the trees around her had started to catch fire as well. Panic overtook her, and for a moment she nearly forgot about Spark. Blue smoke filled a clearing ahead of her, and she held her breath as she raced across it; there was no telling what that smoke would do to her if she breathed it in.

After she made it through the clearing, Snowcrystal sprinted frantically in a daze of fear, dodging blazing bushes and trees as she fought madly to escape the oncoming inferno. Wildflame, who had vanished somewhere up ahead moments before, could not be seen.

"Wildflame!" Snowcrystal called out, but she received no answer. Now truly panicked, Snowcrystal darted to avoid a fallen tree, half burnt through by Shadowflare. Running along a new path, she stopped as she realized with horror that she had reached an area blocked off by large boulders. It was a steep climb to the rest of the forest, and though Snowcrystal was used to climbing rocks, these looked far too steep even for her. Turning around, she noticed flames surrounding her on all sides, and some were moving towards her, burning across the dead leaves and branches, getting ever closer.

Having no other option, she leaped at the nearest boulder, feeling her claws slide down it as she fought for a grip. Unable to find one, she slipped and fell to the ground, leaping up again immediately and just barely managing to avoid touching the deadly flames. Scrabbling at the rock's surface, she managed to find a small niche in the stone and placed her back paw inside it, before leaping up towards the top of the boulder.

Snowcrystal's claws scraped against the top of the stone as she slowly fought her way up its side, straining her muscles and praying that she wouldn't fall. Inch by inch, she scrabbled up the rock's side until she collapsed, exhausted, on the top of its smooth surface. Wearily, she got up, realizing that since the rocks had slowed her down, she would have to move even faster…

But she didn't get any further. A blazing limb from a nearby tree broke off as the flames burned through it, sending it crashing down against Snowcrystal's back and head, knocking her out instantly. Luckily, the branch rolled away from the growlithe's limp body before the flames could touch her.

Coming into wakefulness ever so slowly, Snowcrystal thought she could hear someone shout, but her senses were too dazed to register if she had been imagining it or not. She could feel unconsciousness fighting to overcome her again, and fearfully tried to raise her head. A large, dark shape came into view, and she blacked out again.

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame was shocked to find Snowcrystal unconscious, but she did not hesitate before picking the growlithe up by the scruff and hurrying through the forest in the direction Spark had gone. However, it was clear that going back for Snowcrystal had been a dangerous choice. Fire blazed all around her, and she had to leap over many flaming patches of grass or moss. She could not tell where Spark was, but she hoped that he, being a jolteon and therefore faster than she or Snowcrystal, had managed to outrun the fire already despite being injured.

Wildflame kept her grip on the unconscious Snowcrystal as she raced past the trees, white flame blazing on all sides. She tried to keep her head low, as the strange blue smoke was floating above her, and if it harmed her in any way, she was afraid she would never recover.

Up ahead, the burning remains of a fallen tree blocked the houndoom's path. Bracing herself for the leap, Wildflame sprang over it, lifting her back paws and tail free of the flames. Landing roughly to the ground, she took off again, feeling hope rise within her as she spotted a clear area up ahead; she could faintly tell it was rocky and the flames had not spread there. _She was almost out…_

As she neared the edge of the forest, she noticed a large clearing in front of her that was completely ablaze. In a panic, she darted in another direction, and seeing a stream up ahead, leaped into it and ran through the shallow water, avoiding falling branches from burning trees.

She dashed through the water until she came near enough to the place where the forest trees ended. Leaping clear of the stream, she raced onward, when something out of the corner of her eye attracted her attention. A huge tree was toppling down toward her, its trunk blazing with blinding white flames. Trying to give herself an extra burst of speed, Wildflame leaped to the side, hearing the tree smash to the ground behind her, sending a shower of white hot sparks into the air. Some of them singed her fur slightly, but she hardly cared. Now that she was free of most of the trees, she kept running, heading toward the rocks.

When she reached them and moved well away from the burning forest, she knew she was safe, far enough from the flames. Shakily, she set Snowcrystal down before collapsing on the muddy earth. Beside her, Snowcrystal opened her eyes.

"Wildflame…" she whispered quietly, obviously still weak, "you…you saved me…thank you…"

Wildflame smiled at her, and through her fading senses she heard Spark's relieved shout as the jolteon ran over to them. _He had made it out too…_

Smiling again at that last thought, Wildflame lay her head down against the muddied ground, grateful to be alive.

  
**-ooo-**  


A shout caused Redclaw to stir as the world slowly spun into view. The arcanine felt smooth metal beneath his paws and looked around, realizing he was in a large metal cage. He could hear a human a little ways behind him, and a glance to his side told him that if he dared attack, there would be several other humans with tranquilizer guns to stop him. Unsteadily, the dazed arcanine stood up, feeling something brushing against his face. When he reached his forelimb up to rub against the side of his head, he felt metal.

Alarmed, Redclaw gasped…well, tried to. He soon realized that around his head and snout was some sort of steel muzzle, and he could only open his mouth the tiniest bit. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to breathe the amount of fire he would need to cause any damage to the muzzle or the cage, which were probably fireproof in some way anyways. Redclaw sat back, confused. Why was he in a cage and not a poké ball...and how had he fallen unconscious?

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he glanced around at the room and noticed several other pokémon in cages; some unconscious and some awake. A quick look all around told him that Thunder wasn't among them.

Next to him, a caged girafarig was waking up. The pokémon looked around before turning to Redclaw. "Where are we?" she asked, giving Redclaw a confused look.

"I…I don't know…" the arcanine stammered, when a voice interrupted him.

"You're in one of Team Rocket's training facilities."

The speaker was an espeon who wore a black collar with a red symbol on the front of it. The espeon had a few dirty bandages wrapped around his shoulders and middle, and Redclaw recognized him. He was the pokémon who had tried to stop him with psychic attacks and fought Thunder.

Before Redclaw could say anything, the espeon continued speaking. "Wondering what Team Rocket is doing so far from Kanto? Well you'd be surprised…we have plenty of other bases elsewhere, and not many people come by this part of the region. This base was built for pokémon training and experimentation, and it's far from any police and trainers. Anyway, you are all in cages because you're going to be put through a test that you will get to watch. We only want strong pokémon fighting for us. And no, it's not optional, so don't get your hopes up. The test should be in a little while, as soon as my trainers sort out all the pokémon they've caught."

"You…" Redclaw growled, glad that he could still talk in spite of the muzzle. "You're the one who-"

"Please," the espeon muttered, rolling his eyes, "call me Solus. I don't like being referred to as 'you,' especially by low-ranking pokémon such as yourself."

Redclaw momentarily forgot his anger. "Low-ranking?" he repeated, puzzled.

"You haven't been given the test yet," Solus replied, "and you'll have to work your way up to get to my status…you'll have to prove that you're loyal."

The girafarig in the cage beside Redclaw's suddenly reared up angrily. "Loyal?" she spat. "Give me one good reason why I should be loyal to humans like those! They took me from the pokémon center and away from my home forever! Why should I serve you?"

Solus merely turned, looking uninterested. "That's what they all say…" he muttered slyly, before turning his attention to a boy wearing the same uniform as the other Team Rocket members, who had just walked into the room. "The new recruit…" Redclaw heard the espeon mutter.

The boy hesitantly picked up a backpack, which Redclaw could see contained more poké balls. "What's he doing?" Redclaw whispered to the girafarig.

"Bringing in more pokémon for the cages," the girafarig snorted. "I assume they want us all in this big room at once, for whatever reason." She glanced around the room and turned to Redclaw. "What's your name?" she asked.

For a moment, Redclaw considered giving her his real name, the name his parents had given to him in the wild, but he rejected that thought immediately. He wouldn't be able to bear being called by that name; the memories of what he once had and lost would be far too painful for him. "Redclaw," he stated at last.

"My name is Ardunia," the girafarig replied, nodding to Redclaw.

Redclaw was about to reply when he noticed that, one by one, the boy with the backpack was releasing pokémon. The other Rocket members looked unimpressed as one by one the boy released mildly or fairly badly injured pokémon who were then taken to cages, some tranquilized first, others just carried, too weak to fight back.

"Please tell me you caught something worthwhile and didn't go catching all the badly injured ones," one of the Rockets, whom Redclaw recognized as Solus's trainer, said while rolling his eyes at the new recruit.

"I…I didn't think these were too bad…" the boy stammered. "With a bit of healing they could become strong fighters…" The other trainer didn't reply, and the boy reached for another poké ball, hoping that this one contained a pokémon that would impress the others; he knew he'd caught some that were fairly strong. Taking a deep breath, he released the pokémon.

The moment he released it, he knew he'd made a bad choice. The pokémon couldn't stand, and when he released it, it toppled over onto its side, grimacing in pain.

Redclaw, however, just stared. It was Stormblade.

He watched as Solus's trainer walked over to the boy, looking anything but amused. "What…is _this?_ " he muttered, pointing to Stormblade.

"It's a scyther…uh, sir…" the boy replied shakily.

"I know it's a scyther, you idiot!" the older trainer snapped. "Why on earth did you catch it? I specifically told you…get the ones we can _battle_ with! Not the ones that were going to be put to sleep anyway in the next few days!" Reaching for the backpack, he grabbed it from the boy's hands, glaring at him. "How many _other_ poké balls did you waste?" he growled, throwing the backpack to the ground.

The boy looked frightened. "I…I did what you said," he whispered sheepishly, "I caught the ones I thought we could use…it may be hurt but it's still a _scyther…_ once it heals it'll be a powerful fighter for us."

"Really?" Solus's trainer sneered. "And what makes you think we want to waste medical attention on something so weak?"

Beside him, Redclaw could hear Ardunia fidgeting uncomfortably in her cage. He turned to see that the girafarig looked worried as she stared at Stormblade and the other badly injured pokémon. She paced back and forth in the small space, though there was scarcely enough room to turn around. Redclaw felt sorry for her; it must be hard for a girafarig to have to stay in such a small confined area.

"It can be strong!" the new recruit was saying. "Pokémon like scyther are tough…and if this one survived getting these injuries in the first place…it must be strong."

Solus's trainer looked down at Stormblade, who lay curled up on the floor. He aimed a kick at the scyther's back, where it was bandaged, and Stormblade merely growled in response. "It didn't even try to strike back," the trainer muttered, shaking his head. "Doesn't seem strong. However…since you seem so keen on convincing me that this scyther was worth catching, I'll make a deal with you. We'll test it. If it survives, we'll let it recover and you'll have succeeded in your task. If not, then you've failed." He glanced scornfully at the other pokémon the boy had captured, and they shrank back fearfully in their cages.

"F-failed?" he replied, looking frightened.

The other Rocket member smiled. "Yes, failed. So do you accept the deal or not?"

The boy hesitated for a moment, looked at Stormblade, and nodded.

"Well then…" came the other trainer's reply, "let's see if this scyther really _is_ as tough as you claim it is…" He crouched down, fitting a metal collar with a chain around Stormblade's neck, noticing that the scyther didn't make any move to stop him. Without showing the slightest sign of wariness, he began dragging Stormblade across one side of the room, where he stopped next to a large flat metal surface, like a large table close to the ground. A small machine rested beside it. Stormblade still hadn't moved.

"What are they doing?" Ardunia spat, disgusted. Redclaw said nothing and continued to watch.

The new recruit followed slowly, now looking uncertain. "Are…are you sure you should be doing this? I mean, it's an injured flying type…and even healthy pokémon die sometimes…"

"But it's _tough_ , right?" Solus's trainer replied mockingly. "What do you have to worry about?"

"Stormblade!" Redclaw cried out, though the sound was muffled by the muzzle. "Get up and move!" At the moment, the Rocket's back was to Stormblade, but to Redclaw's dismay, the scyther didn't even look up. Redclaw lowered his head. _Stormblade was too weak…_

As some of the other Rocket grunts walked over to Stormblade, one of them asked, "Isn't this a waste of time? We have work to do…it won't survive…"

"Jeremy here says it will!" Solus's trainer replied, and the boy who'd brought in Stormblade merely glanced at the floor.

"What's…what's happening?" Redclaw asked Ardunia, watching as the humans, with the aid of some of their pokémon, moved Stormblade onto the slab of metal. They attached part of his chain to one of the many rings on the wall near the machine, but in a way that shortened the amount of chain from Stormblade's collar to the ring, making it impossible for the scyther to sit or lie down. When Stormblade tried to raise his scythe at one of the Rockets, a blow to the head from a Team Rocket aggron stunned him.

Redclaw watched as shackles were attached to Stormblade's arms and legs and then chained to certain parts of the metal table, immobilizing him. The arcanine glanced worriedly at Ardunia, who pawed angrily at the floor of her cage, scraping her hooves sharply across the metal.

Stormblade could feel burning pain shooting up his injured leg, and he tried to lift it, even if only a little bit, knowing that even putting his weight on it a little had caused him excruciating pain before. Even though he tried, there wasn't much he could do, and he could tell that he was being purposely forced to stand that way.

As one of the Rocket members moved toward the small machine, Solus, who was sitting near Redclaw's cage, began a whispered conversation with a Rocket golduck. Meanwhile, the human near the machine smiled and stepped back. And at the same moment, Stormblade started screaming.

Redclaw stepped back, his eyes wide, as Stormblade began to struggle and thrash as tremendous volts of electricity began surging through his body from the machine. Every caged pokémon was staring in horror at the struggling pokémon, fearing they might be the next.

"So far, so good, eh?" Solus's trainer smirked with a glance at Jeremy, the new recruit. "Too bad it's only just starting…"

As he spoke, the electricity flowing through Stormblade's body seemed to intensify, and he thrashed harder, trying desperately to reach the shackles or collar with his blades, teeth, anything! Stormblade no longer seemed aware of anything around him. All he could think of and feel was this horrible agony that he could do nothing to stop.

"It's still alive!" Jeremy shouted. "You can stop now. It's proven that it's strong…"

"We're still just beginning," Solus's trainer replied smoothly, not giving the boy a glance.

Stormblade's struggles were growing more desperate. The scyther's wings were flared out, and he was straining against the collar and shackles in some frantic attempt to break free. He pushed back with his legs against the metal table, so hard that blood began seeping from the bandages around his injured leg. However, Stormblade didn't even seem to notice. He pulled madly at the chains, unable to do anything else but stand and endure the torture.

Jeremy could not understand the scyther's words as it cried out, but he was sure it was probably begging them to stop…to end it. Shakily, he turned toward the others. "It's lasted long enough…" he began.

"I'll be the judge of that," Solus's trainer sneered back at him.

Stormblade's shouts intensified, and he continued to thrash madly, unable to bear the agony any longer.

"Please just stop!" Jeremy shouted desperately.

This time, Jeremy got no reply, and the Rockets merely watched the scyther calmly. Redclaw watched in horror as Stormblade's struggles grew weaker and his screams stopped. The scyther could do nothing but feebly pull against the chains now.

Then suddenly, it all stopped. Stormblade's collar chain was carefully detached from the wall and he collapsed, jerking and trembling as sparks flew across the table and his body. Smoke rose from the collar and shackles; the heated metal had burned into his neck and limbs.

Redclaw glanced at Ardunia, who seemed as if she'd been holding her breath the whole time. "He's alive..." the girafarig whispered slowly.

By Redclaw's cage, Solus nudged the Rockets' golduck. "Pay up," he said with a smirk, and the golduck grudgingly placed a few pokéblocks in front of the espeon.

"Well, I suppose you were right about this one…" Solus's trainer admitted. "We'll treat its injuries, though if it doesn't show improvement within a few weeks, we'll have to dispose of it." He turned toward Stormblade, who was still lying against the slab of metal and trembling uncontrollably, his breathing coming in ragged gasps every few seconds. The trainer picked up Stormblade's poké ball and returned him before striding out of the room. "Get the rest of them in cages," he called over his shoulder, motioning to the backpack containing the rest of the poké balls.

As he left, Solus turned toward Redclaw with a smirk. "It'll be your turn soon…" the espeon said with a grin.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade woke up slowly, vaguely aware that he must have passed out some time after being returned to his poké ball. He was still shaking uncontrollably, and he could feel the pain in his leg getting worse as he woke up more fully. His hazy vision cleared enough for him to realize that he was in some sort of small cell, next to many others. He was lying on an old blanket, but there was no food or water. In the cells next to him, he could hear a few pokémon crying out or whimpering. _What was this place…?_

Feeling worried, but too weak to stand up, he lifted his head, listening to the cries of the other pokémon. He could see some of them wearing dirty bandages, and he assumed this was where injured pokémon were healed. However, Stormblade knew that if this place were a pokémon center, it would be closed down immediately; these pokemon were all obviously still in pain, and none of them had received anything close to adequate care. They had probably only had their wounds bandaged and been given medicine to fight infection, and then were just placed in the cells.

Laying his head back down, Stormblade tried to appreciate the thin blanket the humans had given him to lay on. It didn't offer much warmth or comfort, but it was better than the cold concrete ground of his small cell. He was actually surprised they had given him a blanket; none of the other pokémon had one, and he wondered which human had given it to him. He wished whoever it was had given him some food or water too. Apart from a single rawst berry to help heal his wounds from Thunder's trainer's Arcanine, he hadn't eaten since he and Spark had passed through the forest alone. That had been before meeting Snowcrystal. Scyther were tough predators that could last a while without eating when they needed to, but it had been too long, and his hunger was rapidly weakening him.

He wasn't quite sure how long he would be allowed to stay in the cell, but in the back of his mind, he feared that the humans would grow tired of waiting for him to heal, and they would find a way to get rid of him.

  
**-ooo-**  


Rosie knew that she couldn't rest long. Painfully, she staggered upright on three legs, holding her broken foreleg above the ground. Limping forward, she decided to try and make it as far away from the poachers as she could, ignoring the pain in her leg…or trying to.

A few times, Rosie collapsed when the pain was too much. Every time however, she would get up again and keep going. Her fear of what the poachers would do if they caught her motivated her to carry on. She knew they probably wouldn't even be looking for her anymore, but all the same, she had to keep going…

To get away as fast as she could…

  
**-ooo-**  


Back at the ruined pokémon center, a police officer was talking to Officer Jenny, while standing beside a small, sandy-haired boy, who kept looking worriedly at Jenny.

"He says his meowth had a tracking collar," the other officer explained. He turned to the boy before asking, "Was your meowth injured when you brought it to the pokémon center?"

Looking surprised, the boy shook his head. "No," he replied, "I just wanted the nurses to check on him…I thought he might be getting sick…they said they had a lot of other injured pokémon to take care of but they said they would check on him…"

Listening, Jenny waited until he was done speaking before replying, "If the meowth was taken in just to be checked on, it must have been in its poké ball for most of the time. I think there's a very likely chance it was stolen. Where those people took it, no one can be sure, but the areas beyond this city are mostly wilderness. It's very likely that they could have set up some sort of base there. Stonedust _is_ one of the most isolated cities in this region, and most trainers don't venture north of here. Vast wastelands, dangerous ice mountains and many other harsh territories that have never been fully explored...it's no wonder."

Ignoring the boy's horrified look, she continued, "But if they've only barely captured all the pokémon, I'm sure we can use the meowth's collar to find their location, before they realize it's a tracking collar…and _that's_ how we'll find out where they're hiding."

_To be continued…_


	24. Battle at the Rocket's Base

Justin backed away, terror marked on his face as he watched the scyther leap forward. With a cry of shock he ducked as the outstretched blade moved toward him, coming dangerously close to impaling him. Justin knew he had only managed to dodge fast enough because the scyther was slowed down by its injuries. As Justin had ducked, the pokémon's blade had become partially embedded in the crumbling wall of the building he'd been standing against, giving him the time to scramble to his feet and run.

Yanking her arm free, Thunder watched Justin through narrowed eyes before giving chase, ignoring any and all pain from her wounds.

Justin bolted out of the alleyway and back towards the ruined pokémon center, where he was sure Katie had gone to ask for help from the nurses who were probably still there. Not for the first time, he wished he had a pokémon – _any pokémon_ – with him. Fear coursed through him as he heard the scyther run up behind him, and though he tried to dodge, he felt one of its razor-sharp blades slice across his back. The cut wasn't deep enough to cause any real serious damage, but it felt as painful as if he had been lashed by a whip.

Justin cried out, collapsing on his hands and knees, feeling blood trickling down his back and wondering why someone hadn't come to help him. At about that time, the scyther's other blade struck him, creating a long cut very similar to the first and knocking him over on his side. Panicked, Justin tried to stand up and run away, all the while calling for help as the scyther lifted its blade above him.

To his surprise, his cry was answered almost immediately. He heard a man shout something, and the scyther scream and back away. Looking up, he saw a manectric dart between him and the scyther, sparks flying from its wiry fur. Glaring at the electric pokémon, the scyther looked ready to fight, but as the manectric's trainer came into view and got ready to release another pokémon, it turned and limped off, vanishing into the dark alley again.

"Manectric," the trainer told his pokémon, "make sure that scyther doesn't attack anyone else." The electric pokémon nodded in reply and darted after the bug type.

Meanwhile, Justin had gotten to his feet and turned to the man whose pokémon had saved him. "Th-thank you…" he mumbled shakily.

"That wasn't… _your_ scyther, was it?" the trainer asked, giving Justin a strange look.

"No," Justin replied shakily. "It was just lying in the streets…until it woke up and attacked me!"

The trainer looked confused. "You didn't provoke it in any way, did you?"

"No…" Justin whispered, shaking his head. The man continued to look at him oddly, and without another word, Justin turned and ran, hoping to find Katie. The trainer shouted something after him, but he ignored it.

Trying to forget the wounds in his back, Justin kept running, as if afraid the trainer had actually seen him harm the scyther.

He just wanted to get as far away from the area as possible…

 

  
**-ooo-**

Thunder was relieved when she at last made it away from the city and her claws finally touched soil. She had just undergone a frantic dash through the city, and had just managed to get away from the trained manectric. Shakily she walked forward, feeling worn out after running and in pain from her wounds. Blood was oozing from several of them, but she paid it no notice. Being free was all that mattered.

Picking up her pace, she broke into a run again, heading further away from the humans and their city. She was once again free, and now she was on her own. No longer would she be able to travel with the group, but she figured that was for the best; relying on others for help or safety was _never_ a good idea.

 

  
**-ooo-**

After a long while of traveling through the darkness of the night, Thunder stopped to rest in a large grassy field, unsure of which direction she would take next. She knew she could not head back to where they had found – and disturbed – the combee hive, and putrid, blue tinged smoke rising in the distance in another direction was proof that some fire had started, convincing her not to head that way either.

Lying down, she decided to rest as she forced thoughts of pain from her mind, focusing on more important tasks. If she was to survive, she would have to learn how to hunt on her own.

For a moment, she felt a pang of regret as she thought of the other pokémon she had traveled with, who had wanted to help her, but she forcefully pushed the thoughts away. She could not accept help from them. She had never even needed help. There had been no point in traveling with them. She was far better off on her own, and she always had been.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Justin had reached Katie before she and the nurse had gotten to the area where they had found the injured scyther. After the wounds the scyther gave him had been treated, the two watched in silence as the police, as well as many skilled trainers who had volunteered to help, prepared to seek out the thieves who had killed and stolen so many pokémon.

They had gone back to the area near the pokémon center, where most of the nurses were still trying to help any surviving pokémon from the outside enclosures that had been injured from the blast.

It wasn't long before the trainers and police had all assembled in front of the pokémon center. Wasting no time, they left quickly, either in vehicles or riding on the backs of pokémon.

After they had left, Katie smiled and turned to Justin. "I'm going to follow them," she stated firmly, walking in the direction they had gone as she had reached for one of her poké balls.

"What?" Justin replied. "I thought you'd have to be a skilled trainer to-"

"Nobody's going to stop me," Katie replied. "They'll be far too busy trying to catch those people. They won't care that I'm following."

Justin watched as Katie walked out of sight of anyone by the pokémon center, and sent out her pidgeot. The large brown and tan eagle-like pokémon immediately soared into the air, circling some of the buildings before coming to land beside his trainer.

Climbing onto the bird pokémon's back, Katie turned toward Justin. "Are you coming?" she asked.

"But…but I don't have any pokémon!" Justin stammered angrily. "And in case you haven't noticed…I've just been attacked by that 'poor hurt, innocent' scyther!"

"If you want to stay behind, you can," Katie replied, sounding disappointed. "But if you come, you can use one of _my_ pokémon."

For a moment, Justin hesitated, but to Katie's surprise, he mumbled, "Fine…" and hesitantly climbed onto Pidgeot's back behind Katie.

"Hold on!" Katie warned as Pidgeot spread his wings and took off, soaring into the air high above the city at frightening speeds.

Shocked, Justin gripped Katie's waist tighter, averting his eyes from the sight of the streets now far below him. _'What was I thinking…'_ he thought to himself as he closed his eyes tightly, wondering if being able to battle with a pokémon again would be worth all this, and wondering if either of them really knew what they could be getting into.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had only rested a short while before moving on, leaving the burning forest behind them. The smoke hadn't traveled far, and the three walked at a leisurely pace through a wide grassy field, knowing that they were now well away from the danger.

Her mind still in turmoil about why Blazefang had used the Forbidden Attack, Wildflame quietly followed the playful growlithe and jolteon. _'Why did he use that attack?'_ she thought. _'I thought he'd know better than that after what I told him about Shadowflare…is he really that power-hungry?'_

Every once in a while, Snowcrystal, who led the way with Spark, would spot a small prey pokémon up ahead and run toward it, hoping to catch it. She didn't have any success. While stalking yet another pidgey, the growlithe heard a cry of pain which sent the small pokémon flying off. Turning to find the source of the cry, she noticed that Spark had collapsed on the grass a little ways behind her.

Painfully, Spark stood up. "Ow…my leg…" he moaned. "Do you think we could rest for a little while?"

Giving Spark a concerned look, Snowcrystal turned her questioning gaze toward Wildflame. The houndoom jerked herself away from her thoughts as she realized that Snowcrystal had asked her a question, and replied, "Okay," regardless of the fact that she had hardly heard what the growlithe had said.

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal asked, noticing the houndoom's strange behavior, "are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh…yeah, I'm fine," Wildflame replied quickly. "I was just…thinking."

Suddenly Snowcrystal's ears pricked up. She sniffed at the air curiously. The growlithe padded through the grass as she scanned the area ahead of her. Wildflame noticed the odd behavior and trotted over to her.

"What is it?" the houndoom asked.

"It's this scent…" Snowcrystal whispered. "It smells really familiar, though still sort of different…"

Wildflame lifted her head and sniffed the air, soon catching the scent of a pokémon on the breeze. The more experienced pokémon's eyes widened. "Rosie…" she whispered.

"Rosie?" Snowcrystal repeated, perplexed. "Are you sure? How can you tell?"

"Follow me," Wildflame said in answer and bounded ahead with Snowcrystal and Spark following.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Rosie had been limping through the grassy field solemnly, not even stopping to enjoy the fresh scent of the many flowers dotting the field. Her head hung low and her nine tails dragged behind her as she stumbled along.

"Rosie!" a distant voice shouted, causing the ninetales to lift her head in surprise.

Leaning back on her hind legs and trying to peer around, she noticed that three distant figures were running towards her.

At first, she thought of running away, but as the shapes got closer she could see them a bit more clearly, and Snowcrystal's white fur stood out starkly against the flowery background.

Relief and excitement filled her mind as she recognized them, and she ran toward them on three legs, shouting, "Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Spark! It's me!"

Hearing that shout, the three travelers increased their pace, now definitely knowing that the scent they had found actually did belong to their lost friend. The four pokémon met in the center of the field, all shouting joyfully to one another in relief and forgetting their exhaustion.

"Rosie!" Snowcrystal cried. "You evolved! You're a ninetales now! And…and what happened to your leg?" the growlithe asked, looking startled as she noticed the injury.

"It's broken," Rosie replied, her gaze darkening. "It happened while I was escaping…"

A pause fell over them; all four knew that the past few days had been harsh, starting from when Blazefang's pack had attacked them. After they had sat down and Rosie had related her story to them – from the capture to the battles and how Eve the mightyena had helped her – she asked the others a few questions herself.

"Where are Thunder and Stormblade? Are they all right? And…and what happened to your leg, Spark?"

Rosie soon found her answers in the form of her friends' stories. After each had explained what they needed to, another stunned silence fell over the group as they each contemplated the situation, though none voiced their thoughts.

Snowcrystal thought back to the two scyther. _Were they all right? What was happening to them now?_ Snowcrystal knew that worrying would only cause more problems at the moment, so she forced the thoughts from her mind.

' _When we find Articuno,'_ she reassured herself, _'he could find them…If any of them could rescue them…Articuno could…'_

For a while they all rested, and Rosie made sure to keep her leg as still as possible, hoping it would heal well. Wildflame and Spark managed to hunt, and for once in what seemed like a long time, despite the pain and turmoil they had undergone and the worry about their friends, the four pokémon could have a moment of peace.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The police and trainers who had been hunting down the pokémon thieves were lucky. Thanks to the meowth's tracking collar, they had found the location of the pokémon and the Rocket members who had taken them. Now, they stood in view of a massive building, partially hidden beside towering columns of dusty colored stone forming a ridge around the structure on all sides but one. Several more of these tall stone cliffs were scattered over the area, and even in the afternoon sun, the place still seemed eerie.

The location had not been as far from Stonedust as many of the trainers had thought; it hadn't taken nearly as long to reach it as they had suspected and many of the trainers recognized the towering stone formations from pictures. It was an area that was in some places inhabited by hostile wild pokémon, and the steep rocks themselves posed a threat to travelers. If it hadn't been for the meowth's tracking collar, it wouldn't have been the first place anyone would have thought to look. It seemed far too hostile a territory to bring stolen pokémon to train.

"Who do you think built this place?" one of the trainers asked.

"Not sure," replied a police officer, "but if we're going to find the pokémon, we have to get inside quickly. Follow me."

Without another word, the trainers and their pokémon headed along the base of the towering rock cliffs and closer to the building.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw was not sure how much longer he could take it. One by one the pokémon had been brought up to the machine and tested. Some survived the electric shock and were returned to their poké balls or put back in cages; others fell still and never got up. Horrified, Redclaw had tried not to watch, though even when he looked away their screams still echoed in his ears.

And it would be _his_ turn soon. Despite trying to fight it, Redclaw was afraid. If the test had been something other than an electric shock, he knew he wouldn't be so scared. But the memory of the collar Master had given him was far too strong, and Redclaw was terrified.

Ardunia glanced toward him, sharing his fear. Most of the pokémon the new recruit had brought in had not survived, and several others who were injured or sick had perished as well. How Stormblade lived through it, she would never know.

A sound alerted both Redclaw and Ardunia as the bayleef in the cage on the other side of Redclaw's was returned to its poké ball and brought over to the machine. Fearfully, Redclaw rubbed his head against the bars of his cage, in a hopeless and futile attempt to get his muzzle off.

However, just as the bayleef was released and shackled to the machine, all activity stopped as another Team Rocket trainer ran into the room, looking startled. "Intruders!" he shouted. "And they brought the police!"

"What?" replied the trainer who owned Solus in an outraged tone. "How did they-"

He didn't get to finish, for at that moment, a large section of the far wall was blown apart, sending debris flying in all directions. Through the new opening in the wall, several trainers and police officers stood, as well as several pokémon. At the front of the group was a trainer standing next to a tyranitar, who had obviously used hyper beam.

Enraged, Solus's trainer lifted his gun, but as he fired, a large translucent barrier from a trainer's psychic pokémon materialized in front of the humans and their pokémon, blocking the bullet. Lowering the gun, he glanced toward Solus. "Espeon, attack!" he shouted, pointing toward the trainers.

Solus leaped up and ran toward the trainers and police, followed by several other Team Rocket pokémon. Redclaw pressed his paws and muzzle against the bars of his cage, watching the battle beginning to take place.

Pokémon of all types filled the room, some fighting, others protecting the trainers and police or the Rockets. Near the back of the group of trainers, Justin and Katie, who had snuck in after the others, yelled commands to some of Katie's pokémon, Katie commanding Azumarill and Justin commanding her persian.

For reasons he could not explain, Justin did not feel afraid. Watching Persian fight was an amazing feeling. It seemed like such a long time since he had watched a pokémon battle for him. "Persian, thunderbolt!" he shouted, watching the tawny cat-like pokémon's fur stiffen before she fired several jagged bolts of electricity at the Rocket's pokémon. Nearby, Azumarill was battling head-to-head with a croconaw.

The trainers and police who had come to the rescue had quickly realized that they far outnumbered the Rockets, and their pokémon had soon disarmed most of the grunts. The sheer amount of pokémon fighting and protecting the trainers, as well as the suddenness of their attack, gave the Rocket members little chance of fighting back.

As Redclaw was watching, he noticed several other trainers moving away from the battling pokémon and finding poké balls. He watched some of them release captured pokémon and others find empty poké balls, returning the pokémon trapped in cages and letting them out in the room. One of the trainers had managed to steal keys from the Rockets, and she ran up to Ardunia's cage, unlocking it and letting the girafarig run free. Next, she opened Redclaw's, and after carefully examining his muzzle, found a way to open that too and took it off.

Leaping to the smooth floor outside the cage, Redclaw heard a police growlithe shout, "Pokémon, follow me! The way out is this way, hurry!"

Redclaw, along with Ardunia and several other freed pokémon, started to follow while the Rocket pokémon were distracted. Then Redclaw suddenly stopped. "Stormblade…" he whispered.

"What?" Ardunia called from up ahead.

"Keep following them!" Redclaw shouted, turning around. "There's someone I need to find!"

Watching the arcanine turn and run toward an open doorway, Ardunia sighed worriedly before turning and following the other escapers.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Katie's pokémon were soon tired and wounded, and having no choice, she and Justin had had been forced to follow some of the other trainers out of the building. The ones that remained were still fighting, but the Team Rocket agents were quickly being driven back. Already, several of the Rocket's fighting pokémon had been taken by the trainers and brought outside as the trainers' pokémon protected them from attack.

At last, outnumbered and unprepared, the Rockets turned and fled, with the police soon following. One of the trainers led some others into other rooms, searching for more pokémon who still remained trapped in the building.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw hadn't gone far down one of the dimly lit hallways when a voice from behind stopped him. A male houndoom was running toward him, calling for him to wait. Redclaw watched as the sleek dark type came to a halt beside him, looking out of breath.

"The way out is back that way," the dark type told Redclaw, obviously assuming that the arcanine had gotten lost.

"I know," Redclaw replied, "but my friend…that scyther they took away, is in another room somewhere, and I have to…"

"Stop!" a harsh voice called from behind. The two dog-like pokémon turned around to see the espeon, Solus, walking toward them from the end of the hallway they had come from.

Without a word the houndoom leaped forward with a speed that surprised the espeon. Knocking the injured psychic type to the ground, he pressed his paw against Solus's throat, leaning his head closer to him. "All right, you obviously know your way around here," the houndoom growled. "Where did your trainers take the scyther?"

Solus's eyes widened in shock as he realized how much he was at a disadvantage. The houndoom was a large and powerful dark type, while he was injured and would be weak to the dog-like pokémon's attacks. Gritting his teeth, he hissed back, "The Medical Ward…what do you think… _genius?_ "

"Where…is…that?" the houndoom muttered in a low growl, pressing his foot down harder.

Solus gasped as he struggled, kicking his back legs frantically at the houndoom. "It's on one of the lower floors!" he spat. "Below the first floor…underground…" By now he was struggling to breathe.

"How do we get there?" Redclaw asked.

The houndoom was about to ask a similar question when shouts reached their ears. Letting go of Solus, he pounded through the halls beside Redclaw as several Rocket grunts appeared around the doorway.

"Guess we find it ourselves…" the dark type muttered grimly.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Stormblade had also heard commotion. Next to the room he was currently resting in was the largest experimentation room in the Rocket's base. Though he did not know what the room actually was, he could hear shouts coming from within it.

"What's that?" a young linoone asked, sounding frightened.

"Something's going on in one of the experiment rooms…" a rapidash replied.

"Experiment rooms?" a beedrill repeated, confused.

Before anyone could answer, a door to the room opened, and a young female trainer, obviously not belonging to Team Rocket, stepped inside.

"Who is she?" Stormblade heard the linoone ask, but his question was quickly answered.

Finding keys and moving as fast as she could, the trainer began unlocking the cages, letting every pokémon run free. Stormblade saw the door to his cage swing open, but he did not think he could stand. He watched as the last of the pokémon were freed and they, along with the trainer who was showing them the way, left the room.

"Wait!" Stormblade called out weakly, trying to crawl toward the open doorway. He didn't make it far, and collapsed, pain overwhelming him and preventing him from moving as the others made their escape, leaving him behind.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Meanwhile, other pokémon were being released from cages and poké balls within a large experimentation room, the room right next to the Medical Ward. The room was massive and contained several huge, strange looking machines as well as rows of tables to which pokémon were meant to be strapped to. The shouting had stopped; the Rockets there had fled. The pokémon were told to follow a trainer pokémon up flights of stairs to the first floor at ground level.

Freeing a small mareep from a cage, one of the trainers began carrying it toward the other freed pokémon when something made her stop in her tracks.

Over twenty Team Rocket trainers surrounded by several large pokémon were entering the room. The trainers helping the pokémon started to back away, knowing that their own pokémon were outnumbered, and the strongest trainers were elsewhere, as the Rockets gave their pokémon the order to attack.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw and the houndoom darted through another hallway, looking for a way to the floors below ground level. Redclaw stopped, hearing several pokémon coming their way. "That way!" he cried, heading in their direction, soon finding a large flight of stairs leading down to the next floor. Many pokémon were running up them.

"Help them," Redclaw told the houndoom. "I'm going down there to find Stormblade." The houndoom nodded in reply as Redclaw addressed some of the fleeing pokémon. "Did any of you see a scyther? Or the Medical Ward?"

Quicker than he expected, he got an answer. A small linoone looked up at him with wide blue eyes and nodded. "There was a scyther in that room down there!" he told Redclaw.

"Where?" the arcanine asked.

"It's a room with a lot of cages," the linoone answered. "Down three flights of stairs and you'll see a large door with a big window on it near the bottom of the third set of stairs. Go there!"

"Thanks," Redclaw told the linoone as the smaller pokémon ran off. Bounding down the stairs, he quickly passed the first flight, and soon spotted the second. Following the linoone's instructions, he raced down the narrow stairways until he reached the bottom of the third flight of stairs.

Looking around, Redclaw tried to spot a door like the one the linoone had described. Walking through the hallway a bit, he soon spotted a large open door, one with a window. Racing through the doorway, he found himself in a strange room. The room looked like it belonged in a very low-budget pokémon center, with several syringes and other instruments lying along a counter in disarray. Redclaw noticed stains of blood both on the floor and on the thin sheets covering the bed that stood in the center of the room.

Pushing past another slightly open door, he walked into a room with rows of cages and small cells. At first he thought it was empty, until he noticed the still form of a scyther lying near the other side of the room, still in the cell.

"Stormblade!" Redclaw shouted, running over to the injured pokémon's side.

Stormblade looked up at Redclaw in disbelief, having thought for sure that he'd been completely abandoned. "Who are you…?" Stormblade whispered in a feeble voice. "How do you know my name?"

"Thunder told me," Redclaw replied. "I was there at the pokémon center with her. My name is Redclaw. I'm your friend."

"Thunder?" Stormblade replied, his voice sounding weaker. "Where's…Thunder?"

"I believe she escaped back at the pokémon center," Redclaw answered. "She wasn't brought here."

"Is she…okay?" Stormblade asked, clearly not comprehending that Redclaw couldn't know much about Thunder at the moment.

"I think so," Redclaw answered, though truthfully he was uncertain. "Now we need to get out of here…and quickly, before anyone sees us. Most of the pokémon have already escaped. We need to get out now and follow them."

"I…I…can't stand…" came Stormblade's weak reply.

"You have to!" Redclaw cried worriedly. "We need to leave…I can help you! I'll help you get up and you can lean against me…"

Stormblade made no reply and Redclaw began to fear that he was far too weak to move. The sounds of battle reached his ears and the floor suddenly shook beneath his paws. A huge battle was taking place in a room nearby…

 

  
**-ooo-**

The trainers who had freed pokémon from the experimentation room found themselves in what seemed like an impossible fight. The Rocket members attacking them had to have come from another part of the building, unaware of the defeat of their comrades, because they were not backing down. Humans and pokémon alike had already been injured, some seriously. Fearful, some of the trainers hid behind machines or tables as the remaining trainers and pokémon fought.

One of them, the trainer with the tyranitar, knew that if there were many Team Rocket grunts here, there must be several still trying to hold the police off somewhere else, unless they had used their pokémon to teleport away. If so, he wondered, had the others who'd come to stop these people already escaped the building and left them alone down there? He shook the thought from his mind, focusing on the battle they were now facing.

His tyranitar was weak; wounded in several places and nearly out of strength to fight. The trainer realized his pokémon could probably only manage one more attack. "Might as well make it a good one…" he muttered grimly to himself, and shouted to his pokémon, "Tyranitar, use-"

He paused for a second, his gaze moving toward the Rockets who were standing beside one of the large machines. In a sudden burst of fleeting hope, he finished, "Use hyper beam on that machine!"

With a strength borne of desperation, the tyranitar fired the attack straight at the machine the Rockets were standing by. Another trainer, looking on, noticed that it was only one of many machines in the room, and a look of fear crossed her face. "Wait!" she shouted, far too late, as the blast of energy struck the machinery.

The tyranitar and his trainer ducked behind a row of cages as the machine exploded, hearing several of the Rockets scream in anguish. Another explosion followed almost immediately after, engulfing several other machines and sending them and most of the room up in flames.

Weakened by the explosion, a part of the ceiling collapsed, damaging several nearby rooms and part of the floor above, while fire spread quickly toward the other machines.

Not wasting any time, the trainers stood up and fled through the doorway on the mostly undamaged side of the room, knowing that they needed to get out of the building…and fast.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw heard the blasts from nearby and felt the walls and floor shake. Looking toward Stormblade, he tried to help the scyther stand, letting him lean against his shoulder. Stormblade's eyes were glazed over with pain and the effort to stand seemed almost too much for him. Redclaw tried to help him walk slowly, making his way carefully toward the door leading into the hallway while Stormblade limped beside him.

When Redclaw peered out of the open doorway, what he saw made him gasp. A large part of the hallway to his left was destroyed; the walls in one part of it had been broken down and a section of the ceiling had collapsed.

In his shock, he did not realize the danger he and Stormblade were in until it was too late.

The flames from the ruined machines in the experimentation room had triggered another, much bigger explosion as they consumed an even larger machine. Without warning, a huge section of the wall near Redclaw was blasted away, sending him and Stormblade flying backward toward the opposite end of the hallway.

Redclaw felt his leg strike something sharp – Stormblade's scythe – as he landed against the scyther, causing Stormblade to cry out in pain a moment before his head slammed against the wall, silencing him. Dazed, Redclaw looked up as a large section of the ceiling above them came crashing down. Unable to move away in time, Redclaw didn't even have the chance to scream before something crashed into his head and everything faded into blackness.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Outside, the last of the trainers had finally made it out of the building, helping the injured. Several pokémon had not made it out, but the humans knew there was nothing they could do now.

The building was unsafe; part of the first few floors had collapsed in some places, damaged by the explosion caused by the tyranitar's hyper beam. Since the remaining Rockets had probably managed to use their abra to teleport away by then, the police had decided that it was best to get back to Stonedust City as soon as possible. The trainers and pokémon who were injured needed help.

Knowing the Rockets who hadn't been caught would be distracted by the damage to their building, the trainers and police, along with the pokémon who were rescued, headed quickly back to the city, leaving the damaged building behind.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Justin and Katie, however, were not with them. Riding on the back of Katie's pidgeot, they had decided not to return to Stonedust City. Justin had wanted to look for the white growlithe one more time, and Katie, who was also fascinated with rare and unusual pokémon, had eventually agreed.

It wasn't long before the pidgeot landed, near the group of rocks where the two had come across Stormblade before. Now that it wasn't raining, Katie was sure that her poochyena, whom she had exchanged for one of her other pokémon back at the pokémon center before it had been destroyed, could follow the growlithe's scent now that the air was clearer.

Justin watched as the form of the black and gray pup-like pokémon materialized in front of him. After Katie told her what to do, she ran off, happily searching for the scent of growlithe.

"Are you sure _this_ is going to work?" Justin asked skeptically. "The growlithe's scent probably washed away by now…"

"Well, it ran somewhere in these rocky fields when it left the city," Katie replied. "It's probably nearby…which means there's definitely a scent to find. It couldn't have been captured yet, or else everyone would know about it by now."

Up ahead, the poochyena began yipping excitedly. Katie and Justin ran to catch up, noticing the large footprint of a houndoom imprinted in the drying mud.

"There…there was a houndoom with the growlithe, remember?" Justin whispered.

Katie nodded. "Poochyena can follow their scent now," she replied. "I'm sure we can catch up to it." Without another word they headed through the field of pebbly mud, the little poochyena happily leading the way.

_To be continued…_


	25. Race Against Time

Rosie, Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had begun their journey again, searching for Articuno with renewed hope. Snowcrystal believed that if Rosie had managed to escape, there was certainly hope for Stormblade and Thunder, especially if they could convince Articuno to help them. The going was slow, however, because of Rosie and Spark's injuries, but this time, no one seemed to mind.

Wildflame had caught prey for them all earlier, and they had rested at a cool, fresh stream. Even Rosie was feeling better, though she was still forced to limp awkwardly. Spark stayed close to Rosie as they followed Wildflame and Snowcrystal. Rosie was quickly growing tired of his comments.

"You know what's good about being injured, Rosie?" the jolteon asked.

"Nothing…" Rosie muttered, annoyed.

Spark carried on as if he hadn't heard. "Everyone does stuff for you! Like that spearow Wildflame brought us…and how Snowcrystal brought me some water in a leaf…"

"Only because you were too much of a wimp to go to the stream yourself," Rosie muttered silently to herself.

"You know," Spark continued, "I wonder if Articuno will help find a new home for me…somewhere without dangerous humans or pokémon or _traps_ , or _fire_ , or any of those other things that have given us trouble on this journey. I hope that when we get Stormblade back he'll stop being so angry about Justin. There's nothing wrong with Justin…"

Suddenly Spark stopped, and Rosie felt a yank on several of her tails. Turning around, she saw Spark holding some of them in his mouth, grinning widely at her. Releasing the tails, the jolteon stated, "I've _always_ wanted to pull a ninetales's tail…and now I have!"

Rosie rolled her eyes. "When I find out how to place a thousand year curse on someone," she muttered to herself, "I'm putting one on Spark."

The four pokémon carried on at a slow pace, seeing no sign of danger as they traveled.

But they were unaware that they were being tracked.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Blazefang and the rest of his pack did not have much to worry about. Traveling ahead of Snowcrystal's group, they had all luckily managed to leave the forest well before it burned to the ground.

Now further away from the human's city, Blazefang felt some of his confidence returning, despite not knowing whether Wildflame could find out anything about Articuno yet or not.

Blazefang had tried to put both Shadowflare incidents behind him. He had used the attack both times out of self defense, and there was nothing that could be done about the consequences of the attack now.

…Yet still in his mind, was the lingering fear of Shadowflare. He shuddered as he kept walking; sincerely hoping he would never have to use it again.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Katie and Justin stood in shock at the ruins of what had once been a small forest. Poochyena whimpered, hiding behind Katie and trembling in fear, clearly spooked by the area somehow.

"I don't understand…" Justin muttered. "It's spring time…I didn't think the forest would be dry enough to catch fire and burn down this easily…" he added, looking at what little charred remains of trees were left. The small pieces littered the ground, but there were hardly any trunks left standing. "Let's go back…"

"No," Katie replied, "let's go around. I want to see if there are any pokémon that escaped the fire…they might need help." As she and her poochyena headed off to travel around the burned forest, Justin had no choice but to follow them.

A few yards ahead, he heard Katie gasp and her poochyena whimper. He walked forward, seeing the charred remains of a shinx lying in their path. The pokémon had managed to escape, but too late. It was dead, it's body covered in deep, terrible burns. Justin realized that by looking at it, Katie would be reminded of her own shinx.

He backed away, not wanting to look at the dead pokémon, but to his surprise, Katie crouched beside it. "Katie…" he muttered. "It's dead. There's no use staying here."

"These burns…" Katie mused, gazing down at the shinx. "They look strange…just like the ones your scyther had…"

Justin flinched as Katie mentioned 'his' scyther, but only replied, "I don't see why that's such a big deal. Scyther got burned badly, and so did this poor shinx. There's nothing more to it than that."

Katie sighed and stood up, still looking confused, but nonetheless carried on as her poochyena searched for pokémon scent, hoping no other pokémon had ended up like the shinx had.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw awoke slowly, feeling dazed and light-headed. The arcanine carefully lifted his head, feeling a sharp pain in his leg. Ignoring it, he slowly stood up, vaguely hearing the creaking of the walls around him, and stepped in something warm and wet.

Looking down, he noticed that he was stepping in his own blood. There was a small, yet deep gash on his back leg, and it had obviously been bleeding quite a lot, though it looked to be only a small wound. Ignoring the blood, he looked around the hallway he'd been lying in, feeling himself start to wake up more fully.

As his hazy vision cleared and he gazed around the dimly lit hallway, he noticed debris strewn all around from the blast. Several of the walls were damaged, some blown away completely. Looking up, he noticed a gaping hole in the ceiling; he could see clear up into the room above him.

Turning his gaze to the rubble-strewn floor, the arcanine searched for Stormblade, quickly spotting the scyther's limp form against the wall near where he had been lying before. Limping over to him, Redclaw could tell he was still unconscious. There was a small dark stain on the wall where Stormblade's head had struck it, and as Redclaw inspected him closer, he noticed a wound on the scyther's head; a long gash that started from between his eyes and ran along the top of his head. Redclaw was unsure of what had caused it, but he figured Stormblade had to have struck something sharp; maybe a part of the ceiling that had caved in.

Worried, Redclaw nudged Stormblade's head with his nose, but didn't get a response. He looked closer, and could tell that the bug type was still breathing, though it sounded weak and raspy, much like his own.

Whimpering, Redclaw sat down beside the motionless scyther, softly licking the gash on his head, hoping to clean the wound. After a short while, Stormblade began to stir; his head turned away and his wings twitched. Redclaw nudged him again, and Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at him, though one of his eyes seemed unable to open fully. A moment later, he lay his head back down weakly, closing his eyes again.

"Stormblade," Redclaw began, "we need to get out of here…"

Stormblade made no response and Redclaw wondered if he had even heard. "Stormblade…?" he asked again slowly.

"Whoareyou?" Stormblade mumbled in a dazed voice, opening his eyes only a fraction.

Redclaw stared back at him, confused. "I'm…Redclaw…I told you that already," he said calmly, wondering if there was something wrong with Stormblade's memory.

However, a few moments later, Stormblade seemed to recognize him, and asked, "Why did you come in that room to find me?"

"Everyone else was leaving," Redclaw replied, watching Stormblade shudder as the walls creaked loudly again and realizing that any sound probably made the pain in his head worse. "Some trainers freed us, and they and the other pokémon left. I went back to find you, since it seems like the trainers were too busy to really notice how hurt you were."

"You should have just gone with them…" Stormblade whispered, closing his eyes against the pain that lanced through his skull.

"I wasn't going to leave anyone here, especially not a friend," Redclaw replied. "And I don't plan on leaving you now. We should…" He paused, seeing that Stormblade was obviously in no condition to stand up, let alone walk, and finished, "You should rest for now…stay here, I'll be right back."

Turning away from Stormblade, Redclaw headed down the hallway, hoping to find an easy way up to the first ground level floor and out of the building. As he turned a corner and headed toward the stairs, he noticed with shock that a part of them had collapsed, and the doorway to which the stairs led had been blocked by rubble. Worried, he decided to look for an easier path, one that Stormblade would be able to manage traveling through.

Pushing aside a door that looked badly damaged, he walked into a partially destroyed room, finding nothing but large wooden boxes inside. Several were damaged and their contents strewn across the floor, but a few had been knocked over and broken open; some containing packets of pokémon food. Grabbing as many as he could fit in his mouth, Redclaw limped back to Stormblade.

When he returned, the arcanine was dismayed to see that Stormblade had passed out again, or else settled into some sort of half-conscious sleep. Setting down the food packets, he carefully opened each one with his teeth while waiting for the scyther to recover.

It took a while longer for Stormblade to wake up, and in that time, Redclaw had eaten his fill, having gone back to the room for more pokémon food. As Stormblade woke up this time, however, Redclaw could tell that he was more fully awake.

"Where are the humans who took us here?" Stormblade asked after a short while, painfully trying to sit up. "Have they all left?"

"I think so," Redclaw answered. "I don't think anyone's here but us…at least not in this part of the building." He glanced toward the remainder of the pokémon food packets and pushed them toward Stormblade. "I found these," the arcanine explained. "I was looking for an easy way up to the first floor, where I'm sure we can find a way out of here. The way I came from was blocked…I suppose we'll have to find another way. We're safe for now though," he added, and sat down, while Stormblade ravenously started eating the pokémon food.

Redclaw lay down, feeling worried. He didn't know how he and Stormblade were going to get out of the building any time soon, especially when Stormblade was so weak. Idly licking the cut on his back leg, Redclaw shivered as one of the few working lights in the hallway flickered and went out, leaving him and Stormblade in semi-darkness.

Wearily, Redclaw leaned against the wall, feeling exhausted. The arcanine was still uncertain of what path they would take to get out of the building, but at the moment he felt too tired to search for another way to the first floor.

He was startled when the wall suddenly gave a violent shudder, and dust rained down on his head from the ceiling. Shaking his head to free the dirt from his mane, Redclaw stood up and backed away, hearing the walls around him creak and groan loudly.

Stormblade looked up from his meal, staring at the wall with his good eye. "What was that?" he whispered, his voice still sounding shaky and weak.

"I…I'm not…" Redclaw began, a moment before he had to duck out of the way as a large chunk of the ceiling fell to the floor, raising a cloud of dust which caused the arcanine to start coughing.

"Stay here," he told Stormblade between coughs, knowing the scyther really didn't have much of a choice. "I'm going to try to find an easy way out…"

Without waiting for a reply, Redclaw bounded off, clearing a heap of rubble in a single leap as he headed in a different direction from where he'd gone before; veering off into another hallway. He was certain there had to be more stairs on this floor somewhere; it was only a matter of finding them.

Yet when Redclaw turned a corner of the hallway, he didn't find stairs. Instead, he found something else that made him stop in his tracks. Ahead of him, the ceiling had caved in, damaged by the blasts. The way was nearly blocked, and it looked as if more of the ceiling could collapse at any minute. Startled, Redclaw turned and ran back toward Stormblade, who was still eating. He noticed that the gash on the scyther's head was still bleeding, though not as badly as it had been before.

"Stormblade!" Redclaw gasped as he came to a halt beside the injured pokémon, feeling the floor shake as small pieces of the ceiling fell down on his head and shoulders. "We need to get out now…I think…I think whatever caused those explosions must have really damaged most of the walls, and…" He paused for a second, looking around, before continuing. "And I think the whole place is about to…to come down on top of us…"

Stormblade stared back at him, first with a look of confusion, then one of fear. "Did you…find a way out?" he asked hesitantly.

"Not yet," Redclaw answered worriedly, "but we need to go now…we can try and see if there's another way out near where I found the pokémon food. Now stand up, I'm not sure how much time we have…"

As Redclaw had half expected, Stormblade did not move at first. After he asked again, Stormblade started to try. Shaking, the scyther closed his eyes, before pushing his blades against the floor and slowly heaving himself upright. It pained Redclaw to see him like this, and he fought back a lingering doubt that Stormblade was going to make it.

As the scyther got to his feet, using the wall for support, Redclaw stood beside him, letting him lean on his shoulder in case he collapsed. Fighting back his panic at the prospect of being trapped, the arcanine attempted a smile as he looked back at Stormblade. "See? It won't be so hard if I'm helping you. Just…try not to put any weight on your hurt leg." Redclaw lightly flicked his tail over Stormblade's bandaged shoulder, immediately regretting it as he saw his friend wince. Muttering a quick apology, he started to head in the direction of the ruined stairs, forcing himself to walk slowly as he ignored every instinct that told him to leave Stormblade and save himself.

As the two pokémon came upon the partially destroyed set of stairs Redclaw had seen earlier, the arcanine glanced at the rubble blocking the doorway where the stairs had led, and sighed. "I don't think we have much time to…" He paused as the walls and floor shook again, and went on, "Searching for another way out will take too long. Let me see if I can clear the way for us."

As Stormblade shakily sat down, Redclaw bounded away from him, running up to the stairs and clearing the gap between them caused by the collapse easily. He quickly reached the blocked doorway. Using all the strength he could muster, Redclaw pushed aside the debris, moving enough of it until the pile collapsed, leaving most of the doorway open.

Eyes widening in shock, he stepped back.

Nearly the entire hallway ahead of him was up in flames, including the next set of stairs. Fearfully realizing how quickly the fire had spread to that part of the building, Redclaw could only wonder how long it would take the flames to reach him and Stormblade.

As his thoughts drifted back to the scyther, Redclaw felt at a loss for what to do. Being a fire type, he could make it through the fire, but Stormblade… could not.

Turning away from the blaze, Redclaw bounded back down the ruined stairs and into the room where he'd found the pokémon food, suddenly getting an idea. Walking up to some of the large wooden boxes, he quickly pushed one of them out the door as Stormblade watched him, looking confused.

Redclaw pushed the box underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling he had seen when he had first woken up. It was just tall enough for a pokémon of Stormblade's size to climb onto it and up through the opening. How Stormblade was going to climb up there, however, Redclaw wasn't sure.

Moving fast, Redclaw found a smaller box and pushed it next to the first one, hoping that would make it easier to climb, and then darted back to Stormblade.

As Redclaw helped the scyther back toward the boxes, he couldn't help being worried about how painfully slow they were moving. Stormblade was almost constantly stumbling, and when Redclaw walked too fast, he would sometimes fall over. By the time they reached the boxes, more of the ceiling had collapsed further down the hallway, though thankfully not near them.

Pushing Stormblade toward the two boxes, Redclaw told him, "We can climb up to the next floor from here. You go first…I know the boxes won't break if you stand on them." Redclaw could tell that the boxes were definitely strong enough to hold a scyther's weight…but he was unsure if they would hold an arcanine's. He shook the thought from his mind. If the boxes were too weak, he could always reach the second floor using the stairs…but would it be wise to leave Stormblade alone for that time? And would using another route take too long?

Stormblade looked up through the hole in the ceiling worriedly. Trying to ignore the pain, he dug his scythes into the first wooden box and wearily hauled himself on top of it, with a little help from Redclaw. Once on top, Stormblade took a few shuddering breaths before painfully climbing up onto the next one.

Redclaw watched, still worried. "Hurry!" he called, pacing back and forth across the shaking floor as he watched Stormblade try to stand on the box without putting weight on his injured leg and using his scythes for support instead.

Carefully setting his injured leg down, Stormblade lifted his scythes toward the opening in the ceiling, but immediately gave a cry of pain and collapsed, nearly causing the box to fall over.

"Try again!" Redclaw yelled, and Stormblade detected a hint of panic in the arcanine's urgent voice.

Wiping the blood from his eyes with the dull side of his scythe, Stormblade carefully stood up, hearing the walls around him creak again. Reaching up with his scythes, he lodged them into the floor of the room above him, trying to pull himself through the opening, but after a few moments, he started to slip.

Redclaw could see that pain was preventing Stormblade from climbing up to the next floor. Leaping onto the taller box, Redclaw felt the wood splinter beneath his paws as he leaped upward, his front paws landing on the floor of the hallway above them. Scrabbling with his claws, Redclaw climbed up and onto the next floor, feeling the box beneath him splinter and break.

Once he was safely on the next floor, he ran toward Stormblade, grabbing the scyther's wing in his teeth and lifting him up safely away from the opening and onto the floor. Ignoring Stormblade's small cries of pain, Redclaw peered around, seeing smoke from the fire starting to fill the hallway. Nearby was a room with walls that were barely intact and about to collapse. "This way!" he told Stormblade, pointing with his muzzle in the opposite direction.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw looked around for another set of stairs that would lead them up to the next floor. Slowly, smoke started to fill the hallway, and though it didn't bother Redclaw much, being a fire type, it made Stormblade start to cough terribly.

Redclaw glanced ahead, noticing a large, mostly undamaged room nearby. They walked inside it, spotting some thin metal stairs leading up into another room. Redclaw hesitated, not sure if he could help Stormblade up those stairs, as there seemed to be barely enough room for an arcanine to climb them.

"Stormblade…" Redclaw began, nudging his friend toward the stairs, "you can climb them…just use your scythes to help you…"

"All right…" Stormblade replied shakily, feeling the building shudder, "I'll try…"

As Stormblade agonizingly limped up the stairs, Redclaw followed carefully, hoping the flimsy looking metal wouldn't be damaged before they made it to the top. Luckily, although Redclaw was forced to move slowly, the stairs held until they made it into the room in the floor above.

Wanting to look for a way to the first floor while Stormblade rested a bit, Redclaw walked further, looking for another set of stairs. If they got to the floor above them, all they would have left to do would be to find a door leading outside.

Smelling smoke coming from a room nearby, Redclaw increased his pace, soon breathing a sigh of relief as he came across the a set of stairs leading up to a door that was wide open. Hearing the fire growing steadily closer, Redclaw dashed back to Stormblade, once again helping the scyther back to his feet. Stormblade looked as if he could pass out any minute, and Redclaw sincerely hoped he could make it up the rest of the stairs and out of the building.

As the two pokémon neared the stairs, Redclaw lifted his head at a crashing sound from above. Both scyther and arcanine froze, listening as the crashing grew louder, combined with the splintering of wood and the roaring of flames. In a panic, Redclaw realized that the fire had caused far too much damage to the building.

It was starting to collapse.

"Hurry!" Redclaw shouted, increasing his pace as he headed up the stairs.

Stormblade tried to keep up, but he didn't get far, and collapsed near the foot of the stairs.

"Stormblade, get up!" Redclaw cried, fighting the urge to run through the open doorway and find a way to freedom right then and there. Around him, several chunks of the ceiling were falling, and the floor, walls, and stairs were shaking.

Stormblade tried to stand, only to collapse again. Redclaw leaped to the top of the stairs, before turning around and facing Stormblade. "It's not that far!" the arcanine shouted. "You can do it!"

Trembling, Stormblade stood up and began to stumble up the stairs, not getting very far before all his strength left him. Redclaw watched the scyther collapse, this time passing out. Fighting panic as he tried not to think about how much longer the building was going to last, Redclaw leaped down the stairs to Stormblade's side. Grabbing Stormblade's wing in his mouth, he began to drag the unconscious scyther up the stairs.

Just as he was about to reach the top, a roar louder than thunder filled his ears. The stairs beneath him broke apart and fell, and at the same time, the ceiling above crashed down on him. Redclaw felt something large and heavy strike him in the head, sending him crashing to the floor. Redclaw tightened his grip on Stormblade involuntarily as he was knocked to the ground; he felt the scyther's wing rip and tear. He let go, and at the same time felt something strike his wounded leg and cause it to bleed more.

Before Redclaw could register what had happened, something much larger and heavier crashed into him and smashed through the floor, taking him with it. He struck something hard; he assumed it was the floor of the room below him, and felt his senses beginning to fade. Some large and heavy chunks of debris lay on top of him, immobilizing him. Glancing weakly upward, he saw the walls and the ceiling begin to collapse.

' _No…'_ he thought desperately. _'It can't end this way…'_ He looked up once more, hearing the crashing sounds grow louder, and a moment later, darkness stole his thoughts away.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Thunder was wandering on her own as the sun began to set on the horizon. Her wounds made her movements stiff and painful, but she had refused to stop. In the distance, she could see large sandy colored rocks and cliffs, and close by them, a small grove of trees. That was where she was headed, as she felt too exhausted to search any further until her wounds healed a little more.

Pausing to scratch idly at her collar with her scythe, Thunder glanced at the rocky fields around her. She felt strangely weak and vulnerable, though there was no sign of any other pokémon around.

The scyther stood still, feeling lost and hopeless. She hadn't thought that being alone would ever make her feel uncomfortable, and she wasn't sure why it was happening now.

For a moment Thunder considered continuing her journey to the trees by the cliffs, but quickly decided to rest instead. She sat at the base of a large rock, waiting for her strength to return.

It wasn't long before exhaustion overcame her, and she slowly drifted off into a fevered sleep…

…Not noticing the human who was approaching.

_To be continued…_


	26. Journey Through Darkness

Snowcrystal, Spark, Wildflame, and Rosie had continued walking at a slow pace. Rosie, who was trying her best not to complain, had been struggling to keep up with the others. When one of her friends asked her if she was all right, she would simply make a short reply saying she was, and continue hobbling after the others.

"Snowcrystal?" Spark asked as he limped over the grass. "Do you think we should stop and rest? I don't see why we have to keep going like this…we have no clue where to start looking for Articuno…"

Snowcrystal was about to agree that they rest when Wildflame interrupted them. "Humans are near," the houndoom stated quietly, sniffing the air, "and a pokémon. We have to go…"

Fearfully, the four pokémon increased their pace, running through the tall grass without looking behind them. Up ahead, Wildflame spotted a tall group of rocks with a dark gaping hole at their base. "We can hide in that cave!" she cried, noticing that Rosie and Spark were starting to have trouble keeping up.

As soon as they reached the large grayish stones, the four pokémon darted into the cave, keeping to the shadows and huddling against the cold rock. Snowcrystal turned around, noticing drops of water trickling down the walls.

"Do you think they're poachers?" Spark asked Wildflame fearfully, distracting Snowcrystal.

"Don't know, don't care," Wildflame replied. "All humans are bad news for us, now quiet!"

Snowcrystal found her thoughts drifting back to the strange wounds Thunder had gotten from the poachers. Those wounds had seemed small, but they had been very deep, and bled a lot. She hated to think of a poacher giving a pokémon a wound like that in their neck; they would die for sure.

These thoughts only worried her further, and she edged backwards into the cave, fearful the humans might walk closer and spot them.

Suddenly, without warning, a clawed paw covered her muzzle, and a thick vine looped around her neck. Snowcrystal made a strangled cry, causing the others to turn towards her.

Wildflame rushed forward, but long vines looped around her paws, bringing her crashing to the ground. Rosie and Spark were soon in the same state, other vines wrapping around their muzzles and silencing them. Spark's head had struck a rock, and he seemed too dazed to use any electric attacks.

Snowcrystal snapped at the paw covering her mouth, causing its owner to yelp and draw back. Struggling against the vine on her neck, she moved towards the others, hoping a fire attack could free them, when suddenly a strange, choking scent filled the air around them.

Snowcrystal coughed as the pungent fumes become stronger, and she began to feel dizzy and disoriented. She soon stumbled over her own paws, landing flat on the ground. She was tired…very tired… She tried to fight it, but her efforts seemed to be useless as she continued to breathe in the scent and her vision started to fade. She struggled to stay awake, but a few moments later, her senses faded into blackness as the pokémon who had attacked gathered around them.

  
**-ooo-**  


Justin stopped and stared. For a moment, if only just a split second, he had thought he had seen the white growlithe and some other pokémon running in the distance. He sighed, realizing that it could have been any other white-furred pokémon, and decided not to mention it to Katie.

They had traveled far, and not found any sign of the growlithe. Katie, however, had a new goal in mind. She had told Justin that she believed many rare pokémon lived in the areas most trainers didn't bother to explore. She had explained that she planned on exploring those areas, though how far she was going to explore, Justin didn't know for sure. He was actually pleased with the idea, for it gave him a chance to make a new discovery. What if there were even other _species_ of pokémon out there just waiting to be found?

Whether there were or not, traveling through more uncharted areas would be a lot better than having to watch Katie follow the routes, battling other trainers and winning gym badges in the cities, which was something he could no longer do. At least here he'd be able to be of help, as he'd had plenty of experience traveling in the wilderness when he was a trainer.

Watching Katie's shinx and poochyena happily chasing each other, Justin fingered the poké ball he always carried in his pocket. He knew he really wasn't allowed to use it on a pokémon, though he was sure the police would make an exception if he found something new or rare and made a discovery. Sometime, he hoped, they would find a very rare pokémon and he'd have a chance to use it, and if they could find the white growlithe…it would be a good target.

  
**-ooo-**  


When Redclaw woke, he found himself in complete darkness. Dazed, he tried to move, finding himself trapped beneath large pieces of wood and metal. Feeling panicked, he pushed with his back legs against the ground, scrabbling forward until he was free. Hearing some of the pieces of wood collapse, he shuddered, but nothing else happened. Confused by the darkness, Redclaw blew a tiny flame into the air, looking at the scene around him before it flickered out.

He was in a hollow space, most likely deep within the collapsed building. A part of the wall to the left of him had held, forming the small enclosed space when the floors above him had collapsed.

Standing up, Redclaw limped around the area, feeling the walls with his nose and paws while occasionally using a small bit of flame, trying to determine if there was any way out. Finding none, he looked around frantically, alarm filling his mind as he remembered that Stormblade had fallen too.

Finding it hard to walk with all the chunks of debris on the floor, Redclaw searched for any sign of his friend, knowing he had to be nearby. After a moment, he paused as the scent of blood reached him.

Walking toward it, he found a large wooden beam that took up a big part of the enclosed space. He hadn't given it much notice before, but now he could tell that the blood smell was coming from that direction. Following the beam, he came to where rubble blocked off any exit, but there was no sign of Stormblade, even though the scent of blood was strong.

Redclaw paused before starting to dig through the rubble. After pushing aside a few slabs of wood, he came across an even smaller space. Stormblade was lying inside, half covered by broken wood or metal. Redclaw crawled in halfway, grabbing Stormblade's wing in his mouth and carefully dragging him out of the small space, before sitting beside him near the large wooden beam he had found earlier.

Stormblade's left wing was torn to shreds near the top, and Redclaw could see various other cuts and bruises along the scyther's body. He nudged Stormblade, expecting a response, but getting none. Leaning closer to him, the arcanine could hear his friend's feeble breathing. Relieved, Redclaw lay down beside him, knowing there was nothing more to do now but wait. Wait, and hope for a miracle.

As time dragged by, Redclaw stayed beside Stormblade, feeling unusually tired. Stormblade had woken up a little while ago, and had been coughing a lot, which worried Redclaw. He knew that Stormblade had breathed in the smoke and needed to get to where there was fresh air, but there seemed to be no way out unless he moved a lot of the rubble, and even then…would there still be a way out at all? Redclaw closed his eyes, trying to calm down. He was starting to get a headache, and the wounds he had gotten from the fall pained him.

Stormblade was faring a lot worse; the gash on his head had started to bleed again and the pain had intensified. Though his burns had been at least somewhat protected by bandages, the scyther's weakened state meant that it was a wonder he'd survived at all.

As Stormblade tried to rest, Redclaw got up and searched around the room yet again for a way out, like he had done before. Wearily, he pushed against the heap of rubble that blocked one side of the small area, but it barely budged. Sighing, he walked over to Stormblade, who had started coughing again, and sat down.

"There has to be some way out of here…" Stormblade whispered weakly to Redclaw once his coughing had subsided. "I think the only way is to climb back up…"

Redclaw looked upward, using the light of a small, flickering ember attack to brighten up the area. Above them, the ceiling had collapsed, and so had most of the one above it. Yet what surprised him was that the long wooden beam that took up a good part of their area seemed to lead up to what was once one of the higher floors. Redclaw quickly created another small flame, looking as closely as he could. There looked to be a way they could climb further using the rubble.

"You're right…" Redclaw murmured, letting the flame die away. "The only problem is the _climbing…_ " He turned to Stormblade, and though he couldn't see the scyther's face, the silence that followed his statement was enough to tell him that Stormblade was afraid…afraid he wasn't going to make it out.

Looking up at the beam, Redclaw pressed his paw against it. Leaning against the rest of the rubble, it seemed sturdy enough for him to climb, if he climbed quickly. Gripping it with his claws, the arcanine scrabbled up the pile of rubble using the beam until he reached a flat surface above, and climbed up onto it. He turned and looked down at Stormblade, softly blowing a small flame to light the scyther's way and make his climb easier.

Stormblade, doing his best to endure the pain from his many wounds, tried to climb up the beam multiple times, but each attempt failed. At last, overcome by exhaustion, he sat down, his injured wing hanging limply at his side.

Redclaw made a sad, low-pitched whine, feeling hopeless. After a moment, Stormblade lifted his head and looked upward through the blackness. To Redclaw's surprise, the injured scyther struggled to his feet again, attempting to climb up the beam another time. This time he sunk his scythes deeper into the wood as he went, helping himself to climb further.

Redclaw watched him, using another small fire attack to light up the area until Stormblade was close enough for the arcanine to help him up the rest of the way. Redclaw let Stormblade rest for a moment as he sat down again, feeling some of his hope returning. Stormblade was still weak, but it made Redclaw hopeful to know that he wasn't going to give up easily.

As they were resting, Stormblade suddenly spoke up. "Do you smell that?" he asked in a weak voice. "There's fresh air…coming from over here…"

Redclaw used yet another small fire attack to light the way as Stormblade awkwardly limped over to where a wall had collapsed, looking for any opening. Redclaw approached as Stormblade broke into a fit of coughing, and examined the collapsed wall himself.

After a few moments, he smelled what Stormblade had, and realized that there was a small opening near the top of the destroyed wall, where air was coming through. Frantically digging at the rubble, he used all his strength to push the large pieces of debris out of the way while Stormblade watched.

After a moment, the section of wall collapsed, raising a small cloud of dust. A couple pieces of the ceiling fell down, but most of it was supported by another part of the wall that had held still. Redclaw carefully peered inside the opening he had created using the light of fire. He noticed that most of the room ahead had been completely destroyed, and there was only a small space the two could stand in.

Redclaw could still faintly smell fresh air, and he walked forward, quickly realizing that it was coming from somewhere above them. Helping Stormblade climb over part of a collapsed wall, Redclaw reached another place where an opening led them into what was once another room. Obviously the ceiling from below had collapsed, but most of the one that was now above them hadn't.

"This way," Stormblade whispered, taking a few unsteady steps forward with the aid of his scythes. "I can smell the fresh air coming from-" He stopped mid-sentence, as the ground beneath him suddenly gave way. Redclaw darted forward, grabbing Stormblade's wing in his teeth and yanking him back before he could fall through the opening.

"Careful!" The arcanine whispered to the cringing scyther. "Let me go first…"

Cautiously skirting the opening in the floor, Redclaw followed the faint scent of fresh air, soon spotting a dark opening at the base of a wall. "Through here!" he whispered, leading Stormblade toward it.

Slowly Redclaw crept inside, feeling something sharp brush against his fur as Stormblade followed, much more slowly. Several times, Redclaw had to duck or move to the side when a large piece of wood or rubble blocked his way. After a while of crawling over strewn debris and occasionally having to clear the way for Stormblade, he could smell the fresh air much stronger.

"I think we're getting closer!" the arcanine shouted excitedly. After a short while of climbing and crawling, he could sense that they were very close to the surface. The fresh air could be smelled much clearer, and they had been climbing upwards through the destroyed building for a while.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw walked forward, stopping when he felt a faint breeze. "This way!" he called, excited, as he made his way over the rubble-strewn floor, soon noticing a thin sliver of moonlight shining down on them through a small hole near the top of a thick wall.

Going ahead of Stormblade, Redclaw placed his front paws on the wall, peering up through the small opening. He couldn't see much through the darkness, but he could tell that even if they broke through the wall, they would have to climb over a large heap of debris that blocked the way. Telling Stormblade to back up, Redclaw studied the wall for a weak point. "Guess I'll have to make us a way out of here myself!" he told the scyther, determined, before running up and slamming his shoulder against the weakest part of the damaged wall.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder woke up suddenly, feeling strangely wary and nervous. At first, she was unsure what had woken her. Then, a strange scent reached her and she froze, recognizing it instantly. _Human…_ Standing up, Thunder darted behind the rock she had been laying against, watching the human come into view. She could not see him clearly, but he didn't seem to have noticed her, as he had stopped near another rock and put something on the ground.

Why he had come here, she wasn't sure, but she stayed put, watching with interest as the human set up a trap before moving onto another spot. _This was a poacher…but what was he doing here?_

Deciding it was best to move on in case the human had a gun, Thunder slipped away into the darkness, heading for the grove of trees. For some reason, seeing the poacher had made her unsettled, but she figured that if she left, she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

However, even once she was out of immediate danger, she still felt apprehensive, though she was unsure why. Pausing as she noticed a pidgey land on a small rock nearby, she pushed the thought from her mind. She was going to learn to survive and hunt on her own, so why worry?

Trying to keep quiet, Thunder edged closer to the pidgey, but it noticed her and flew away before she could get close enough to strike. Frustrated, she turned and ran toward the trees, deciding to try and hunt again when daylight came.

  
**-ooo-**  


Redclaw felt the wall shake as he tackled it again, ignoring the pain that raced up his side and shoulder as he used his take down attack to damage the wall further. He could tell that it was close to breaking, and put all his strength into the next take down. Feeling a large section of the wall crumble and break, Redclaw tumbled through the opening, landing in a heap on a pile of debris outside.

Looking up, the arcanine saw what was left standing of the damaged building shake, and noticed another wall beginning to collapse. Springing to his paws and leaping back inside, he grabbed Stormblade's uninjured wing in his jaws and pulled him through the opening, turning his head as the wall crumbled and dust filled the air.

Once it cleared, Redclaw let go of Stormblade and looked down at him. The scyther seemed a lot weaker than he had when they had been looking for a way out, and it worried him. However, he knew Stormblade only had to go a little further.

Lifting his head, Redclaw took a deep breath of the cool night air, looking gratefully at the starry sky. At last…they were free. Free from Team Rocket, and free from the destroyed building. Redclaw sighed and took another deep breath. Fresh air had never smelled so good.

His thoughts were interrupted by Stormblade's pitiful-sounding coughing. Looking up at the large pieces of wood and metal surrounding them, Redclaw nudged the injured scyther to his feet. "It's not much farther," he told him. "We just have to climb over this…and move away from the building. Then we'll be safe."

"I want to get away…from this place…" Stormblade replied. "We need…to find Snowcrystal and the…others."

"We need to find a healer," Redclaw stated, looking over Stormblade's bandaged wounds, "or the pokémon center building…though I'm not certain that's safe…and I really don't know where the city is from here."

"We're not…going to find any help…here…" Stormblade replied shakily, "but I'm not sure…how much farther I can go…"

"We should rest for a while," Redclaw said calmly, helping Stormblade along as they climbed the pile of rubble and picked their way carefully over the rocks and strewn debris. "There should be a safe place…" His voice trailed off as he noticed something in the moonlight a little ways away…a group of trees. "Let's head there," Redclaw stated, and turned to Stormblade. "Do you think you can make it?"

Stormblade nodded slowly before coughing a few times, and worriedly, Redclaw helped him begin their short journey to the small group of trees.

  
**-ooo-**  


It didn't take long for Thunder to reach the trees, but to her disappointment, there were no streams or ponds, and no sign of prey either. The ground beneath her feet was dry, and there were hardly any plants other than the trees. Sighing in frustration, she turned and walked toward one of the larger trees, deciding to get some rest.

The snap of a twig behind her made her turn around, and she scented a pokémon, a fire type. Narrowing her eyes, she darted toward the sound, breaking through a group of small bushes and lashing out at the strange pokémon.

The fire type gave a cry of shock and stumbled backward, rubbing his paw against a stinging cut on the side of his face. Thunder stood still, realizing that the pokémon was Redclaw.

"Redclaw?" she shouted, confused. "What are you doing here? Are you being followed?"

Redclaw looked up, surprised. "Thunder?" he whispered, his shock quickly turning to relief. "You're all right! And no…we aren't…being followed…"

"We?" Thunder asked, and Redclaw noticed sadly that Thunder didn't seem to be excited or relieved to see him, or at least if she was, she wasn't showing it.

"Stormblade is here too, in the clearing behind us…but he's resting right now," Redclaw explained. "We managed to escape those humans, and now Stormblade needs to get back to the city where the good humans can help-"

"Don't bother," Thunder muttered, turning away. "The building where the humans were 'helping' us is destroyed. I saw the smoke. It was burned. And you'd probably only get captured again if you went anywhere near that city!"

Redclaw paused for a moment, before sighing and continuing, "Then we need to find a healer…or…Stormblade's friends…he said something about them, and I've seen them before. One was a white growlithe, right?"

"Yes…" Thunder replied, sounding annoyed.

"Do you know where they might be?" Redclaw asked hopefully, though he wasn't sure that she would have any idea.

Thunder sighed and pointed in an eastward direction. "They were heading that way when I was traveling with them," she explained in a dull tone. "I saw some sort of fire over in that direction before, but I haven't seen any smoke so I suppose the fire is gone by now. You can head that way past the city, just be careful of poachers."

"You're coming with us…right?" Redclaw asked carefully, and Thunder didn't answer. "We need to stay together," Redclaw explained, worried. "There are too many dangers to wander off alone! If we find Stormblade's friends, I think they can help us…we just can't stay here for long. And if you go back the way we came from, you'll only find rocky cliffs and sand…I think we should go in the direction Stormblade's friends went. Stormblade is very weak…he needs someone who can help him."

"What does _that_ have to do with me?" Thunder growled as she heard Redclaw's last statement about Stormblade. "I can't do anything to help him. And if he's too weak to go on, then that's his problem."

"But you have to stay with us!" Redclaw cried. "I know how to hunt, Thunder; _you_ don't!"

At that statement, Thunder paused for a moment and then just sighed. "Fine," she muttered, "I'll travel with you until my wounds heal and I learn how to hunt, but no longer than that."

Satisfied, Redclaw smiled. "Well, if that's what you want, that's fine. Just please don't run off when you're in no condition to travel alone." He turned and began walking back toward the trees. "Follow me," he told her, "I found a good place to rest over here."

Thunder reluctantly followed Redclaw as he led her over to a large clearing, quickly explaining everything to Stormblade, who was lying down nearby. The arcanine then walked over to where he'd managed to gather enough moss and leaves to make a nest. He gestured towards it with his muzzle, indicating that Thunder could sleep there, but she ignored him completely, flying up to a thick tree branch instead.

She lay down on the branch and looked down at Redclaw, who now lay curled up on the nest of dry leaves and moss. Thunder felt more worried; this wasn't a good idea. She should be traveling alone, without depending on anyone…and now, she had agreed to let others help her…again.

Yet at the same time, she somehow felt glad that she wasn't alone anymore. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, she felt some small comfort from being near these two pokémon, however injured and weak they were. And that thought only angered her more. _She shouldn't let them try to befriend her…_ Feeling frustrated with herself, but deciding to try and forget it for the time being, she closed her eyes, not knowing whether to feel relieved or angry with herself about the situation.

Thunder hadn't been asleep for long when Stormblade's coughing woke her. She tried to fall back asleep, but Stormblade soon began coughing again, and she stood up. Feeling a burst of anger, she flew down from the tree and landed in front of him, glaring at him. "Stormblade…" she growled, "how am I supposed to rest if you keep waking me up?" She kicked him lightly, before pointing to some trees on the other side of the clearing. "If you're not going to stop coughing, then _leave!_ Go over there where no one can hear you. I may be traveling with you for a while longer, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put up with you all the time. Now _go!_ " She motioned with her scythe in the same direction.

Stormblade looked up at the other scyther in confusion, feeling too weak to stand up and leave. But with another glare from Thunder, he reluctantly staggered to his feet and painfully hobbled away toward the other clearing. "Can you go any slower?" Thunder muttered angrily under her breath as she watched him limp away, before flying back onto the tree branch and lying down again. After a while she, like Redclaw, was fast asleep.

Stormblade, however, couldn't sleep. Constantly distracted by pain and thirst, he found it hard to rest. After a while, he gave up trying, and lay down at the base of a tree away from the others, willing himself to fight through the pain and waiting for morning to come.

_To be continued…_


	27. Captive

Cyclone was relieved to have finally made it through the desert. As the vaporeon padded softly across the sandy earth and sparse grass of a spacious field, he could see trees ahead, and smell water. He was surprised he'd managed to make it through that desert when he had been so weak. Yet the stone he had touched had given him new strength; he'd even been able to use his water attacks again for a short time, enough to keep him going.

And the attack he had gained from it…it was very strange indeed. And Cyclone had an idea of what it was. He had used it once, in the desert, just to try it out. When using the attack, he had felt powerful…invincible, almost. He had liked that feeling.

If this attack really was what he thought it was, then it could be just what he needed. Increasing his pace, Cyclone dashed toward the trees, reaching them quickly. Remembering the fearow he'd talked to just a short while ago, he set about looking for the tallest tree, enjoying the feeling of grass and soft earth beneath his paws after the long trek through the desert. Based on what the fearow had told him, the pokémon who could give him the answers he needed lived close by.

Spotting a very tall, thin tree with several damaged branches, Cyclone ran until he reached the base of the tree, peering into a small den made between two of the roots. Reaching out with his paw, Cyclone raked his claws down one of the tree's roots, alerting the attention of the pokémon in the den.

A zigzagoon scurried out, ruffling his brown and tan fur and staring at the vaporeon. "A newcomer? Well, what is it?" he asked in an annoyed tone. This pokémon seemed to be used to getting visitors. Cyclone supposed many others must come to see him.

"I was told you know much about stories and legends," the vaporeon stated calmly.

The zigzagoon shuddered; for some reason, he found it uncomfortable to talk to this pokémon. Cyclone spoke with such a calm and unreadable expression, it was difficult to know what the water type was thinking. Somehow, that unnerved him.

"Yes," the zigzagoon answered slowly, "I can tell you one of those legends…but I don't do it for free. Find me some berries, and _then_ you'll get your story."

Cyclone smiled ever so slightly, though his eyes remained calm, not betraying his true emotions. "I have no berries," the vaporeon stated in his same smooth and quiet tone, "but I'm willing to offer you something much better. Do any humans ever come around here?"

"Humans?" the zigzagoon asked. "Uh, yes…why?"

"Do they try and capture you? Take berries or fruit from this place? Set out traps?" Cyclone asked, sitting down and wrapping his tail neatly around his paws.

The zigzagoon shifted uncomfortably. "Well," he began, not seeming to want Cyclone to know that the pokémon in the area had much trouble, "they've taken our food before, and there have been a few trappers, and it's a bit difficult to hide from trainers sometimes…"

"Well then," Cyclone stated quietly, "you and I both have received ill fate at the hands of humans. Do you think they can be stopped?"

The zigzagoon shrugged. "Dunno," he replied uneasily. "Humans just do what they want. I don't think there's any stopping them. It's just better for us to avoid them."

For a moment, the look in Cyclone's eyes took on a dark tone, but he quickly regained his tranquil and indecipherable expression. "Listen," he began, "for a long time, I have thought otherwise. There used to be a great many lands uninhabited by humans, but those areas are quickly shrinking. Do you want to send a message to the humans? To tell them that these lands were ours to begin with? To tell them that pokémon aren't their servants? To tell them that they cannot maim or abuse pokémon any longer?"

"Well, that would be nice but…how?" the zigzagoon asked, looking at Cyclone with a puzzled expression.

"If there was a way," Cyclone replied in a clear tone, his voice sounding calm and mysterious, "would you?"

After a moment's hesitation, the zigzagoon nodded.

Cyclone smiled another one of his faint smiles. "Then tell me…" he whispered, "about the Forbidden Attacks."

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal was running frantically through a dark, thickly wooded forest. Branches and vines seemed to jump out at her as she ran, causing her to stumble and fall or force her to stop and claw her way through. This frightened her, for something was chasing her. She was trying to get away, but as she went on, the branches became more thick and tangled, and she was fighting back panic as she ran. She did not know what was following her; she just knew that she had to get away, at all costs.

Suddenly she emerged into a quiet clearing, strangely feeling the threat of her pursuer lift. Whatever it was, it was gone, though how, she didn't know. She was staring instead at a pool of water, and around it were other pokémon. She recognized her friends among them.

Noticing Thunder and Stormblade sitting by the pool, she ran up to them, feeling relieved. She noticed that the other pokémon, the ones she didn't know, looked faded, as if they were made of nothing but shadow. She chose to ignore them, and sat beside Stormblade, who was leaning down to drink from the pool.

"Stormblade!" she cried in relief, "I'm so glad you're here, I thought you might've-" She stopped, for Stormblade had suddenly gone rigid; his eyes grew wide and he jerked away from the water and stumbled back from the pool, only to fall down on his side where he lay gasping for breath. Wondering what was wrong with him, Snowcrystal quickly turned around to ask the others for help, but surprisingly, they were gone. She and Stormblade were alone.

She turned back to the scyther, who was trembling, and seemed to be having trouble breathing. "What's wrong?" she shouted desperately, seeing that his eyes were wide with pain and his struggles seemed to be growing weaker.

"Thunder! Wildflame, Rosie, Spark!" she shouted, looking frantically around for her friends, "Something's wrong with Stormblade and I don't know what it is-" She stopped and glanced at Stormblade, whose breathing seemed to have stopped altogether. She tried to rush to his side, but sharp fangs met roughly in her scruff and pulled her away. She was released, and turned around to see Icefang, her tribe's leader, looking at her sternly.

"Have you forgotten what you went on this journey for?" he growled, advancing toward her and coming to stand between her and Stormblade. Snowcrystal shook her head vigorously. "Then move on!" Icefang growled, pushing her forward and rushing after her, until she was forced to take a completely different path from the clearing, heading through the darkened forest, which seemed to be fading now, once again…

Snowcrystal's eyes opened as she woke suddenly. She looked around slowly, for a moment unsure of where she was. Faint starlight glinted in her eyes, and she tried to look up toward the source of the light, only to find that it was hard to move. Small vines had been tied around her paws and muzzle. They were not the moving vines that had captured her, but strange thin, yet strong, normal vines that she couldn't break when she tried to struggle.

Trying to calm herself down, she moved her head in order to glance around. She was lying in a fairly large cavern next to a few large columns of stone reaching up to the ceiling. Near the center of the roof of the cavern was a large hole, through which moonlight was shining. She could hear whispers all around her, but at first she could not see any of her friends.

Through the darkness of the cave, shapes began to appear. The shapes of various different pokémon, all grass types, were moving in and out of various cave tunnels. Two of them, an ivysaur and a young tropius, rested on rock ledges near the moonlit hole in the ceiling. Though there was a way for light to come in, at least in this cavern, it seemed odd that there would be grass types living in a cave.

A groan from behind her made her try to turn around, but it was difficult to move. She craned her head backward, noticing Spark's spiky yellow fur close behind her.

"Spark!" she whispered, finding it hard to speak with the vine around her snout. "Are you awake?"

Spark painfully turned his head toward her, glancing around the cave in confusion. "Where are we?" he asked, his voice sounding muffled because of the vine around his own muzzle.

"I don't know," Snowcrystal replied quietly. "Deeper in the cave, I guess. These grass pokémon must have taken us here…"

"Well of course they did!" Spark growled, looking around. "Watch me give them a little surprise…cover your eyes, Snowcrystal!"

At first Snowcrystal was confused at his request, but immediately placed her bound paws over her eyes as hundreds of small, thin spines shot out of Sparks pelt and toward the grass pokémon. Several of them struck her, and she whimpered. However, a moment later, and it was over.

None of the grass types had cried out, but the ivysaur and young tropius glared at them, and so did a small oddish who had just entered the cave. Spark gave them a threatening growl, his fur crackling as he readied an electric attack.

Snowcrystal knew that the attack wouldn't do much good against these strong-looking grass types, but she couldn't attack, so it was their only way of fighting back. She wished she knew where the others were.

With surprising speed, the ivysaur lashed out with one of its vines, striking Spark across the face and causing him to skid backwards a few feet. The jolteon turned his head toward the grass type and growled again.

Snowcrystal cringed; they weren't going to get anywhere by fighting while they were tied up. Maybe the whole thing was all a misunderstanding. If they had trespassed in the grass types' cave, it had been an accident, and she knew it wouldn't hurt to try and explain.

"Please listen to us!" Snowcrystal cried from between clenched teeth. "We didn't know this was your cave. We'll leave, just let us and our friends go!"

"Quiet!" snapped the young tropius. "We know that you're either spies, or you were planning to attack us…a foolish move, I might add."

"Are you _insane_ _?_ " Spark snarled angrily. "We came into the cave to hide from humans. You can have the stupid cave; we just want to get out of here!"

"You're lying!" the tropius shouted, but the ivysaur interrupted him.

"Wait a minute," he said quietly, "it _does_ seem strange that they had an electric type with them, and this is certainly the first _white_ growlithe I've seen. Besides, they don't seem to know what we're talking about…"

"Yeah," Spark agreed, "what _are_ you talking about?"

"Shut up!" the tropius yelled. "They're probably just trying to trick us," he added with a glance at the ivysaur. "They're some of those fire pokémon that took our land and forced us to live in this filthy cave! We barely have any food and it's all because of them!"

"Calm down," the ivysaur replied impatiently. "It's very possible that this could be a trick… _but…_ " he added, seeing that Spark was about to protest, "we should talk this over with the others first before we decide on what to do with them."

The tropius nodded reluctantly and followed the ivysaur through a tunnel and out of the cavern. A moment later, a bayleef appeared, followed by Wildflame and Rosie, who was limping. Neither of them had any vines tied around them, but they both seemed fearful of attacking. "Stay here with the others," the bayleef ordered them, and left the cavern.

Wildflame quickly broke the vines from around Spark and Snowcrystal's paws and snouts, and the two stood up, looking relieved.

"Wildflame," Snowcrystal began, "do you know why they're keeping us here? We heard they-"

"Yes," Wildflame replied. "Apparently, there's a group of fire pokémon who drove these grass types out of their home…" Snowcrystal remembered the cool streams and lush grass they had passed through before; maybe that had been where the grass types' home had been.

"And since we're fire types," Wildflame continued, "they think we're some of the ones who drove them out…" Her gaze drifted to the hole in the cave ceiling. "Do you think there's a way we can climb up there?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Snowcrystal said quietly. "Those ledges look too high up for me to climb…and I had to climb plenty of times back at the mountain. I think the grass types use vine whip to pull themselves up or something…and that tropius can fly…I don't really know how we'd get up there…"

"I think it's ridiculous that they think we're responsible for what some wild fire types did!" Spark growled. "Can't they realize a white growlithe wouldn't live around here?"

"They think we've been sent here as spies," Rosie whispered, and Snowcrystal could see pain in the ninetales's expression; her leg must be hurting badly. "They see you and Snowcrystal…and me as well, because I'm injured, as just a way to get them to think that we're not trying to trick them…" She shrugged. "I'm not sure how we're going to convince them otherwise…"

For a little while more they talked quietly amongst themselves, and then the ivysaur and tropius returned. "We've made a decision," the ivysaur stated, sitting calmly in front of them. "Attack us, and you'll regret it. I don't think you want to deal with poisonpowder." Rosie and Spark cast nervous glances at each other and then looked back at the ivysaur as he continued, "It is entirely possible that you could be travelers passing through, and it's also entirely possible that you could be spies or attackers. I'm afraid we can't just let you leave unless we have proof of your innocence…and to prove that," he added, "we have decided that you will help us battle the fire pokémon and reclaim our home."

" _What?_ " Rosie cried, outraged. "That's not fair. This isn't our fight! It doesn't concern us at all! And how exactly am I supposed to fight in a battle with my leg broken like this?"

"Quiet!" hissed the tropius. "He's giving you a simple choice; help us fight the battle in a few days…or rot in this cave." He narrowed his eyes angrily, before finishing, "It's your choice. I'd choose wisely if I were you."

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade wished that morning would come. Even though he knew he would have to travel again, he was desperate for the long night to be over. He knew there was no way he'd be able to sleep, not when he was in so much pain, and he felt miserable and alone. Sitting up, he began slowly sharpening his scythes, hoping that the simple action would be some distraction from the pain he was feeling.

The sudden snap of a twig somewhere behind him caused him to turn. To his surprise, he noticed Thunder limping through the clearing on the other side of the trees, obviously not noticing him.

"Thunder?" he whispered quietly, but he didn't receive an answer. Worried, he stood up slowly, using the nearest tree for support. He sat down as he began coughing again, and waited for it to subside before staggering upright and slowly following Thunder.

He tried to keep as quiet as possible, though it was hard when he kept stumbling. However, Thunder never turned or noticed him; she seemed too distracted. Stormblade almost felt that he could have made as much noise as possible and she still wouldn't have turned around.

He increased his pace as much as he could, getting closer until he could see Thunder clearly. One thing that both surprised and worried him was that she was stumbling…limping…almost as badly as he was, not bothering to hide her pain. Every few steps she would let out a gasp or a hiss of pain, and sometimes paused to struggle for breath and quietly mutter words that Stormblade couldn't hear. It was so unusual and surprising that he stopped suddenly, wondering if he should ask Redclaw, the arcanine who had saved him, for help.

Only too late did he realize that he'd paused for too long. Giving no warning, Thunder whirled around, an enraged look in her eyes that made Stormblade realize that she really had only just noticed him. Before he could move, Thunder raced toward him, lashing out at him.

Stormblade felt the dull side of the other scyther's blade slam into his uninjured leg, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall flat on his back…which due to his burns, hurt. Thunder stood over him, placing her foot firmly on his chest to hold him down and raising her scythes above him.

However, Stormblade could tell that she didn't intend to attack him. She was just angry, and that anger was quickly fading away to be replaced with annoyance.

"Why are you following me?" Thunder asked, regaining some of her calm, though she did not let Stormblade up.

"I…I was…" Stormblade rasped, "just trying…to see if you were all right…" He wasn't sure how Thunder would react to his statement, as she had never seemed to approve of him being concerned about her.

Thunder narrowed her eyes, and Stormblade noticed that she was standing firmly again, nearly all traces of pain gone from her expression. "I'm fine," she spat. "I always was. There's no need for you to follow me around!" She pressed her foot down harder, and Stormblade winced.

"I'm sorry…" Stormblade replied weakly, not knowing what else to say. To his relief, Thunder backed away from him, allowing him to sit up. He looked up at her, suddenly realizing with shock that crimson blood was slowly oozing from the gunshot wound in her side. The wound hadn't been bleeding that badly before, except for when she had first gotten it. "Your wound!" he gasped. "Are you-"

"SHUT UP!" Thunder yelled, her anger coming back. "I came here to be _alone_. Alone. I thought you'd at least have the decency to let me be by myself for _once_ without having to come and follow me. There's no way you could help me anyway."

"How do you know?" Stormblade replied. "I'm your friend…I _want_ to help you."

Thunder stiffened at the mention of the word 'friend' and glared at him. "You can't even help yourself," she retorted. "You're helpless and weak. There's nothing you could do."

Stormblade remained silent for a moment, confused over Thunder's last statement. Maybe it had just been his imagination, but it almost seemed like, for once, she wanted help…she just didn't think anyone _could_ help her. "Well…" he began hesitantly, pausing when he had to cough, "it seemed like something was bothering you…and not just your wounds and I-"

He didn't have time to finish, as Thunder interrupted him, completely changing the subject. "Why on earth do you still have those bandages on?" she asked in an annoyed tone. "Everyone who sees you can see that you've let humans… _willingly_ let humans try to 'help' you. It shows how weak you are. You would never survive as one of Master's pokémon…ever."

Stormblade was about to make an angry reply, but stopped himself just in time. Instead, he just muttered, "I don't want my wounds to get infected any worse than they already are." He turned his gaze away from her, staring at the ground instead. It was hard to think clearly through all the pain, and he was beginning to regret following Thunder. He was surprised that she hadn't tried to drive him away yet.

Thunder didn't reply to his statement. She turned away from him, leaning against a tree for support. Stormblade could tell that she was leaning rather heavily against it, looking as if she could collapse any moment. He knew now that her tough attitude was just an act…and he wasn't sure she could keep it up.

"Look," Stormblade told her, "I just want to help…but if you want me to leave, I will." He was aware of Thunder glaring at him, but she said nothing, so he hesitantly continued, "You know…you don't have to hide the fact that you're in pain. It's not a weakness…and if you let others help you, it'll be a lot easier to bear."

For a moment, Thunder looked furious, obviously angry with the fact that he could tell that she was hiding her 'weakness,' but to his surprise, she seemed to calm down after he finished speaking. "How?" she asked curiously. "If a pokémon is in pain…another pokémon can't just simply take that pain away. They'd be wasting their time trying to help."

Stormblade wasn't sure how to reply. He was still surprised that Thunder hadn't run away or forced him to leave yet. He wondered if she was just listening to him because she needed a way to pass the time. As he was about to speak, Thunder interrupted him.

"You aren't a healer," she told him, "so you can't help me…not that I really need a healer anyway. I survived most of my wounds on my own. Master only ever treated the injuries of his pokémon if they were serious or they got infected. I've lived through worse than this. I'll be just _fine_ _…_ " She emphasized the last word with a growl, digging her claws angrily into the dry earth.

Stormblade decided that he shouldn't press the matter further. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked sadly, leaning against the tree and getting ready to stand up.

Strangely, Thunder just shrugged. "I don't care," she stated crossly.

Stormblade stayed where he was, not replying. He really didn't feel strong enough to walk all the way back to where he'd been resting. Though he knew it was only a relatively short distance, he felt too weak to stand up and walk back, and he was dizzy from pain. Remembering what Thunder had mentioned about her 'Master,' Stormblade sighed and told her, "I think I understand…at least a little…about what your master did to you, and what it was like. I mean, Justin never _injured_ me, but well…he wasn't exactly the best trainer."

"So you think you understand?" Thunder asked, sounding more amused than angry. She watched him through narrowed eyes, though she seemed curious about what his response would be.

"Well…you see," Stormblade began, "when Justin captured me…I had been…separated…from my swarm. I was lost and had recently been in a fight. I was injured, and I had been wandering through the forest aimlessly when Justin appeared. He was very frightened, and sent his jolteon, Spark, to attack me. We fought, and I was winning, despite my wounds. Spark scarcely had the energy to dodge my blows and Justin could see that he was going to get hurt, so he threw a poké ball at me while I was distracted. He was trying to give Spark time to get out of range and catch his breath, but…he didn't expect the poké ball to actually _capture_ me."

"He caught you the first time he threw a poké ball?" Thunder asked, coming as close to smiling as Stormblade had ever seen her. "That's pathetic."

"I was weak from the fight…" Stormblade muttered, looking at the ground. At first he felt angry, but then he realized that Thunder hadn't tried to silence him, and she still wasn't making him go away. Whether it was just for amusement or not, it seemed as if Thunder really _wanted_ someone to talk to right now. Deciding to forget her last comment, he continued, "I was confused at being captured, but even while in the poké ball, I could hear a little of what Justin was saying. He hadn't wanted to capture me. He didn't want a scyther, and he wanted to get rid of me, but he was afraid to release me because he thought I might attack him.

"I found out later that he was going to tie my poké ball to a rock and just drop it into a river, but he didn't. He realized that I was a good fighter after my battle with Spark, and chose to keep me, because most of his other pokémon weren't as skilled in battle as I was. But that was all he cared about; other than that I meant nothing to him. He was always _afraid_ of me, and he never got over that fear…I suppose it's even worse now…

"That fear stopped him from ever trying to get to know me like he did with his other pokémon. I was often made to stay in my poké ball, not getting to eat as much as the other pokémon did…he neglected me most of the time, though I know he didn't always mean to.

"After a long time, Justin went back to his house during the winter time and let me out in the snow. I tried to find shelter and ended up finding a hurt human and trying to protect her from a kabutops…but by the time the other humans had found her, she had died. They thought I was the one who killed her. Justin was made to release me, Spark, and the others, and he got his trainer's license taken away…"

"What's a trainer's license?" Thunder asked curiously.

"It's what all trainers have to have to own pokémon," Stormblade told her. "It's like a small card or something. If a trainer shows up at a pokémon center without one, they can get in big trouble."

"Hm…" Thunder muttered to herself, "I think Master had something like that. He never had to use it in the places where I battled, though."

Stormblade wasn't sure what to say, so he went on, "Not many days ago, soon after Rosie was captured…" He gave a sad sigh and continued, "I went looking for water during a rainstorm, because I knew I couldn't make it to a stream by myself with these injuries. I heard a human coming and quickly ran into a cave. That human was Justin…and there was another human there…it must have been his friend.

"The female human wanted to help me, but didn't have the right medicine. Justin was afraid and threw rocks at me, but he didn't recognize me. His friend wanted to take me somewhere where I could get food and help, despite the fact that Justin didn't want her to. However…Justin somehow found out who I was. He made the other human go out of the cave and told her that I was a murderer…"

"I suppose it makes no difference," he sighed. "Those Team Rocket humans would still have invaded the pokémon center and I would have gotten captured anyway. I'm just glad Redclaw was able to help me get out of that building..."

Thunder didn't ask what Team Rocket was, but she looked confused, and a little angry, after Stormblade finished speaking. "So that's it?" she asked, sounding un-amused. "That's your oh-so-horrible trainer story?"

"Well…" Stormblade began, "I thought…"

"Your trainer was nothing but a cowardly weakling!" Thunder growled. "And you felt bad about the way he treated you? What did he do? Forget to feed you for a few days? Leave you out in the cold for a couple of hours? Is that _all_ _?_ "

"I just…" Stormblade replied quietly, "I just wanted you to know that I went through some of the same things you did…of course not _everything_ _,_ but I understand what you had to go through."

"You're far from understanding…" Thunder stated coldly, and her dark blue eyes narrowed. "You're complaining about a trainer who was a forgetful coward, but nothing more. I don't see how this has anything to do with me, or how it's supposed to make you understand."

"I'd understand if you told me…" Stormblade replied slowly.

"Told you what?" Thunder replied, seeming annoyed and almost angry again.

"About your trainer," Stormblade told her. "What he did to you…maybe if you told me, I could understand better."

"What's there to understand?" Thunder asked. "If you want to know about Master, ask Redclaw. He knows too."

Stormblade hesitated for a moment, before replying, "Redclaw wasn't your master's pokémon for as long as you were…was he?"

The question caught Thunder by surprise, but she just muttered, "You're right. He wasn't."

Stormblade paused for a moment before asking, "How long were you owned by your master?"

Thunder stiffened and gave him an angry glare; Stormblade wondered if asking her these questions had really been a good idea after all, and she merely hissed at him, "Why do you want to know? And more importantly, why do you _care_ _?_ "

Stormblade wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't feel like she would understand if he tried to tell her that it was because he wanted to help; she hadn't responded kindly to him when he had said that before. Pain was still filling his mind, making it hard for him to think. He wished it would go away…for only a few seconds, so he could think of what to say. "Because I don't want you to be hurt," he managed at last. "I want to know if there is some way I can help you…and I think if you told me about your trainer, I would understand better, and maybe find a way."

Thunder remained silent, staring at Stormblade with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty. However, she had to admit, she wasn't entirely sure she disliked the idea, though she was still hesitant. "What good would that do?" she asked, but there was no snarl or growl to her voice this time.

"You said I didn't understand," Stormblade responded. "Well…I _want_ to understand." He reached out with his scythe and lightly touched the side of it to Thunder's, but she jerked her arm away as if he had burned her.

"Why?" she asked. "All I'd be telling you about is events in the past… memories that don't matter anymore."

"But they do matter," Stormblade told her. "If they can help me understand and be able to help you, they do. You can tell me about it now, if you want to…there's no reason to worry. I only want to help you."

Thunder hesitated, not liking the way Stormblade seemed to imply that she was worried. There was no reason she should be, after all. Stormblade was the one who was worried, and worried for no real reason. She wondered if it was even worth listening to him anymore…

Yet the way he had spoken to her, he had seemed so sincere, and so willing to listen to her, for the sole purpose of trying to help. She wasn't sure any other pokémon would ever be willing to do that. Most of the others she had traveled with hadn't wanted to put up with her after a while, and had left her well alone for the most part. She had wanted it that way. But now…she wasn't as sure.

And she wasn't sure she _wanted_ to share her memories either, but she felt that if she didn't now, there might never be a time again when someone would willingly offer to help her. And besides, the memories were just thoughts of the past…they didn't matter in the present. They were long since over. _'If the memories don't matter anymore…'_ she thought to herself, _'then there's no reason_ not _to share them…'_

"Fine," she muttered, crossing her blades and fixing her gaze on Stormblade. "What do you want to know?"

"Well…when…and how, did you get caught by Master?" Stormblade asked calmly. Feeling the pain of his injuries start to get worse, he slowly lay down on the dry ground and watched her.

Thunder sighed impatiently, as if she was annoyed already and just wanted to get the whole thing over with, but nevertheless, she answered his question. Surprisingly, her answer was much longer than Stormblade had expected.

"It was a long time ago," she began, speaking calmly. "I was very young and small…my wings had not yet grown enough to carry me in flight, and my blades were not sharp enough to inflict any bad injuries. I was somewhere in a forest, and I had a bad wound in my head. I couldn't remember anything, but I was probably too young to remember much anyway. There was another scyther there, a small male, even younger than I was. He could have been my brother…I never knew. We were both injured, but he was worse off. He was missing two of his wings, and one of his scythes was broken in half. He also had a lot of deep cuts in his back. Whatever had happened, it certainly hadn't gone well for him, whoever he was.

"I didn't know what had happened to us, and he wouldn't talk…or couldn't talk. We stayed there in the forest, and for some reason I tried to take care of him. I couldn't, really, but I still tried. I did not know how to hunt so we went hungry for a while.

"Then a few days later, a human showed up, with a cyndaquil. I didn't know what a human was at the time, but I could tell that him coming there wasn't a good thing. He didn't see us as a threat and he picked me up. I cut him, and he made his cyndaquil attack me. After that, he took us in a human vehicle and away from the forest.

"We got taken into some building and put together in a cage. We were left there for a little while, sometimes given food that tasted strange. I think that other scyther was the only reason I got through the first few days…I was scared then. The room and the cage were cold, so we huddled together most of the time.

"After a while that human…Master, came back. He took me out of the cage for a moment and said something to Volco, his cyndaquil. He caught me in a poké ball but didn't want me to stay inside it, so he let me out and then put me back in the cage. Then he took the other scyther out.

"He must have decided that scyther was too weak, so he ordered Volco to kill him. He did it right in front of me…" Thunder paused for a moment and turned away, and Stormblade could see a spark of anger in her eyes. Yet she remained calm, though her voice was a little shaky.

"I realized later that Master never wanted to bother training him. He knew his injuries were too bad, and he'd never make it through the training. He kept me, though he didn't think I would be very strong at first." She shrugged and turned back to Stormblade. "That's it," she stated simply. "Don't know how this is supposed to help you or me, but you have your answer. Happy now?"

Stormblade looked both shocked and horrified. "Why would your trainer kill one of his own pokémon?" he blurted out. "How could he do something like that? Why did he even take that other scyther from the forest if he was just going to-"

"You said you wanted to know about Master?" Thunder asked suddenly, interrupting Stormblade and fixing a piercing gaze on him. Now that she had told him a little about her trainer, she seemed willing to tell him more, and Stormblade wasn't sure he knew why.

"Well then listen," Thunder continued, and some of her anger faded. She wasn't exactly certain why she wanted to tell him this, but she had nothing to lose, and it wouldn't matter to her if Stormblade told anyone. Maybe telling him about Master would be a good thing, after all. Maybe he would finally leave her alone after this. She leaned closer to Stormblade, speaking more quietly this time, as if trying to make sure that her voice wouldn't wake Redclaw up. Speaking in a calm tone once again, she began.

"You see," Thunder told him, "Master wasn't a trainer like yours was. Yes, I've heard of trainers before…and I'd never trust one, but Master was worse. He fought pokémon for money, and got a lot of money from it. Humans would make bets during the battles. Master's pokémon won lots of times. Humans mostly bet on him.

"Master caught most of his own pokémon. He usually didn't buy them from others…well he did sometimes, but not often. He usually caught young pokémon. I think he wanted to train them early. He caught pokémon all the time. He would bring them back to one of his training places and put them in cages for a few days, then later make them wear a collar and chain them up. He didn't usually keep them in poké balls unless he was taking them somewhere. Master had older pokémon, ones he had trained a long while, but I didn't see them very often at first. I was mostly in a cage in one of the many buildings Master had to put us in, or chained up outside when we were far enough away from cities. I was usually around other small pokémon when I was little.

"Master had a way of training his pokémon. He caught a great many of them, and found the strongest by process of elimination. To put it simply, he put us through constant training, day after day, and those who didn't survive were simply just too weak. Most of them died, but Master didn't care. He had a lot of pokémon, and only the strongest mattered to him.

"The only one I knew of who never had any training was Volco. Master was kind to him, and Volco greatly adored and respected Master. I always hated Volco…despised him. He would often taunt me with food, insult me…stupid things like that. That didn't really matter, but Volco got to punish me with fire attacks sometimes. It was never enough to seriously injure me; it was just to cause pain. The wounds usually healed fast.

"Like the others, I got trained from when I was little. There was what he called the 'usual training,' the battles, the attack practice. I got hurt a lot, but it usually wasn't so bad. The other training was worse. Master wanted pokémon who could fight while enduring great pain. So he trained his pokémon to do that. He would well, torture us.

"I think he believed that if we got used to such pain, any pain we felt on the battlefield would be insignificant in comparison to it. He did that lots of times, just causing me pain so I could get used it, so I could have better endurance. He started out by just giving me small jolts of electricity when I was little, but it got worse as I got older. It got a lot worse.

"Before I had done enough training to be put in a real fight, I would get put in practice ones, against another of Master's pokémon, usually one he didn't consider very valuable, one that had survived but that didn't handle the training well. If I fought well against that pokémon, Master would have me fight two. If I got hurt, he said it was just to make me stronger. I couldn't stop battling because Master always had Volco around him and he would use some fire attack on me, plus Master had a device that would electrocute me if I stopped. I sometimes passed out from this, and only got punished later. I learned that it was better to just obey him. He would be able to make me do what he wanted later anyway, and I got food if I obeyed him the first time."

At this moment, Thunder paused, but Stormblade didn't want to interrupt her, and after a moment she went on.

"At first…" she began, and Stormblade thought he detected a hint of sadness in her voice, "I tried to make it through everything by asking for help from some of the other young pokémon there. They would give me food sometimes if I didn't get any, and I gave them some of my food sometimes too. We were always trying to help each other, and I became close to some of them, but…the ones I befriended eventually died. They didn't make it through the training. I had to watch some of them die. It used to horrify me whenever one of them was killed.

"As time went on, I saw more pokémon die…but after I'd seen a large number of them pass away and become distraught after each one, even if I hadn't known them, the other pokémon started telling me to just forget it and move on. And after a while…after a time of seeing more and more deaths…I started to listen. They told me there was no point, that it didn't matter…that this was just the way things were. And in time…I stopped caring.

"I kept being trained by Master with the other pokémon, being repeatedly told these things, and I believed them. It was all I was ever told. I no longer cared if someone else was hurt or killed; all that mattered to me was surviving the day, proving myself tough enough so that I could become one of Master's stronger pokémon, so I would not have to go through torture anymore. When I was old enough and Master was satisfied that I was strong enough, he began putting me in real fights."

At this moment Thunder paused again, staring around the grove of trees briefly before continuing. When she did, she had regained her calm and almost emotionless voice again.

"The fighting areas he brought me to were strange. They didn't look like the ones we practiced in. They were usually in a big building, or outside. Lots of humans always came to watch. There were others like Master, too. They would bring a strong pokémon, and me or one of Master's other pokémon would battle them. Master and the other human would release their pokémon into an enclosed area or sometimes a deep pit, which had a force field over the top so we couldn't fly or climb out. I think the humans were afraid we would attack them.

"I never tried though. I only wanted to win so Master would be happy with me. When he was happy, he treated me better. Master would starve me before these fights, not for too long, only a few days, but enough to make me want to win. If I did win, he gave me food as a reward. In most of these fights I just had to make the other pokémon faint, and it took a long time; they didn't faint easily, and it was usually only after they had lost a lot of blood. But I was used to fighting, so most of these battles were easy enough.

"But there were some that were far worse. Not many humans made their pokémon battle in these fights. But Master did. He knew he was taking a risk by entering one of us because of all the time he spent training me and the other pokémon he used. We had won a lot of fights and he had gotten a lot of money, but he took this risk so he could earn even more. In these fights though, pokémon fought to the death. Sometimes there were a lot of us in the arena at once; other times there were just two at a time. Either way, there was only one simple rule. To win, you had to be the last one alive.

"I never wanted to kill my opponents at first, but he made me do it so many times it started to feel like the natural thing to do. These battles were much fiercer. Pokémon were fighting to stay alive; they were desperate. But I was trained to ignore pain and keep fighting regardless of any injuries I sustained. I almost always came out of these battles badly hurt.

"Later, Master would treat my wounds himself. Unlike the other humans, from what I knew of them, he would do it while I was conscious. Even though I was chained he knew I could still attack him, but I never did. He knew I wouldn't. He would not give me any medicine for the pain, but he would give me some food while he did it, but only a little. I didn't injure him, because I knew I wouldn't get any more food if I did. And I couldn't kill him; I would starve to death if I did because I was chained, and no one would be there to bring me food. And he knew that.

"I believe Master was looked up to by the other humans who trained battle pokémon. I think they admired the way he could always keep himself in control, and that he showed no fear of his pokémon. I once saw a human who was whipping his pokémon after a battle, and he lost control of the pokémon and it nearly killed him. Aside from him and a few others, most of the humans didn't dare try to use whips on their pokémon, but Master did.

"I think the only reason he used a whip was because he wanted to show that he could do it. To prove to other humans that he could do it and his pokémon wouldn't turn on him. To show that he was in control." Thunder turned away from Stormblade and focused on a single star shining in the night sky, seeming lost in thought, though she still looked calm.

"After a while," she continued, though she seemed to be getting tired of talking, "the fights stopped. I think other humans made the fights stop. Master couldn't go to some of his buildings anymore because he was worried they would find out what he was doing.

"For a while Master didn't try to find any new places to battle other humans, though I knew it was bound to start again sooner or later. He kept training me though… I was special to him. Not 'special' like Volco was special, but I was an excellent fighter in his eyes…I won him a lot of money, so I was valuable. He did not torture me all that often, though he did tell a pokémon to attack me or else use the whip on me when I lost a practice battle or did something to displease him. I was used to it.

"He still often brought in new pokémon, but he did not torture them, or if he did, it was very rarely. He seemed to be satisfied with me and the others who'd gone through the torture-training, and wasn't so harsh on the newer and younger pokémon, like Redclaw. Master usually just chained me up every day and left me, except for when he put me in a practice battle. Then there was that one night, at one of his training buildings, when you found me. After you set me free, I flew into the forest and wandered around for a while until I found you and the others again."

She stopped for a moment and thought of something else. "That typhlosion you battled, the one I was fighting after I left you and the rest of the group…that was Volco. The human there…that was Master." She turned toward Stormblade again and waited for his response, wondering whether she would be angry or amused by whatever he said.

Stormblade was hardly sure what to think. He was angry and shocked by what Thunder's trainer had done to her, and surprised too; he had known that Thunder had been abused, but he'd never known the full story…the extent of it. He wanted to help her now, more than anything, but he wasn't sure he knew how. He could scarcely believe what Thunder's master had done. This human had ruined Thunder's life, and all for the sake of money. Stormblade knew that if he himself had been put through the same thing Thunder had, he would most certainly have died. Thunder had gone through so much pain…even his own wounds seemed like nothing in comparison.

"Thunder…" he began, and the other scyther looked at him uncertainly. "I'm sorry…" Stormblade whispered quietly, unsure of what else to say, "I'm sorry for everything you had to go through."

' _Why?'_ thought Thunder. _'You didn't do it…'_ She then realized that Stormblade had said a lot of other confusing things already, and didn't bother to question him.

"I hate Master…" she growled before Stormblade could say anything more. "If I ever find him again, I'll kill him!" She spoke with a ferocity that surprised Stormblade, and there was a deadly gleam in her eyes. She wasn't looking at Stormblade; in fact, she almost seemed to have forgotten that he was there.

"I…I think I understand now…" Stormblade said quietly, attracting Thunder's attention once again. His voice shook, but he continued, "I mean…I still probably don't entirely, but I understand better now. I'm sorry…I should have tried to help you more before. I wanted to…I was just never sure how. I'm not even sure what I can do now… But at least it's over now…you don't have to worry about Master or Volco or any of them anymore."

Thunder just stared at him, not knowing what to think. She wasn't sure whether to make an angry reply or to just leave. It felt better to have talked about Master; she was calmer now. Why was Stormblade acting as if everything was worse? She felt like telling him she was fine, that she didn't need his help and that she could manage on her own. She felt like telling him to leave so she could go back to sleep and worry about everything later. But she didn't.

"It's not over," she replied quietly, causing Stormblade to look up at her in surprise. She hadn't wanted to confess any weakness to anyone, but somehow telling him this now seemed like the right thing to do. "Back when I fought the vespiquen…and Volco…I lost control…I was ready to kill both of them…I _would_ have killed both of them. When I left Master, I thought the same thing you did…that I could start over and forget about it, but I can't…it isn't over…and it won't ever be…" She stared silently at the ground, and didn't even move when Stormblade limped closer to her.

"Don't worry," he told her softly, touching the tip of his blade lightly to her shoulder. Thunder stiffened at the touch, but this time she didn't move away. "Back then, when you were Master's pokémon…" Stormblade said quietly. "No one was ever really able to help you. But you're not in this alone anymore. I'll find a way to help you somehow."

Until then, Thunder had still been staring at the ground, but now she looked up at Stormblade. She could not understand what compelled him to want to help her so much; her problems had nothing to do with him, and he had enough of his own. She thought it was silly of him, but at the same time, she had to admit to herself…she didn't want to be alone. She had never wanted to be.

"I have to stay around Redclaw for a while anyways," Thunder said softly. "I don't know how to hunt. I'm not used to being wild."

"I'm sure Redclaw would like to teach you," Stormblade said, smiling a little. "I know he cares about you. I'm sure he'll be a good teacher."

"Can he hunt like a scyther?" Thunder asked, looking doubtful.

"No," Stormblade replied, "but he can show you the basics. I can help teach you how, but I won't be able to show you. You can fight well, though. I'm sure hunting will come easy for you."

"Is it hard at first?" questioned Thunder, giving Stormblade another curious look.

"A little," Stormblade answered, "but it gets easier. Once you see how it's done, you should get the idea."

For a while the two of them talked, sitting beside the trees, listening to the soft calm winds and breathing in the cool night air. Thunder didn't see any real importance in their conversation, but it had been a long while since she had been able to talk to a pokémon – about anything – without getting angry or upset. For the first time in a long while, she felt somewhat at peace... Somewhat.

Stormblade was taken by surprise when Thunder suddenly stood up, a look that was almost anger in her eyes. "This is pointless!" she snapped, though it seemed to him as if it almost pained her to say it. "All we're doing is wasting time. I don't see how I honestly thought you could help me. Are you a healer? No. Can _you_ hunt? No. I don't see why you insist on sitting here, wasting time, when we _should_ be resting! And all you're trying to do is falsely make me believe that you're going to help me. You're _pathetic_ _!_ "

She narrowed her eyes, then turned and stalked away. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she sneered, "Better get some rest…we're going to travel tomorrow. And I don't want you slowing us down. If you do, I'll make Redclaw _drag_ you the whole way."

Before Stormblade could call out to stop her, Thunder had dashed off, leaving him behind and heading back to the tree she had been sleeping in before. Stormblade lay down miserably on the ground, feeling confused and helpless. Why had she suddenly reacted that way, when before she had been calm enough around him? What she said hadn't even made sense, considering that she had been talking to him peacefully before. What had he done to make her act that way? Why was she so upset with him?

Stormblade felt too weak to walk back to the nest Redclaw had made for him, so instead he curled up on the ground beside the tree he and Thunder had been sitting by. He'd wanted to help Thunder, show her she wasn't alone, and for a while, it had seemed like it had worked. But now, he couldn't help but feel as if he had just made everything worse.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder feebly slashed at a branch that hung in her way as she slowly walked back toward the tree near where Redclaw was sleeping. Truthfully, she had wanted to be friends…she really had. Yet she knew she couldn't; it would only hurt her in the end, and she wasn't sure she could face that sort of pain again.

When she had been small, she had always looked to other pokémon for support and even friendship in order to help her make it through all of Master's tests. But after she had to watch each of them, one by one, fail those tests and die, she had made a point to not get to know the other pokémon too well. In the long run, making friends had never helped. Only caused her pain she didn't need. She wished she had never tried to help that young scyther in the forest, never grown close to him. It would have been better.

Thunder stopped herself, quickly reminding herself that all of that was in the past. She had made mistakes, but she would learn from her mistakes. She wouldn't talk to Stormblade anymore. She wouldn't let him try to get close to her. She would make him leave her alone, make him hate her if she had to, but she had to get him to realize that they were not friends. They couldn't be.

Thunder's thoughts wandered back to Snowcrystal and the others she had traveled with. She had tried to help them sometimes, even when she wasn't sure why herself. And where had it brought her? Briefly, Thunder remembered trying to help free Rosie, and glanced at the bullet wounds in her side and shoulder. _It had gotten her nowhere._

Out of all the pokémon she could possibly trust, Stormblade was the last one she should try to befriend. He was injured, and by a cursed attack that gave him wounds that would never heal, wounds that would just get infected worse and worse and never get better. There was no way he would survive that…

And when she had to watch him die, she didn't want to care.

  
**-ooo-**  


As the moon glistened silently overhead, the wreckage of Team Rocket's secret base lay forlorn and silent. Wind echoed sadly through the area, moving small bits of rubbish across the sandy ground.

Suddenly a bluish glow surrounded a large chunk of debris and lifted it into the air before tossing it away into the rubble. From a pile of twisted metal and splintered wood, Solus painfully hauled himself onto firm ground, picking his way over the wreckage before collapsing in the dust near the ruined building.

He had been abandoned…forgotten. The Rockets who had the chance had teleported away using their abra at the sound of the explosions, but Solus hadn't been around them, and no one had come looking. Dust and traces of blood stained the espeon's fur, and he gave it a few quick licks, smoothing it out and cleaning some of the small cuts he'd received. The wounds the scyther had inflicted still stung, but he left them alone.

Still feeling outraged, Solus stood up and limped away, hardly giving the Rocket's building a second glance. He had no way of locating his trainer; he was a wild pokémon now. Surprisingly, he didn't feel intimidated by the thought of having to live a life fending for himself. He had been a high-ranking Rocket pokémon for a reason; his psychic powers were legendary among Team Rocket's pokémon.

Though he was secretly still seething with rage about being forgotten, he pushed the feeling to the back of his mind. He would have no problem surviving in the wild. The only ones who had to worry now were the ones who got in his way.

_To be continued…_


	28. The Forgotten City

Snowcrystal growled in anger at the grass pokémon, raising her voice in unison with Rosie's. "That's not fair!" she cried, hardly believing that they expected her to battle for them. "This isn't our fight!"

"Do you think we're going to just let you walk free?" the tropius replied, giving her a cold stare.

Snowcrystal had to wonder what had happened to these pokémon to make them so hostile around strangers and so quick to assume things. She could hear Spark and Rosie still trying to argue with him, but she wasn't sure any of them would really be able to reason with the grass types.

Suddenly, Wildflame spoke up, causing everyone to glance at her in surprise. "All right then," the houndoom told her captors. "We'll fight for you."

" _What_ _?_ " hissed Rosie, casting a furious glare at the dark type. "Are you crazy? I won't be able to fight!"

"True," the ivysaur agreed, glancing at the ninetales. "But you'll be here to guard the cave and alert us to any sign of danger."

"No way!" Rosie shouted back defiantly.

Snowcrystal gave Wildflame a confused look, and the houndoom mouthed the words "don't argue" to her. Seeing the look in her eyes, Snowcrystal realized that Wildflame had thought of a plan, and gave Spark the same look, whispering, "Just go along with it."

Before Spark could question her or Rosie could argue further, Snowcrystal spoke up. "We agree," she said, facing the grass pokémon again, "as long as you let us go afterward." She then waited for an answer, ignoring the scathing looks Rosie and Spark gave her.

"We _will_ let you go," the tropius replied as he and the other grass pokémon turned to leave. "That is…if you can prove to us you aren't traitors!" He then took off after the others, leaving the four friends alone in the cavern.

"Why did you say that?" Rosie hissed at Wildflame and Snowcrystal. "I don't want to defend this cave for these pokémon after they've tried to imprison us!"

"Yeah!" Spark agreed. "I don't want to get injured in battle for someone who-"

"Quiet!" Wildflame interrupted, casting a nervous glance at the tunnel where the grass pokémon had left. "Now, let me tell you this quick because some of them could be back at any minute. I told them we would fight because it's probably our best way of escape. When the battle starts, we can slip away back to this cave and find Rosie, who should be near the entrance, and attack the other guards if we have to, then make a break for it!"

"But they said the battle wouldn't be for a few days!" Spark replied. "Are we going to have to wait here for that long?"

"I'm afraid so," Wildflame replied. "But it's the only way we can get out of here without a high chance of getting hurt."

Snowcrystal nodded, and reluctantly, Rosie did so too. Wildflame was right; this seemed like the easiest way, and while they were trapped, they could at least rest for the journey ahead of them.

  
**-ooo-**  


For the next two days, the four friends stayed within the cave, being given water and strange food every once in a while. Despite the situation they were in and the desire to escape, Rosie and Spark were grateful for the chance to rest and to not have to travel with their painful injuries.

Snowcrystal, however, was growing restless. She _had_ to find some sort of clue about where Articuno was…but she couldn't even start to look for one while she was trapped, and it worried her to think of her home and the growlithe there who might soon be facing threats from the houndour tribe. After a while of pacing around the cavern and worrying, Snowcrystal sat down beneath the starlight hole in the cave ceiling. It was the night of the second day they'd had to spend in the cave since being captured, and the next day was the day of the battle, and the escape.

Snowcrystal glanced at her three friends, who were already asleep. She turned her gaze to the section of starlit sky she could see through the ceiling, and was almost instantly reminded of her home in the mountains once again. She almost wished she were back there now, that she had never taken this quest, and was safe back in her snowy cave at home.

"No…" she whispered to herself. "I can't go home…not until I find out what made Articuno have to leave…" She lay down on the cold stone floor, gazing at the stars a moment longer before her thoughts slowly lulled her into sleep.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Wake up," a voice hissed in Snowcrystal's ear. "It's time."

Snowcrystal stirred, blinking in confusion at the ivysaur that stood over her. "Time for what?" she asked, still a bit dazed after just waking up.

"The battle," the ivysaur calmly replied, and went to wake up Wildflame.

Snowcrystal sat up, shaking her fur free of dust and waited, trying not to let her excitement or fear show. _Today was the day they were going to escape…_ However, she could not shake off the lingering dread that something was going to go wrong. Pushing the thought from her mind, she went to stand beside Wildflame and Spark as they waited to be led out of the cave and toward the battle. Rosie sat a small distance away, trying not to act as if she was planning anything suspicious.

After a moment, the four pokémon were taken into a different cavern. Snowcrystal picked up a stronger scent of fresh air and grass, and figured that this cavern must be close to the cave's entrance. There was a large amount of powerful-looking grass types there, and Snowcrystal shuddered. She didn't want to imagine fighting _them_. She wondered how strong the fire type pokémon they had heard about were.

As the ivysaur from earlier made a few brief statements about the battle, Snowcrystal crouched down, hardly listening. Looking down at the crystal she had been given, she noticed how battered and worn it looked now. Scratches covered its shiny surface, and it was covered in dust and bits of dry mud. She felt guilty for letting Iceclaw's gift get in such a condition, when it had been so special to him.

A cry from the grass pokémon around her jolted Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. Standing up quickly, she followed them as they made their way out of the cave, watching as Rosie was made to take her place at the cave's entrance with the other guards. She was trying to appear brave, but Snowcrystal could tell that she was scared. She tried to give Rosie a comforting look, but she wasn't sure the ninetales could see her in the crowd of grass pokémon.

As the small army of pokémon moved on, surrounding Snowcrystal, Wildflame, and Spark on all sides, they soon lost sight of Rosie. Worried, Snowcrystal glanced at every tree, rock, and bush, trying to remember them. She didn't want to get lost and be unable to find Rosie after they left the battle. Wildflame seemed to be doing the same thing as they walked, though none of the grass pokémon noticed.

Once Snowcrystal was starting to get a little tired, and Spark had started limping much worse, the grass pokémon stopped at a large rocky and grassy area near a stream. "We're…here…I guess…" Wildflame whispered to her friends.

"Then where are the fire types?" Spark asked, looking around at the trees and at the groups of large boulders nearby, which could have easily made a den for pokémon.

Some of the grass pokémon seemed just as confused as they were. "This is where they live now, right?" one of the younger ones asked.

The sceptile beside him nodded, looking around warily. "They might have been suspecting an attack and moved somewhere else last night!" he called to the leading grass types.

"You're probably right," another said, "maybe we should-"

His voice cut off as without warning, several columns of flame launched toward the group from all directions. "Get down!" Wildflame hissed, pushing Spark off his feet and out of the way of one of the blasts as it came near.

Snowcrystal ducked her head as the flames seared by, then looked up to see the shapes of several fire pokémon appearing from various hiding places. She had to duck again as they fired several more bursts of red-hot flame.

Since Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame had been in the center of the group, they had been mostly safe from the attacks. Many of the grass pokémon however, were wounded.

"Don't just stand there!" the ivysaur shouted back at them. "ATTACK!"

Most of the grass pokémon either ran forward or shot a razor leaf attack at their enemies, while the fire pokémon stayed where they were, still launching their attacks. Snowcrystal saw the tropius from the cave launch himself into the sky and slam down on an unsuspecting flareon. Another fire type, a quilava, was wrenched into the air by vine whip and thrown forcefully onto the rocks before he even had a chance to attack. Despite this, it was the fire pokémon who seemed to be dealing the most damage.

Snowcrystal darted away from the main fighting, but there seemed to be enemies on all sides. "Hey!" shouted a bayleef, causing Snowcrystal to turn around. "What are you waiting for? Attack!" Snowcrystal ignored the shout, looking frantically around for Spark and Wildflame, who had gotten separated from her in the confusion soon after the battle had started. After a few worried moments, Snowcrystal spotted Spark's spiky yellow form and ran over to him.

"Spark! Where's Wildflame?" she asked, noticing that the houndoom wasn't with him.

"I don't know!" Spark replied. "I had to avoid another flamethrower and-"

"Look out!" Snowcrystal cried, knocking Spark out of the way as a massive thorny vine broke out of the ground and whipped toward them. Frantically, Spark and Snowcrystal scrambled away as more vines broke free from the earth. They darted further away, hearing the cries of several fire types who had gotten caught in the attack.

"I've seen that before!" Spark shouted breathlessly once they were out of range. "That's frenzy plant! How on earth did one of these wild pokémon know frenzy plant?"

"I don't know," Snowcrystal gasped. "Let's just find Wildflame and get out of here!" She looked around, ignoring the sounds of battle, and soon spotted Wildflame darting to avoid one of the fire pokémon, who was shouting something angrily to her. Snowcrystal only caught the word 'traitor.'

Wildflame fired a flamethrower in the pokémon's direction, and it stopped chasing her. Hearing Snowcrystal's shout, she began to head in the direction of the white growlithe and Spark.

Snowcrystal watched the houndoom bound closer to them with long strides, avoiding the sparring pokémon. "Stay there!" Wildflame called to them, not wanting them to run toward her and into the commotion. "Once I'm there, follow me!" The distance between Wildflame and Snowcrystal was closing, but as the houndoom neared her friends, several razor sharp leaves sped in her direction, cutting her back legs and causing her to stumble.

Wildflame looked up to see a meganium staring at her in anger, obviously mistaking her for one of the enemy fire pokémon. "Don't attack me!" Wildflame shouted at him, leaping to her feet. "I'm fighting _for_ you, remember?"

A moment later, she realized that she had stopped too long. The same vines that Spark and Snowcrystal had seen erupted from the ground again, trapping all pokémon unfortunate enough to be close by. Wildflame was one of them.

The houndoom let out a painful howl as the thorny vines wrapped around her middle and lifted her into the air before slamming her down against the rocky ground. Stars exploded in the houndoom's vision, and she clawed and bit frantically at the vine as she felt it lift her into the air again.

Snowcrystal stood frozen to the spot for a split second, Wildflame's screams of pain echoing in her ears. Then she was running, running towards the massive twisting vines that wrapped more tightly around the dark type and sent her crashing to the ground another time before lifting her up once more.

Hardly believing what she was doing, the small growlithe leaped towards the vines, opening her mouth and releasing a whirling blast of flames. Snowcrystal stared in disbelief as she watched her own attack, which looked like several columns of flame twisting together, strike the vines and burn through them. Wildflame was released, and as she fell to the ground, Snowcrystal ran over to her. The houndoom stood up, luckily not badly injured. Snowcrystal's fire attack had hardly hurt her, and Snowcrystal had stopped the frenzy plant attack from doing any serious damage.

"Snowcrystal…" Wildflame whispered with a hint of pride in her voice. "You…you learned flame wheel!"

Snowcrystal smiled back at the houndoom and the two of them ran toward Spark, who looked just as surprised.

"You finally learned a new attack!" Spark cried. "Now you can actually fight!"

"Yeah, sure," Snowcrystal replied nervously. "Let's just get out of here!"

Wildflame nodded and the three pokémon headed away from the battle, avoiding any remaining fire pokémon were still surrounding the area. Luckily, the three managed to make it away unnoticed, and they quickly scampered back in the direction of the cave, hearing the sounds of battle gradually fade away.

"Well that worked like a charm!" Wildflame exclaimed, still excited about Snowcrystal's new attack. "Now we've got to find Rosie and get out of here!"

The three pokémon ran toward the cave, Wildflame in the lead. However, when the cave came in sight, the houndoom stopped, seeming suddenly worried. Confused, Snowcrystal walked up to her side, looking at the cave. What she saw filled her with dread.

The guards in front of the cave had either fainted or run away, and she wasn't sure that one of the unconscious ones was actually still alive. All around the cave were signs of a struggle, and Rosie was nowhere to be seen.

  
**-ooo-**  


Nearly three days had passed since the night Redclaw and Stormblade had met up with Thunder. Because of Stormblade's injuries, the going had been painfully slow, and they had had to take long breaks often. Stormblade had attempted to talk to Thunder many times, but she had always ended up either yelling at him or ignoring him. Redclaw had tried to talk to her about why she seemed so angry, but she hadn't answered him either.

Prey was scarce in the area, and though it had recently rained, there was little water to be found at all. It had soaked into the ground and turned it to mud, which had mostly dried under the heat of the sun. They had traveled east until they reached the burned forest, which they were now going around, heading in a northward direction.

Redclaw was worried. Underneath the hot midday sun, there were very few trees or shelter in the area. The last time they had found a good source of water was two days ago. Redclaw was thirsty, though he wasn't worried for himself; as a fire type he could go without water longer than most other pokémon, but he was worried about the two scyther.

Thunder never complained of thirst, but Redclaw could tell that she was weakening. She had been thin and malnourished before, and the lack of food and water was making it all the worse for her. However, she had tried her best to hide that fact, and surprisingly, she had kept up with Redclaw well.

For Stormblade, it was a different story. The injured pokémon had grown weaker and weaker, not just from lack of food and water, but from his wounds as well. Even though Redclaw had been helping Stormblade walk, the scyther had grown so frail that he had been forced to stumble along using his injured leg as well as his good one, causing it to become even more painful than before. The bandages around his wounds had become filthy and bloodstained, and they were starting to stink. Stormblade's cough seemed to be gone for the most part, but other than that, he didn't seem to be getting any better. And they still hadn't found one pokémon who knew anything about healing.

Redclaw and Thunder walked on, the arcanine supporting Stormblade along the way, when Stormblade suddenly slumped to the ground and collapsed. Redclaw turned toward him instantly, nudging the motionless scyther with his snout. Stormblade didn't move; he was out cold.

"Oh no…" Redclaw whispered worriedly. Stormblade had collapsed before, but he had never passed out, not since he and Redclaw had escaped Team Rocket's building. "He needs help…" Redclaw murmured to himself. "And right now what he needs most is _water_ _…_ "

"How very clever of you to realize that," Thunder muttered sarcastically, walking over to him. "My advice…don't bother going to look for water. There isn't any here. And I doubt it would help anyway; at this point, there's not much hope for him."

Redclaw noticed Thunder looking at Stormblade with a strange expression, and he thought she looked angry, though he couldn't tell what she was really thinking. "We have to try," he told her urgently. "We're going to stop and look for water. Maybe you should fly up above and see if there are any streams…"

"I've done that…" Thunder muttered. "I did it twice yesterday and once the day before. There aren't any streams here. There were some when me and Stormblade passed this way before, but we were much closer to the human city and also in danger of poacher traps. I don't know if there are any other streams."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to check a little further," Redclaw told her. "And we've made progress this way…there has to be _something_ _!_ A stream leading to that destroyed forest, maybe?"

"There probably is one," Thunder replied, finding it hard to speak due to thirst. "But none near. And searching for it would bring us way too close to the poachers. I guess I'll check north of here."

She spread her wings and took off. Redclaw realized with guilt that it was hard for her to fly; her wing was still injured from the fight with Volco. He felt bad for sending her out to search when she was so weak, but Stormblade needed it now. He sat down and waited, licking the dried blood from the cut on Stormblade's head.

After a while, Thunder returned, looking exhausted. She staggered toward Redclaw, waving her scythe in the direction she had flown. "There aren't any streams," she told him, and before Redclaw could feel disappointed, she went on. "But I saw some sort of really old human town. It looked completely abandoned by whoever lived there, and there were pokémon wandering freely in the streets, but no sign of humans. It might be worth looking there. There's always water in human cities, and rain could have collected in a lot of places. I'd say that's our best bet."

Redclaw nodded. "We'll go together. You look too tired to fly anymore," he began, and Thunder gave him a seething glare. "We're going to have to wait for Stormblade to wake up…let's just hope he's strong enough to make it. How far was the town?"

"Not far," Thunder replied. "It wouldn't take that long to reach it, though with Stormblade, of course, it might." She gave Stormblade an annoyed glance. "I'm honestly surprised he's lasted this long," she muttered.

Redclaw glared at her, but said nothing. Thunder turned away from Stormblade, seeming uneasy around the injured pokémon. "Anything we can do to wake him up?" she asked, clearly impatient.

"I don't know," Redclaw told her. "We might just have to wait." He leaned down toward Stormblade, who was, surprisingly, starting to stir. Seeing that his friend was waking up, Redclaw carefully nudged his head, watching as Stormblade opened his eyes. The scyther instantly closed them again, reluctant to try and stand up.

"Thunder found a place that's bound to have water," Redclaw told him. "All we have to do is make it there and we can rest."

Stormblade slowly stood up, quickly leaning against Redclaw for support. Thunder watched him impatiently, seeming annoyed that it took him so long to stand. "Well, now that he's awake, let's get on with it!" she growled.

Redclaw nodded, pausing to scratch at his metal collar before following Thunder as the scyther walked on ahead. Thunder stopped and waited for the arcanine, who was still helping Stormblade. Redclaw looked at the injured scyther and sighed; this was going to be a long walk.

By afternoon, the three pokémon had left the burned forest well behind them and came to the outskirts of the abandoned city Thunder had discovered. Redclaw stared at it uncertainly. They were standing in front of an old, faded sign placed on top of two tall wooden posts in front of the first buildings and ruined streets. There were human-made markings carved on the sign that looked damaged and worn.

Redclaw turned to Thunder. "It… _does_ look abandoned," he whispered quietly, still looking wary of entering.

"I flew over the town before," Thunder snapped. "It's _fine_ _!_ "

"All right," Redclaw replied, still nervous. "Let's go."

The three pokémon walked under the archway created by the old sign. "You sure there's water here?" Stormblade asked, lifting his head weakly to look at Redclaw. Though the arcanine was relieved that Stormblade looked a bit stronger, now that he knew they would probably find water soon, Redclaw was still fighting the lingering doubt that Stormblade would make it to a healer alive. The infection in his wounds _had_ to be getting worse.

"There has to be _some_ place where rainwater has collected," Redclaw told him. He motioned with his head toward the crumbling buildings and streets. "Let's have a look around." He knew it would be easier to find water if Thunder flew around to search, but he also knew that she was weak, and he didn't want to ask her. She didn't offer to search, either.

As they walked further into the old city, Redclaw began to catch glimpses of pokémon. Most of them were small normal or electric types, but there were a few larger species as well. All of them scampered away the moment the travelers came into their view. Redclaw tried to ask a raichu if it knew where water was, but it darted into an alley before Redclaw could even finish his sentence.

"This place sure is strange…" Thunder whispered quietly, glancing at Redclaw.

"I wonder why all the pokémon here are so nervous…" the arcanine replied, pausing to glance around.

After a short while, Redclaw and the others started to smell a putrid stench, and noticed several grimer and a few muk lurking in dark alleyways. These alleyways were almost all coated in mud from the rainwater and strewn with debris, making them good places for grimer to hide. Several small pokémon darted fearfully in and out of the alleys, paying the grimer and muk no heed. Whatever they were scared of, it certainly wasn't them.

All the buildings were crumbling and old; some had even collapsed. Very few of them still had doors, and several had broken windows. Every once in a while a pokémon would come in or out of one of the buildings, and Redclaw realized that they probably took shelter there. He caught a glimpse into one of the crumbling structures, but it was only filled with mud and old, useless pieces of some strange human items that he couldn't identify.

"I guess you were right, Thunder," Redclaw told the scyther as they walked along. "Guess it's safe to say there are no humans here…wonder what made them have to leave…"

"Don't know," Thunder replied, not seeming as curious as Redclaw was about the whole thing.

The group stopped suddenly as they came upon a tall wall surrounding one of the ruined buildings. Along this wall were intricate carvings, each depicting a detailed image of a pokémon. Curious, Redclaw walked over to it, careful to help Stormblade. He looked at each of the carvings around him, seeming lost in thought. For a reason he couldn't describe, there seemed to be a strange air of mystery around the place.

Thunder glanced at a section of the wall where a large door used to be. "There could be some water in that building," she suggested, noticing that parts of the old building's roof were broken, and rainwater could have easily collected inside.

Redclaw nodded and walked toward the doorway in the wall, when two carvings, an arcanine and a scyther, caught his eye. Stormblade noticed them too, and looked around to see if there were carvings of the species of his friends, but only found a growlithe one.

The three pokémon walked through the opening and into the large building, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. There was no water there, but something else caught Stormblade's attention. "Look," he whispered. "It's Articuno."

Stormblade's voice was so quiet that Redclaw hardly heard him, but he followed the scyther's gaze to a large faded painting that had been badly torn. Yet the image of the legendary bird could still be seen clearly. Redclaw could tell that if the painting had been in better shape, it would have been beautiful.

"Yeah, so?" Thunder muttered, interrupting Redclaw's thoughts. "It's only a stupid painting! There are lots of them here!" She motioned with her scythe toward the opposite side of the room, where several damaged paintings hung from the wall or lay strewn across the floor. "We came here for water, didn't we?" she reminded them, and they followed her through a corridor and into another room. The ceiling was badly damaged there, and sunlight shone through onto the filthy floor.

Around this room were several old statues, most of them broken, as well as slabs of stone depicting strange carvings. The strange soft floor underneath them was damp, but there was still no sign of any water.

"Let's try somewhere else," Redclaw told the others quietly. "There's nothing here." He started to turn, when he noticed Stormblade looking at something. He looked up to see one of the old carvings, one that was still placed on the wall.

This one was different than most of the others. It depicted several small pokémon of various species lying across the ground, either dead or dying. Redclaw noticed a growlithe among them. Above the dying pokémon stood a scyther, its blades raised above a tiny eevee, ready to strike.

"Well that's lovely," Thunder muttered sarcastically, eyeing the carvings of the dead pokémon. "Wonder what human made this…someone like Master I'm sure."

"I don't know," Redclaw replied, wondering why the human had carved the picture in the first place. He looked around, noticing a few other carvings somewhat like it, depicting pokémon battles or a predator stalking prey. However none of them showed dead or dying pokémon, apart from a pidgey in one carving of a pouncing persian. "Maybe it was supposed to give a warning or something," Redclaw mused, glancing at the scyther picture again. He turned back toward the way they had come.

The arcanine started to leave, but then stopped, noticing that Stormblade was still staring at the carving of the scyther, with an expression that made it hard to tell what he was thinking. "What's wrong?" Redclaw asked him.

Stormblade turned away from the carving as if being snapped out of a trance. "Nothing," he said quickly, limping over to Redclaw. "Let's look somewhere else…there's no water here at all."

Redclaw nodded and they walked out of the building, leaving it and the strange wall of pokémon carvings behind. They walked further down one of the many roads, seeing only a few rattata who scampered away with frightened squeaks at the sight of them.

After a short while, Thunder stopped suddenly. "I think I can see water up ahead…" she told the others. "Follow me."

Redclaw didn't see the water, but he followed Thunder as she led him across an old, cracked road and through what had once been a small field. It was now nothing but mud and dust, strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. Thunder led them through the field and to where a long, deep channel ran through a part of the city, passing by them and nearing another section of buildings. Flowing through the channel, which Redclaw assumed must have once been some sort of canal…was water.

"It had to have come from the rain," Thunder stated, looking down at the water. It appeared dark and murky in some places, but it was flowing smoothly, and would probably be the only relatively fresh water they were going to find anytime soon. "It doesn't look too bad," Thunder muttered. "There was probably just a lot of dust that blew into it."

Redclaw nodded as the three of them approached the water, and gently pushed Stormblade forward and towards it. "See? I told you we'd find water!" he told him. "Good thing it rained a little while ago. Now go get a drink."

Stormblade immediately stumbled to the water's edge and leaned down, plunging his head into it and drinking as much as he could. It tasted strange to him, but he was far too thirsty to care. Redclaw quickly followed him to the water's edge, and Thunder walked up to it as well.

As Thunder bent down to drink the water, Redclaw stiffened, realizing that a faint, but still foul, stench was slowly wafting toward him from it, and growing stronger. "Wait!" he shouted. Thunder paused and looked up at him with a confused expression.

Redclaw dashed toward Stormblade, pushing the scyther away from the water. "It doesn't smell right!" he cried, and Stormblade simply looked at him, confused, while Thunder bent down to give the water a closer sniff.

Almost instantly she bared her teeth in disgust and backed away. "It smells disgusting!" she exclaimed.

"It's getting worse…" Redclaw mused, feeling the strange scent drifting more strongly towards him. Something caught his eye and he glanced into the water, seeing a thin trail of something dark and purplish flowing through it. A feeling of dread crept over him as his eyes followed the trail to a place further down in the canal. He froze as he noticed a large muk heave itself out of the water and slowly ooze into a dark alleyway. Thunder noticed the muk too and backed away from the water as if afraid to touch it, looking thoroughly disgusted that she had been about to drink it.

Redclaw cast a panicked glance at Stormblade, who was looking at Thunder with a puzzled expression; obviously he hadn't seen the muk and didn't know what was wrong with the water. Redclaw fought to keep his worry under control and looked at Stormblade again.

"So uh….how are you feeling?" he asked, instantly realizing how stupid he sounded.

"What do you mean by that?" Stormblade asked; a hint of panic beginning to show in his eyes as he realized by Redclaw's tone of voice that something was definitely wrong.

Redclaw opened his mouth to speak, knowing that making Stormblade panicked would just make things worse, but Thunder spoke before him.

"He means you've just ingested poison," Thunder told him calmly. "Nice going."

Redclaw shot her a glare, and turned to Stormblade, who suddenly looked very frightened. "P-poison…?" the scyther whispered quietly.

Reluctantly, Redclaw nodded. "There was a muk in the water…" he said worriedly. "I'm sorry…I should have checked it out first…I knew something wasn't right…"

"It's his own fault!" Thunder shouted, pointing to Stormblade with her scythe. "He just started drinking the water without even bothering to smell it first!"

Stormblade shrank back from Thunder's gaze. Redclaw walked to his side and stood beside him. "It's not his fault," he told Thunder. "He didn't know, and he's hurt. If I was in as much pain as he was, I probably wouldn't have noticed it in time either. It isn't anyone's fault."

Thunder's eyes narrowed and she turned away, annoyed that Redclaw had stood up for Stormblade. "So what do you suppose we do?" she asked, turning her head enough to give Redclaw another annoyed look.

Redclaw lowered his head, feeling helpless and knowing that if Stormblade really had swallowed any poison, it could start to affect him at any minute.

"I…I don't know…" he admitted.

_To be continued…_


	29. Unexpected Attacks

Snowcrystal tried not to panic as she glanced frantically around. "Where's Rosie?" she cried.

"She might have gotten away…or she might be in the cave…" Wildflame replied quietly.

"I don't think she would run away without us…or at least she wouldn't have gotten far if she had," Spark replied. "We should check in the cave…those fire pokémon might come back and it would be better to search while they aren't around!"

Wildflame nodded and ran into the cave. "Snowcrystal, follow me! Spark, stay there. You need to keep watch in case they came back, and you're injured!"

Spark mumbled something grudgingly under his breath and reluctantly took his place by the entrance. Snowcrystal followed Wildflame carefully inside.

The houndoom was sniffing the ground, trying to determine how recently Rosie had been there. But with all the confusing scents of blood and other pokémon, it was impossible to tell. After a moment, Wildflame gave up trying to find Rosie by scent. "Let's just look around…and quick!" she whispered.

Snowcrystal nodded and followed Wildflame as she dashed through the tunnels to the one where they had been held captive. There was no sign of anyone, and the scents of blood and battle seemed to be faded there. Wildflame sighed, turning around and starting to head back.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal shouted, pointing with her nose to a few scraps of creamy white fur lying strewn across the ground. Wildflame turned and ran over to them, barely being able to distinguish Rosie's scent as she got closer to the scraps of fur. The ninetales had been there…recently, but why was the scent so subtle?

Then both Wildflame and Snowcrystal realized it. There were specks of blood dotted around the floor of the cavern, the signs of a small and brief battle, but the scents of the pokémon had faded to be replaced with what was now a weak, yet recognizable scent of a grass pokémon's attack, possibly stun spore. The once strong scent now lay over everything, making it hard to distinguish the other scents.

"I guess some of the fire pokémon invaded the cave and fought the grass ones in this cavern," Snowcrystal told Wildflame. "I just wish I knew where they are now…and where Rosie is!"

Wildflame nodded and they walked into a dark tunnel leading out of the cavern and deeper into the cave, looking for any further signs of a battle. Snowcrystal found traces of blood leading off down another tunnel, and they turned and followed that one. Up ahead, there was no light, save for the glow of Snowcrystal's luminous crystal.

As they emerged into a small cavern, Snowcrystal stopped suddenly. Several grass types, both young and old, were huddled together in the small darkened space, each looking fearfully at the two fire types as they approached.

"Don't worry!" Snowcrystal told them. "We aren't here to hurt you…we're just looking for our friend!"

At this statement, two of the grass pokémon looked at each other knowingly and stepped aside to reveal Rosie, who lay unconscious on the ground behind them.

"What happened?" Snowcrystal asked, running to her friend's side. Luckily, Rosie didn't seem badly hurt; she looked as if she had been knocked out by sleep powder, or something of the sort.

"Those fire types attacked us in here…" a tiny bulbasaur said in a timid voice. "There weren't enough strong fighters in the cave to stop them…"

Snowcrystal looked down, seeing Rosie starting to stir. Wildflame helped to nudge the half-conscious ninetales to her feet, while Snowcrystal headed back down the tunnel. "You grass pokémon should get out of here!" she warned them, running off with Wildflame and Rosie stumbling together behind her.

"But it's not safe!" one of the pokémon cried, but Snowcrystal insisted again that they leave. Hesitantly, the grass types began to move, speaking to one another softly as one by one, they stood up. Snowcrystal wanted to stay and help if she could, but Wildflame urged her out of the cavern.

"Let me guess…" Rosie muttered as she began to wake up more fully, "not everything went according to plan?"

"Not really," Wildflame admitted, "but let's just find Spark and get as far away from here as possible."

As they walked into the big cavern, the one with the large hole in the ceiling, a pokémon emerged from one of the tunnels and stood to face them. Snowcrystal tensed; it was obviously one of the fire types who had attacked the cave. Red scales covered the lizard-like pokémon's body, and its tail ended in a brightly burning flame. It stared at them strangely and called out, "Who are you?"

Snowcrystal realized from the look on the pokémon's face that this stranger knew that they weren't on his side, and that surprised look quickly turned to suspicion.

Wildflame's eyes narrowed. "Get out of our way!" the houndoom hissed, snarling and raising her long pointed tail.

Before the charmeleon could even make a decision, a massive tropius, much bigger than the one that had called them spies before, burst into the cavern. Rearing over the unfortunate fire pokémon, the tropius quickly brought both of its hind legs crashing down against the fire type, knocking him out cold. The tropius then charged past Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Rosie, and vanished into another tunnel.

Soon afterward, other large grass types entered the cavern, looking furious and ready to do battle. None of them paid Snowcrystal or the others any heed as they thundered past. Wildflame glanced at them before leading Snowcrystal and Rosie back toward the entrance.

When they emerged, Spark was waiting for them, looking satisfied as he watched several grass pokémon chase away enemy fire types from the cave. "I think the tide of the battle has turned," he stated. "Apparently, these grass types just got reinforcements. I suppose their tribe must have been separated a long time ago, and it looks like the other half of it came just in time."

"That's great…" Rosie muttered, lashing her tails. "Let's get out of here before we're caught in the middle of it again."

The others needed no second bidding, and together, they hastily fled from the scene of battle, leaving the cave far behind.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was nearly dark when the four friends stopped. Not far away, the remains of the burned forest loomed dark and desolate against the late evening sky. After they had fled from the grass types' battle, they had ended up close to it again, though now, none of them minded. They were simply glad to be free.

"We should rest for now," Snowcrystal told them. "We'll have to wait until we're stronger to try and find out anything about Articuno…though I'm really not sure how we're even going to do that…" She sighed, placing her head on her paws.

"Well it's certainly not impossible," Wildflame told her, walking closer to her. "And at least we aren't separated-"

"What do you mean?" Snowcrystal cried, anger flaring up in her eyes. "Stormblade and Thunder are _gone._ Did you forget that they were taken by poachers after you saw it with your own eyes?"

Wildflame was taken aback at this reply, but to her surprise, Snowcrystal just sighed.

"I'm sorry…" the growlithe muttered quickly. "It's just…I'm worried about what's happening to them…I don't know if the poachers would even want to keep Stormblade…what if they just left him in a forest somewhere alone?"

Wildflame was about to make a comment on how even that would be better than being owned by poachers, but she thought better of it. "Don't worry," she told Snowcrystal. "Things will turn out all right in the end."

"How do you know?" the young growlithe asked, looking up at Wildflame with wide eyes.

"Because," Wildflame replied simply, giving her a smile, "I believe that things will go right. That's certainly better than believing that things will go wrong, isn't it?"

"I suppose…" Snowcrystal replied, not convinced.

"Now, I certainly don't know _how_ things will go right," Wildflame continued, "but things like what happened to us recently won't be happening forever. When things in my tribe went wrong, it always turned out okay, even if it turned out differently than we expected. But it will be all right…I promise."

Snowcrystal gave her a small smile, and Wildflame smiled back. She wasn't completely sure she believed the things she had said, but her words had at least seemed to have satisfied the small growlithe.

"You're right…" Snowcrystal replied. "We shouldn't give up…I just hope that wherever Thunder and Stormblade are, someone's helping them too."

Wildflame nodded, glancing back at Spark and Rosie, who were already dozing off nearby. "I'm sure someone is. They'll be all right…somehow…" the houndoom replied, relieved that her words were at least calming Snowcrystal down. For all she knew, Stormblade and Thunder could be dead, but Snowcrystal didn't need to believe that. She needed to have hope, even if the situation itself was hopeless.

Lying down, Wildflame paused to glance up at the stars. There seemed to be so many now, without the large clouds and snow-strewn winds of the mountains to block them from view. It seemed peaceful here, despite all that had happened. Wildflame lay her head down, letting the cool wind ruffle her fur.

Snowcrystal sat a little ways away, her fur fluffed out against a small breeze that rushed by from beyond the forest. While the others rested, she had decided to keep watch for a while, as she did not feel tired, and there could still be enemies lurking about. Curling her fluffy tail around her, she sat and gazed out over the fields, deep in thought.

  
**-ooo-**  


' _Poison_ …' Redclaw thought frantically, thinking back to what he had learned from the battles he had participated in while under the control of 'Master.' Rarely did a pokémon get poisoned, but when one did, his owner usually had some medicine to cure them with. However there was certainly none of that in the abandoned city.

"Well…do you know what to do?" Stormblade asked hopefully, giving Redclaw a pleading expression.

"Calm down," the arcanine told him. "You might not even be poisoned at all. You could have drank the water before the poison had time to spread far from where the muk was. Now come on, let's find a cleaner source of water."

He helped the scyther to stand and walk away from the water, hoping that he was right about Stormblade not being poisoned. Maybe if they started walking, Stormblade would at least be somewhat distracted from that, and wouldn't panic at the slightest thought that poison could be affecting him. After all, Stormblade didn't look any worse now, so maybe there really was nothing to worry about.

The three pokémon walked down one of the crooked streets, and even though he was a fire type, Redclaw was starting to feel weak from lack of water. He hadn't been in the best health when he had first set out to find Stormblade's friends or any other help, after all. Thunder was probably a lot worse off.

After a short while, during which Stormblade seemed to be having an increasing amount of trouble walking – though Redclaw had hoped it was just his imagination – the scyther suddenly stopped altogether. He placed his blades against the ground to stop himself from falling over and took several deep breaths. Redclaw noticed that he was shaking.

"What's wrong?" Redclaw asked, alarmed at the thought that Stormblade might be poisoned after all.

"I…I feel sick…" Stormblade whispered quietly.

That was the answer that Redclaw had been dreading to hear, and from the look of Stormblade, this was probably a lot worse than just 'feeling sick.' The look on Stormblade's face told him that the scyther knew what it meant as well. "Stay here," the arcanine instructed. "I'm going to go try to find some help. Thunder, you stay here too."

"NO!" Thunder shouted, and both Redclaw and Stormblade were surprised at her sudden hostility. Thunder looked as if the mere idea of staying behind with Stormblade greatly angered or even frightened her, though neither of the others were sure why. "I'm going with you," she insisted, glancing at Redclaw.

"All right…" the arcanine agreed reluctantly. "You can come with me. Let's see if any of the pokémon here will talk to us…"

"I don't want to stay here alone!" Stormblade called weakly after them as they turned to leave.

"We'll be back soon," Redclaw told him, and pointed with his muzzle toward one of the buildings. "You can stay in there. It's safer."

Stormblade reluctantly let Redclaw help him into the building, where he lay down on the muddy floor, watching as Redclaw and Thunder walked away.

"But what if-" he began worriedly, but Redclaw interrupted.

"You'll be better off here than if you came with us," Redclaw told him. "And we can search for someone who can help faster this way." He then turned and ran away down the street.

"Yeah, do you want to die from the poison, or do you want us to help?" Thunder called over her shoulder before running to catch up with Redclaw.

Feeling helpless and vulnerable, Stormblade laid his head down slowly and waited for the two to return.

Redclaw and Thunder darted through the streets ahead, keeping watch for other pokémon. They saw several small ones, but couldn't talk to them before they darted away. Redclaw worriedly noticed that the sun was starting to set. They hadn't been looking long, and it would be harder to search in the dark.

"This is hopeless!" Thunder muttered after a while. "There's no one here who's actually going to be willing to listen to us for even a second! We should get Stormblade and get out of here…maybe there are other pokémon near the city who can help us."

Redclaw nodded. Thunder was right; most of the pokémon in the city were prey species or species that could easily be overcome by a powerful arcanine or scyther. He wasn't surprised that they didn't want to stick around to listen to them. "All right…" he agreed, "let's go back…quickly…"

They turned and quickly ran back to where they had left Stormblade, peering around for the building they had left him in. It didn't take them long to find it, and Redclaw ran past Thunder, walking toward the building's open doorway.

Stormblade was lying on the floor of the building, though not calmly as he had been before. He was lying on his side, almost doubled up, jerking and trembling and looking like he was in terrible pain.

Redclaw was about to run to his side when he noticed something so surprising that it stopped him in his tracks. It had taken him a moment to notice it, but there was a pokémon, a small cubone, standing beside Stormblade near the entrance to the building.

At first, Redclaw wondered if the cubone was trying to help Stormblade, but as he walked closer, he realized that the ground type was simply watching the scyther writhe in agony, giving him a blank, hollow stare that gave away no remorse or concern. The cubone didn't look surprised or worried either, as if he was used to this sort of thing happening. Somehow, that unnerved Redclaw.

The arcanine rushed to Stormblade's side, and the cubone stepped aside as if making room for him to stand there. The strange pokémon didn't look up, but kept watching Stormblade. It seemed almost as if he had nothing better to do and this dying scyther had simply attracted his interest.

"Stormblade, calm down!" Redclaw cried, wishing that his friend would lie still and not help the poison spread faster. Leaning down, Redclaw nudged Stormblade, but the scyther paid him no heed. Redclaw had to step back as one of Stormblade's scythes lashed towards his forepaw.

As Thunder stepped in the doorway, giving Stormblade an almost worried look, Redclaw turned to the silent cubone. "Have you seen something like this before?" he asked desperately. "Do you know how to treat it?"

Looking up at him with wide eyes that looked almost sad, the cubone nodded his head to the first question and shook his head to the last.

"Well, do you know anyone who _can_ _?_ " Redclaw asked, though he was sure he knew what the answer would probably be.

Yet to his surprise, the cubone paused a moment, staring at him, before nodding.

"Can you take us to them?" Redclaw asked.

The cubone paused again before nodding and turned to walk slowly past Thunder and out of the doorway of the building.

Thunder rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you say that in the first place if you already knew where help was?" she muttered, and turned to look at Stormblade.

"We won't be able to take him anywhere if he doesn't hold still…" Redclaw mused, wishing the cubone had at least stopped to wait for them.

Sighing, Thunder stood up and walked over to Stormblade, placing her foot on the weakening scyther's neck. Lifting her scythe above him, she suddenly brought the dull side of the blade down hard against the side of his head, and Stormblade cried out in pain before falling still. "There," she told Redclaw quietly, "problem solved."

"What did you do that for?" Redclaw growled.

"So you can bring Stormblade to where help is," Thunder muttered, turning and walking out the door. Knowing that time was valuable, Redclaw lightly gripped Stormblade's wings in his jaws and dragged him as carefully as he could across the muddied floor and out of the building.

Thunder was standing beside the strange cubone, who was eyeing her metal collar strangely. Redclaw caught up with them, trying to cause Stormblade as little damage as possible while carrying him.

Tapping Redclaw lightly with his claw, the cubone pointed to a road which led further down the street. Then he began walking again, though slowly, as if he didn't see any real need for urgency.

"What's the matter with you?" Thunder shouted to him, annoyed. "Can't you talk?"

The cubone didn't answer, just kept walking. Redclaw followed, setting down Stormblade for a moment to ask, "Can you just show us where this pokémon is? We have to get there fast!" To his dismay, the cubone kept walking, not giving any indication that he had heard. Seeing no other option, Redclaw picked up Stormblade by the wings again and followed.

For a while longer they walked, and Redclaw was growing increasingly worried about Stormblade. Even Thunder seemed a bit nervous, and kept glancing at the unconscious scyther. Just when Redclaw was about to give up and try to look elsewhere for help, a strange human-made statue loomed into view up ahead.

Redclaw approached it, realizing that the statue stood in the middle of a large circular area surrounded by buildings. The ground there was different, and though there were no human scents, there were several pokémon ones, much fresher than the ones he'd smelled in other parts of the city. He wondered if a lot of pokémon had gathered in that spot recently.

The statue itself was large and strange. It was a brownish-gold statue of a rapidash rearing back on its hind legs, with a human sitting on its back. The statue was much bigger than a real rapidash and human, and it towered over Redclaw and Thunder. The strange thing about it was that some parts of the statue looked melted, mostly the head, mane, and forelimbs of the rapidash. It was as if some very powerful fire attack had distorted the statue long ago, giving it an eerie and rather grotesque look. Redclaw assumed that it had originally been made to look as if the rapidash was yelling a battle cry, though now it almost seemed as if it was screaming in pain or fear. The base of the statue, which the rapidash was standing on, had many human-made markings on it that the pokémon could not understand.

The cubone had stopped, and seemed to be waiting for something. Redclaw set Stormblade down against the base of the statue, feeling relieved that he could still hear the thin scyther's feeble breathing. He turned to Thunder, who was idly slashing at the base of the statue, creating long scratches across its once shiny surface.

"Stupid human made thing…" she muttered, looking up at it. "I'm glad some pokémon ruined it!"

Redclaw turned away from her and to the small cubone, who was now walking away, much to Redclaw's dismay and surprise. "Wait!" he called, running after him. "Where are you going? Who's going to help us?" The cubone neither stopped nor acknowledged him, and Redclaw was about to try and catch up to the pokémon when an earsplitting screech stopped him in his tracks.

Redclaw whirled around, just in time to see the pokémon who had made the cry, a vigoroth, launch itself toward Thunder, taking her by surprise and knocking her to the ground.

Forgetting the cubone for a moment, Redclaw bounded toward her, watching as the vigoroth raked its claws down Thunder's injured side. Thunder quickly retaliated, slashing with her scythe across the vigoroth's shoulder and making him step back with a hiss of pain.

As Redclaw reached Thunder, he prepared to use flamethrower in order to stop the vigoroth from attacking again, but soon realized there was no need. The pokémon turned and fled back to the safety of a nearby alleyway.

"What was _that_ all about?" Thunder spat, staggering to her feet.

"I don't know," Redclaw replied, looking around for the cubone, but there was no sign of him. "But I think-"

He was cut off as several angry cries sounded from around him. He watched in terror as many different pokémon, moving as one, began emerging from buildings and alleys all around them. Redclaw could see several vigoroth, nidorino, nidorina, sandslash, marowak, muk, and grimer, though there were a few of other species as well. He spotted some charmander and linoone, and even a flareon. All of them looked and acted as if they belonged to one group, and to Redclaw's horror, they all looked _pleased_ and willing to begin a fight.

As Redclaw backed against the statue, he couldn't help but wonder how those other pokémon could stand the grimer and muk's stench. With so many around, the smell was now overpowering, though the other pokémon did not seem to mind at all. Redclaw then felt furious at the fact that the lone cubone had led them into a trap; what had they done to him?

His thoughts were interrupted as several of the pokémon darted forward, while others simply sat back to watch. Redclaw leaped away as a nidorino charged passed him, narrowly avoiding having the pokémon gouge its long horn into his leg. As he paused to catch his breath, two vigoroth jumped toward him, slashing through his fur viciously with their curved claws. Redclaw turned his head to send them away with a fire attack, but something struck his shoulder hard and caused him to fall to the ground.

A marowak, holding a long, thick bone stepped toward him, though Redclaw ignored him, focusing instead on using his hind legs to kick one of the vigoroth away from him. He could hear more pokémon racing toward him, and fought to regain his footing again. He managed to scramble to his feet and quickly send the marowak away with a flamethrower attack. He glanced at Thunder, who was fighting with a sandslash, before he had to stop and attempt to fend off the many pokémon that were attacking him from all sides.

As Redclaw fired a blast of flame at several of the pokémon and raked his claws across the flareon's back, he heard the sandslash Thunder was fighting cry out and run back to the safety of the buildings. The watching pokémon, seeing that the two strangers were starting to put up a good fight, came racing toward them, eager to join in the battle.

Knowing that there would be far too many opponents for him to even have any hope of fighting, Redclaw did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Opening his mouth wide, he released a billowing cloud of red-hot flames, the biggest flame wheel attack he could manage. Turning his head, he spun around quickly, encircling the statue and himself in a wall of brightly blazing fire.

The enemy pokémon caught in the center of the blazing circle backed away fearfully, though Redclaw knew that they wouldn't be fearful for long. Quickly he ran over to Thunder, who at first seemed to have no serious injuries, until he noticed that one of her arms – the one with the shackle still attached to it – was cut very deeply, and she seemed to be having trouble raising that arm.

"You all right?" Redclaw asked her, giving her a worried look.

Noticing this, Thunder scowled at him. "Shut up and worry about yourself!" she snapped.

Deciding it was best to do as she said, Redclaw turned to Stormblade, who still lay unconscious. He couldn't see any new injuries on him, and realized that the attackers must have left him alone while they concentrated on him and Thunder first.

Redclaw's ears pricked as the pokémon inside the ring of flames walked toward them, not seeming worried that their comrades could no longer reach them because of the fire. ' _That fire won't last forever…'_ Redclaw thought, growing worried. ' _At least we'll be able to take these pokémon down easier!'_

With a roar he leaped forward, knocking a nidorino off his feet and sending him crashing into one of the other enemies. Thunder tried to run toward another foe, raising both of her arms, but immediately stopped, crying out in pain and stumbling.

Alarmed, Redclaw glanced toward her, not noticing a marowak lifting its arm to throw. When the bone slammed into his head, it took Redclaw by complete surprise. Stunned, he didn't even realize he was falling until his head hit the rough ground underneath him. Still dazed, he was barely aware of the pokémon still battling with Thunder, who was slashing at them with one arm, and the pokémon who were now approaching him.

As he tried to force his exhausted limbs to move, Redclaw pointed his head toward the enemy pokémon and tried to use a fire attack, but the attack wouldn't come. Wearily he pushed himself up on his paws, ignoring the stabbing pain in his head, as he braced himself for a fight he didn't think he could win.

A sandslash bolder than the rest of the pokémon braced itself before leaping toward the weakened arcanine, its lethal claws outstretched. As Redclaw braced himself, something flew down at the sandslash from an angle, not only cannoning into the pokémon, but also sending it flying over the slowly diminishing wall of flame. The pokémon who had struck it came to a halt as it landed between Redclaw and the other remaining enemy pokémon.

This newcomer obviously didn't live in the city. It was a tall and powerful looking dark blue bug type, covered in tough armor thicker than a scyther's. It had long, curved claws at the end of its arms and feet, and two spikes jutted out of the sides of each of its arms. The pokémon's most deadly weapon was obviously its horn, which curved upward from its head and had two very sharp-looking prongs at its tip. There was a notable scar over the pokémon's left eye, which showed that he was no stranger to battling. Redclaw recognized this species of pokémon; it was a heracross, and he knew that though they were incredibly powerful, they were usually docile. He couldn't help but wonder…what was a heracross doing here?

Before he could stop her, Thunder darted at the heracross from behind, obviously not realizing that he wasn't one of the enemies that had attacked him. She lifted her arm, and Redclaw expected the heracross to be cut badly by the blow; he knew that even when injured, Thunder was a formidable fighter.

However, to his surprise, the heracross whirled around at the last instant, blocking Thunder's scythe with the spikes on his arm. "Stop that!" he growled, though his voice sounded neither intimidating nor threatening. "I'm trying to help you!"

Without another word he pushed the surprised Thunder away and ran toward the other remaining pokémon, two nidorino, a marowak, a vigoroth, and the flareon. The first two, one of the nidorino and the vigoroth, were slammed forcefully against the statue as the heracross rammed them with his horn. Spreading his wings and flying above the other nidorino who had leapt to attack him, the heracross turned to the vigoroth, dodging a blast of fire from the flareon.

Feeling some of his strength returning, Redclaw leaped up and ran to his new ally's aid, knocking the flareon through the wall of flames with a massive swipe from his paw. The pokémon was obviously not hurt from the fire, though it did not return to do battle. He then bolted toward the nidorino who was still conscious, while the heracross battled with the vigoroth.

Thunder, however, was not fighting. At first, she had run toward the enemies just like Redclaw had, though the pain in her right arm had stopped her, and she still found it very difficult to move it. For a moment, she could picture her Master, calmly telling her to get up and keep fighting, with a look in his eyes that spoke all the threats his words didn't. She closed her eyes and stayed where she was. She didn't have to keep going. Master wasn't there.

Redclaw had managed to knock the nidorino out, though it had been difficult, and the heracross had finished his battle with the vigoroth. Turning to Redclaw, the bug type told him, "I think it's time we got out of here. Can you run?"

Redclaw glanced over his wounds, which didn't seem serious, and nodded.

"Good," the heracross replied. "This circle of fire won't last much longer. We need to head out of the city the quickest way possible. Did you see an old sign at the city's outskirts while you were here?"

"Y-yes…" Redclaw stammered. "We came in that way. But how are we going to get out without-"

"Me and that scyther can fly out," the heracross told him. "As for you…you're going to have to make a run for it. Shouldn't be too hard if you don't let them corner you first…arcanine are some of the fastest pokémon, you know."

Redclaw nodded, and flicked his tail toward Stormblade. "What about him?" he asked. "I can't carry him and run at the same time, and he's been poisoned…"

"I can carry him," the heracross replied, walking over to Stormblade. "Now hurry, we don't have much time. Get ready to run, arcanine."

Redclaw nodded again, and watched as Thunder spread out her wings and took to the air. He idly wondered why she hadn't tried to fly away and leave them before, which seemed like something she would have done. He shook away the thought, watching as the heracross approached Stormblade and lifted the bigger scyther with surprising ease. "Go!" he yelled to Redclaw, spreading his wings just as Thunder had.

Turning around, Redclaw burst through the circle of flames, dashing past surprised pokémon and leaping over a muk that was in his path. Several of the pokémon darted after him, and in the growing darkness, Redclaw saw the flickering light from the flames glimmering against the buildings fade and vanish. The fire had died out.

Redclaw ran on, unable to hear the wing-beats of Thunder or the heracross due to the loud cries of his enemies as they chased him. Frightened, he sped up as much as he could, hearing the growls of a particularly speedy vigoroth right behind him before its cries slowly faded into the distance. Even after the last pokémon had fallen behind, Redclaw kept running. He didn't stop until he had made it past the sign that stood in front of the city. Then he collapsed in a heap, exhausted.

After a short while, Thunder and the heracross both arrived at about the same time. Redclaw watched the blue bug type set down Stormblade gently, noticing that the scyther's bandages had been torn accidentally by the heracross's claws.

"You shouldn't have gone in there," the newcomer told Redclaw and Thunder calmly. "It's not safe. A lot of pokémon come there to use the buildings for shelter, including small ones who forage for food elsewhere and come back there to rest and be safe from most predators, such as bird pokémon. It's hardly safer though…that big group of pokémon you saw…well, those that are predators hunt the smaller pokémon, so they're always wary of any pokémon that looks dangerous. That big group considers the city theirs…and they aren't friendly toward intruders whom they think might be there to steal their food or water supplies. A lot of them take pleasure in fighting, too."

"We didn't know…we only came in there to look for water," Redclaw explained before Thunder could say anything. "We found some, but it had been polluted by a muk's poison. And he drank it…" He glanced toward Stormblade, who still lay unnaturally still on the ground.

The heracross worriedly looked down at the scyther, who now looked very pale, but was still breathing. "I don't know much about muk or grimer…" he began, "but I do know of something that might save him. It's been known to cure a lot of other types of poison and it might cure this. It'll be hard to find the herbs I need now that my forest has been destroyed, but I'll try my best to find them." He turned and quickly flew off, leaving the three travelers alone.

Redclaw lay down by Stormblade, deciding to watch over him until the heracross came back. He was glad to have found a pokémon so willing to help them, even when he hadn't even known them before. The bug type had also seemed very skilled in battle, which surprised Redclaw, considering that wild heracross didn't usually fight unless they absolutely had to. Remembering the scar over the heracross's left eye, Redclaw wondered if he'd had to fight off enemies quite a lot.

Sitting a small distance away from the others, Thunder was gently licking the deep cut on her arm, paying Redclaw and Stormblade no heed. Sighing, Redclaw glanced back toward the silent city resting in the fading light of sunset, waiting for the strange heracross's return.

_To be continued…_


	30. Blazefang's Departure

Snowcrystal yawned, resting her head on her paws. She hadn't been keeping watch for long, and she was already getting tired. She stood up and walked around, hoping that would help her keep awake. She did not want to be attacked by any potential enemies if she fell asleep. Sitting down, the growlithe drowsily glanced over the rocky plain, wondering if she should wake one of the others up.

Movement from nearby caught the growlithe's eye and she sat upright, instantly alert. Cautiously moving toward Wildflame, she prodded the houndoom with one forepaw.

"Wildflame, wake up. Something's moving out there."

Wildflame sat up, looking much less weary than Snowcrystal was. After all, she was a normally nocturnal pokémon. Quickly spotting the source of movement, she whispered, "There's only one of them. I don't think it's a threat, but let's check it out."

"All right," Snowcrystal whispered, padding forward carefully while Wildflame boldly approached the pokémon moving about in the dark. It didn't seem to notice as Wildflame crept around a boulder, giving it a closer look.

"It's nothing but a heracross," Wildflame whispered. "No problem for us. Let's go back."

Snowcrystal nodded tiredly in reply and the two turned around. Yet their whispers had attracted the heracross's attention, and he turned toward the boulder. Snowcrystal paused to glance back at him, noticing hostility in his yellow eyes.

"Who's there?" the heracross cried warningly, pausing to drop something that he was carrying on the ground as he neared the boulder where the two fire types hid.

Still not feeling threatened in the least, Wildflame boldly stepped around the large slab of stone, Snowcrystal following more timidly. "We're just resting over there," Wildflame told him, inclining with her head toward the place where Spark and Rosie slept. "We saw you from a distance and thought you might be one of those hostile fire or grass types." Wildflame didn't feel that it mattered if the heracross knew where they were resting; heracross weren't predators, and they were not prey either. Being far too tough to take down without risking serious injury, heracross were left alone by predators, and in turn left them alone. From what little Wildflame knew about them, they seemed to normally have little to do with species other than their own and butterfree.

The heracross didn't bother to ask what Wildflame meant by the hostile grass and fire types, and instead leaned down to pick up the items he had dropped. Wildflame noticed pecha berries among various types of plant leaves. Now that he knew Wildflame and Snowcrystal weren't a threat, the blue bug type didn't seem to want to bother with them anymore.

"What's all that stuff?" Snowcrystal asked, glancing at the leaves and berries. Just after she'd said it, she realized that the heracross seemed to want to be alone, as he had begun walking around as if searching for something.

"Berries and herbs to help a sick pokémon," the heracross replied, not looking up as he paused to look through a group of bushes.

"Great!" Wildflame muttered. "That's all we need…local pokémon spreading disease around here!"

"It's not a disease," the heracross replied, beginning to search more frantically. "A scyther's been poisoned and I'm the only one around here who knows anything about healing."

"A scyther!" Snowcrystal exclaimed. "Poisoned? What did the scyther look like?"

Snowcrystal suddenly noticed Wildflame going slightly pale, with what looked like fear. A moment later, however, and she had shaken it off, giving the heracross an indifferent stare.

"Just like any scyther," the heracross replied, "only this one had been injured. He had bandages and had obviously been to a pokémon center. He also had a wounded leg-"

"That's Stormblade!" Snowcrystal yelled. "Where is he? Can you take us to him? Is Thunder there?"

Wildflame didn't say a word, but she had also suspected that Stormblade was the scyther this heracross had found. She didn't understand what he had said about the 'pokémon center' much, but his words were obviously true. This pokémon had found Stormblade, and if the scyther told anyone anything, the others could very well figure out that she had been lying about him being taken by poachers.

"I don't know anyone named Thunder," the heracross replied, interrupting Wildflame's thoughts, "so I don't know what you mean. But if you know this scyther, I can take you to him…" His voice trailed off as he seemed to find what he was looking for, grabbing at a few unripe oran berries nearby. Knowing that those would have to do, he turned to Snowcrystal and Wildflame again. "Follow me," he told them urgently, beginning to look worried. "We have to get back there fast."

"Wait," Snowcrystal told him, "let me get the others." Without waiting for an answer, she raced back to where Rosie and Spark lay, quickly rousing them and explaining everything as she led the way back to the heracross and Wildflame.

"You sure this guy knows where Stormblade is?" Spark asked as he darted beside Snowcrystal, his paws sending up puffs of ash as they raced over the burned soil near the destroyed forest.

"Yeah!" Snowcrystal replied. "He said Stormblade's poisoned. But he knows about healing. He can help him!"

"Hope so…" Spark replied uneasily. In the many battles he'd fought for Justin, he had only been poisoned once or twice, and Justin had immediately treated him. Never had the poison been anything serious enough to kill him or cause him excruciating pain, but that was because the poison types were not allowed to attack with extremely powerful poison in trainer battles. But out in the wild, it could be different. He shook away the thought.

Rosie followed behind the others more slowly, with Wildflame at her side. The ninetales was limping fast, despite her injury, and her nine tails streamed out behind her as she fought to keep up with the others, hopeful at the thought of their group being reunited again.

Wildflame, however, felt differently. If she couldn't somehow find a way to make her earlier explanation not seem like a lie, she knew they would never trust her again.

  
**-ooo-**  


Redclaw waited for what seemed like a long time, crouching beside Stormblade as he watched the city anxiously. The unconscious scyther still showed no signs of stirring, though Redclaw had tried his best to wake him. Thunder was now lying down on the grass, not seeming concerned at all.

Redclaw could still hear Stormblade breathing, but it seemed to be growing shallower and weaker. He didn't understand; Stormblade should have woken up by now. Placing his paw on Stormblade's shoulder, he shook him gently, but got no response. Suddenly the sound of quick wing-beats overhead caused him to glance up, and the heracross he had met in the city landed beside him.

"Did you find what you need to help him?" Redclaw asked anxiously.

"Yes," the bug type replied, "but he needs to eat it. Have you tried waking him up?"

Redclaw nodded and watched as the heracross set down the berries and leaves and tried to wake Stormblade. The arcanine looked up in surprise as four other pokémon appeared, dashing toward him. One was the white growlithe he had seen when Master had ordered him to attack the intruders back in the dark forest, and he recognized the jolteon from that same battle too. With a leap of hope he realized that these pokémon must be Stormblade's friends.

Thunder looked up as the others approached, suddenly seeming hostile and wary. Quickly she backed away from the others, not wanting any of them to try and talk to her.

Snowcrystal stopped in front of Redclaw, Stormblade, and the heracross, looking horrified as she glanced over Stormblade. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked, turning to the heracross in alarm. Moving closer, she tried to push the heracross aside to get a better look, but Wildflame pulled her back by gripping her scruff.

"Leave them alone," the houndoom told her after setting her down. "They're the ones that know what to do." Before Snowcrystal could protest, Wildflame turned back to the others, knowing that the small growlithe would probably just get in the way.

Wildflame and Rosie approached Stormblade, neither of them saying a word at first. Rosie looked shocked that Stormblade now had several new injuries, including a jagged cut across his head and new burns on his arms, legs, and neck. Spark looked completely horrified at the fact that the big and powerful scyther who had protected him in the wild and showed him how to hunt could look so pitifully weak now.

"You need him to wake up, right?" Spark said quietly, stepping forward a bit more. "I think I can-"

"Spark, DON'T!" Rosie growled, knowing what he was about to do, but Spark ignored her, sending a tiny jolt of electricity into Stormblade's body.

At first Stormblade didn't move, and Spark cringed as Rosie shot him a furious glare, but then after a moment, he slowly began to stir. Spark carefully nudged him and Stormblade opened one eye before closing it again, lying still once more.

Redclaw realized that either Stormblade had realized that he needed to hold still, or he was simply too weak to move anymore. He sadly admitted to himself that it was probably the latter, as Stormblade hadn't even made a sound. He probably just didn't have the strength.

Redclaw and the others watched as the heracross picked up one of the pecha berries, knowing that it was probably the most important item he had brought back. "Here, eat this," Redclaw said before taking the berry from the heracross and setting it beside Stormblade's mouth. However, Stormblade made no move to try and eat it, and continued to lay there motionless.

"I don't think he's going to be able to eat it," Thunder stated, walking over to the others and ignoring the surprised glances from Spark and Rosie. Redclaw slowly nodded; he wasn't sure if Stormblade was even able to move.

Picking up the pecha berry, the heracross carefully opened Stormblade's mouth, and crushed the berry in his claws, letting the sweet pecha juice drip into the scyther's mouth. "I think this is the best I can do," he said slowly, reaching for another berry to do the same. "At least until he starts to recover. I just hope it will be enough for now…I'm not really an experienced healer; I only know a few things, so I'm not entirely sure pecha berries are going to be enough. I think we can only hope for the best until he gets strong enough to eat more." He glanced at the pile of herbs he had brought back.

"But, if he eats the berry juice, won't he get better?" Spark asked.

"This isn't like a small pokémon's tale," Rosie replied, turning to Spark. "Pecha berries don't cure poison instantly like they do in stories. And don't tell me you think an oran berry will suddenly make his wounds vanish."

"I know all that!" Spark cried. "It's just…pecha berries usually cured poison when I was a trainer pokémon, though they weren't as fast or effective as the medicine Justin would buy. But…I do know that that poison was never as bad…"

Only half listening to the others, Redclaw lay down as he watched Stormblade, who seemed to have slipped into unconsciousness again. The heracross had left his pile of herbs nearby, having already used up the berries. A sudden thought struck the arcanine; this heracross had been such a big help to him and Stormblade, when they were complete strangers to him, and he hadn't even thanked him. Standing up again, Redclaw turned to the heracross and smiled a little. "Thank you," he told him, "for helping us. If it weren't for you, Stormblade would never have had any chance at all."

The heracross gave him a small smile back, and Redclaw thought of something else.

"Why were you near that city if it was dangerous?" the arcanine asked. "And did you say your home was in that forest? The one that got burned down? Did you…wait…" he quickly mumbled, realizing that he had forgotten something. "What is your name?"

"Nightshade," the heracross replied. "I lived in that forest before it burned down. I know that the pokémon in that human place you left harmed forest pokémon who ventured too close, usually. Everyone there knew to avoid it. I assume you are travelers?"

Redclaw nodded. "Yes," he replied, "we're looking for a new home…well, some of us are."

"I'm looking for a new home too," Nightshade told Redclaw. "For a few days I tried to live in the rocky plains outside of the forest, but there's little food there. I decided to leave tonight, and while flying over that city, I spotted you."

"Well," Redclaw told him, "if we're all looking for something, we might as well look together, right? And we've been through a lot of dangers around these places. I'm sure you know some areas better than we do too. We can help each other."

"I don't know," Nightshade whispered quietly, but to Redclaw's dismay, he didn't say anything more.

"We'll have to wait until Stormblade's a little better," Redclaw continued, giving the scyther another glance. It might have just been his imagination, but Stormblade's breathing seemed calmer now.

Nightshade nodded. "Like I said, I'm not a full healer," he replied, "but I was taught a few things from a heracross who was. I can show you what plants will help stop infection and ease pain, once it gets lighter."

Redclaw nodded and lay his head down on his paws, watching over Stormblade once again.

Snowcrystal watched Redclaw and Nightshade from a short distance, listening to their conversation. Looking up at Wildflame, she asked, "Shouldn't I go over there and see if Stormblade's all right?"

"He'll be fine," Wildflame replied, though she really didn't have much of an idea of how badly poisoned he could be. "Just stay here. The others will take care of everything."

Snowcrystal sighed and sat down, watching Rosie and Spark lying a short distance away, both glad for a chance to rest after having to travel so far while injured, as they waited to hear whether Stormblade would be all right. Thunder had distanced herself from everyone else, lying underneath one of the few trees that grew in the area. Blood from a small but very deep cut on her arm was staining the dry grass beneath her, but she seemed too distracted by her thoughts to care. Snowcrystal wondered what had happened. Had Thunder started yet another fight? If she had, it had gotten the big arcanine in trouble too, from the look of him. She shuddered. The last thing they needed now was another fight. They were weak now, and would have a hard time finding food and water the next few days while they waited for Stormblade to recover from the poison.

_If he did recover…_

Pushing away that last thought, Snowcrystal scraped some scraps of dry grass into a small nest and curled up inside it, deciding to try and sleep. She would need to save her energy for the next day if she was going to be of any help to her friends.

  
**-ooo-**  


When Snowcrystal woke the next morning, she was surprised to find that she had slept long enough for it to be past sunrise. She stood up, stretched, and quickly walked over to where Wildflame now lay beside Stormblade, her tail tip resting on his shoulder. To her surprise, Stormblade was awake, though he didn't seem to be in any condition to answer any questions, and he didn't look much better than he had the night before. He was shaking all over and looked as if he was too exhausted to move, but Snowcrystal could see the remains of the herbs Nightshade had brought, and knew that Stormblade had to start getting better soon; at least he wasn't going to die.

Deciding it was best to let him rest, Snowcrystal walked up to Thunder instead. She wasn't sure that the scyther would be willing to talk to her, but she was too relieved to have found Thunder alive to care. "Thunder!" she cried, jumping playfully up to Thunder's side and resting her paws on her uninjured leg. "How did you escape from the poachers? Did you help that arcanine too?"

Wildflame lifted her head, the hairs on her neck rising as she heard Snowcrystal's first question. _'Think of a lie…'_ she thought to herself. _'If she says they weren't captured by poachers, make something up…'_

The houndoom tensed as she listened for Thunder's answer, her tail curling up stiffly as she watched the growlithe and the female scyther. Feeling Wildflame's tail move away from his shoulder, Stormblade opened his eyes wider and weakly glanced at her before closing them again.

Thunder glared at Snowcrystal, pushing the growlithe away with her leg. "I don't think they were poachers in the sense that you're thinking of," she replied, "but all humans are the same to me. We got away from them…that's all that matters."

Wildflame felt like breathing a sigh of relief. It seemed as if Thunder and Stormblade _had_ been taken away by some group of humans, and the others would understand if she told them that she had mistaken them for poachers; all humans looked the same to her. Hopefully though, no one would even bother to ask. Stormblade was far too weak to explain anything and they certainly wouldn't get much information out of Thunder. That, and the arcanine probably didn't know much either.

Wildflame looked up as Snowcrystal walked back toward her after Thunder had told her to go away. The growlithe stopped to glance at Rosie and Spark, who were still asleep, and back at Wildflame. "Where are Redclaw and Nightshade?" she asked.

"Redclaw went hunting," Wildflame replied. "Nightshade should be back soon. He decided to stay with us for a while. He doesn't know if he wants to travel with us just yet."

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal began, changing the subject, "I haven't seen any sign of Blazefang's pack in a while…it's worrying me. Do you think they might be planning something?"

"I don't know…" Wildflame replied, looking uncomfortable about answering the question. "Maybe they've just forgotten about us and moved on."

"Maybe…" Snowcrystal answered, not convinced. She turned away from Wildflame and Stormblade, deciding that she wanted to be alone with her thoughts for now. Something was worrying her.

The white growlithe walked slowly over the sharp rocks littering the ground, not even turning her head at the sound of a few pidgey and spearow nearby. After a short while, she stopped on top of a large, flat rock and sat down, looking out over the plains.

She knew that Stormblade couldn't travel until he was at least cured of the poison, yet she felt a growing worry about the delay. A nagging worry told her that she was taking too long, resting too often. She tried to shut it out, telling herself that at the moment, the most important thing was that Stormblade rested. Soon, the nagging thought faded, and she felt herself relaxing. They would get there, she promised herself.

_They would get there._

  
**-ooo-**  


For the next week, the group concentrated on resting and regaining their strength. Nightshade stayed with them, helping to find herbs or berries for those who were injured. Stormblade was still gradually recovering from the effects of the poison, and some of his wounds which weren't caused by Blazefang's Shadowflare attack were beginning to heal.

Redclaw had been trying to teach Thunder how to hunt, but without much success. Frustrated, the arcanine had realized just how hard it was to teach a pokémon of a different species hunting techniques. After the two returned from another unsuccessful hunt, Redclaw noticed Snowcrystal approaching him hesitantly.

"Do you think Stormblade's fit to travel yet?" the small growlithe asked.

Redclaw shook his head. "I doubt he'll be fit to travel for a long time," he replied. "He _shouldn't_ be traveling at all while he has those wounds anyway."

Snowcrystal knew that he was right. "He can't stay here either," she whispered. "It's too dangerous, and there isn't much food… _we_ can't stay here much longer."

"I know," Redclaw replied sadly. Over the past week, he had heard all about Snowcrystal's quest, Spark, Stormblade, and Rosie's goals to find new homes, the Forbidden Attacks, and Blazefang's pack. He too realized that it was urgent that they keep going, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that if they forced Stormblade to travel, he would surely die. "You see, Stormblade's not going to make it much further if those wounds don't heal. When we have to leave, when there's no more prey, we'll have to make sure not to travel too far or too fast."

"Why don't we just do Stormblade a favor and put him out of his misery?" Thunder replied. "That would solve everyone's problem."

"What? No!" Snowcrystal cried, as both she and Redclaw turned toward Thunder, shocked.

"It was just a suggestion," Thunder muttered. "And not a bad one in my opinion."

Redclaw and Snowcrystal decided not to reply. They, along with Thunder, slowly walked back to where the others were resting.

Rosie looked up as the three pokémon returned. "Any luck?" she asked.

Redclaw shook his head. "There's hardly any prey," he replied. "This isn't a good place to teach someone to hunt."

"Which makes me glad I'm not a predator," Nightshade muttered from where he was trying to persuade a reluctant Spark to eat some foul-smelling herbs.

"I caught two pidgey this afternoon," Wildflame told the others. "We can share those today."

Under the cool evening sky, the seven friends gathered to share Wildflame's catch, while Nightshade set off to find food of his own. Stormblade, noticing that Wildflame had given him a bigger share than the others, gave most of his share to Redclaw, not feeling very hungry.

Snowcrystal sat up after finishing her small meal, cleaning her forepaws of any traces of blood. "At least we know that not all the prey has left this area," she stated.

"Yeah, but it's getting harder to find any," Wildflame replied. "We need to move on, and soon."

The others nodded reluctantly. Snowcrystal heard the flutter of wings as Nightshade returned. "I'm not sure which direction you'll be leaving, but I guess what I'll do will depend on whether I stay with you or not," he told them.

"But we need you!" Spark cried. "You're the smartest icky-medicine-finding heracross I've ever known!"

Nightshade paused for a moment, seeming to like the thought of being part of a group and able to help others, then sighed. "I'm not sure yet," he told them. "But I know that I can stay as long as you stay here. There's enough food for me for now. And in case I do leave, do you remember what herbs cure infection and ease pain?"

Wildflame and Rosie nodded; Nightshade had taught them earlier. Spark half-nodded and then shook his head, realizing he didn't remember after all. Rosie rolled her eyes.

"I'll be sure to teach you all then," Nightshade replied, and Spark looked relieved.

As the sky darkened, Snowcrystal, Redclaw, Rosie, and Spark all curled up beneath one of the few trees in the area, while Nightshade flew up to a high branch. Wildflame, being a nocturnal pokémon, decided to keep watch, while Thunder found a place to herself to sleep. Stormblade decided to sleep alone as well, and lay down beside a large rock, laying his tattered wings across his back.

Snowcrystal snuggled up against one of Rosie's bushy tails as she watched her crystal glow a dull red. She yawned and closed her eyes, letting sleep slowly overcome her.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang and his pack had not gotten far. Confused and lost, they had wandered around in circles for the past week or so before stumbling upon Stonedust City and deciding that it would be better to seek out Wildflame and see if she had discovered anything about Articuno. Blazefang realized that it would be next to impossible to search for him without any clues, no matter how fast they traveled. Their wanderings had simply been a waste of time.

Now further away from the city and any sign of poacher traps, Blazefang and the pack rested. Boneclaw had recently reported that he'd picked up Wildflame's scent and the scent of the growlithe and some of her companions, but Blazefang insisted they wait there until morning.

During the night, the houndour were much better hunters, and many of them were taking this opportunity to catch prey for themselves and then relax. Blazefang, however, wasn't so calm.

Coming near the burned forest had spooked him, and he was reminded once again of how devastating Shadowflare really was. Unintentionally, his thoughts drifted back to the scyther that his attack had mutilated, and he wondered if he was still alive. A while ago, Wildflame had told him that the group had left him behind. He was probably dead.

Blazefang tried not to look at the burned forest anymore. He remembered how quickly, almost without thinking, he had used Shadowflare the second time, and shuddered at the thought of having to use it again.

Boneclaw, who was eating a spearow he'd caught, glanced sideways at Blazefang. "Something troubling you?" he asked, as he lifted his head away from the prey he held between his paws.

"It's nothing," Blazefang replied, looking irritated. "We've found Wildflame's scent. Everything's going well."

Not convinced, Boneclaw continued to eat, knowing that his leader probably didn't want to be bothered. Suddenly a shout from one of the pack members startled both of them.

"Bl-blazefang! There's some strange pokémon coming toward us…"

Aggravated, Blazefang stood and walked over to the one who had shouted, pushing past her and climbing the small rocky hill from where she'd been watching. The sight that greeted him nearly took his breath away.

Pokémon, hundreds of them, were all making their way toward the hill in one vast group. Most of them, Blazefang could see, were common species, but there were quite a few larger and more powerful ones. Blazefang was both confused and startled by the fact that the group consisted of both predators and prey, all mingled together. Though sunset had long past, many of the pokémon in the massive assembly belonged to species that normally hunted or foraged during the day.

"Who are they?" Blazefang asked, his gaze traveling over them, able to make out details because of the flickering flames of species like ponyta and charmeleon.

"I…I don't know," the smaller houndour replied. "This is too weird…"

Blazefang turned and walked back to the pack, feeling worried and confused. As he approached them, a large pidgeot soared overhead, making Blazefang cringe as it emitted a shrill cry. It wheeled back toward the hill, when the first shapes of the enemy pokémon emerged over the rocks at the top and walked steadily toward them.

The houndour all shrank back, their teeth bared in a snarl, but Blazefang silenced them. "They're probably just passing through," he told them. "I'll deal with this. Boneclaw, come with me."

The big houndour nodded and followed Blazefang as he approached the first few pokémon, who had stopped at the bottom of the hill.

They were only a small group out of the much bigger one, and this small group seemed to consist of some of the stronger pokémon. Blazefang looked over the ones standing on the hill, a charmeleon, an ivysaur, a rapidash, and, to his dismay, a female scyther. Memories flooded through his mind of the pack members who had been wounded badly by the female scyther that traveled with the white growlithe. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. There were more pressing matters to deal with. At the front of this small group stood a vaporeon, and beside him, an espeon bearing a black collar with a splash of red on it.

"Who are you?" Blazefang asked, trying to break the silence. "This…this isn't our territory. We're travelers. You can go right on through!"

The vaporeon, who Blazefang assumed was the leader, ignored his statement and walked forward with graceful strides. "My name is Cyclone," the eevee evolution told him, with no hint of friendliness or warmth on his calm features. "These pokémon…" He gestured toward the group standing behind him on the hill, "…Are a part of my army. In a very short time, I have recruited many, and in time, this army will grow in numbers."

Blazefang saw a flicker of unease pass between the charmeleon and ivysaur, and he realized that they looked…worried. It suddenly dawned on him that these two hadn't joined this army willingly, though how he knew that, he wasn't sure.

Cyclone continued speaking in his calm voice, waving his tail toward the espeon who stood behind him. "This is Solus," Cyclone explained, as the espeon's face broke into a wide grin, "being one of my most trusted, I leave the others in his paws while I am away. We have come to ask you something. Do you know a houndour called… _Blazefang?_ "

Blazefang took a step back, shocked, but afraid to lie. "I am Blazefang," he said.

Not a flicker of surprise or amusement crossed Cyclone's face. "Well, that makes things easier," he replied. "Not long ago, a pidgeot we came across told us of a battle he witnessed. He said that a houndour whom the others had called Blazefang…used a strange attack on a scyther. That attack, I believe, was Shadowflare."

Blazefang froze, every hair on his body standing on end. Something was wrong with the vaporeon and his army…something was very wrong. Whatever these pokémon wanted, he wanted nothing to do with it. "I don't know what you're talking about…" Blazefang replied. "I don't know what Shadowflare is. I was using flamethrower on that scy-"

"Solus…" Cyclone said calmly, almost with an air of annoyance, and the espeon focused his glowing eyes on Blazefang.

To the houndour's dismay, images…memories, of the time he'd first used Shadowflare surfaced in his mind. The strange feeling, the way his eyes glowed a bright yellow, and the way it followed the scyther through the air and wounded him so severely… And then after that, the image of the ursaring and the burning forest crossed his thoughts. Solus's eyes stopped glowing.

The espeon shook his head, muttering in a mock-disappointed voice, "Lying will get you nowhere, you know! That was no normal attack you used, it was Shadowflare through and through. Fit the description of the attack _perfectly._ Oh Cyclone, if only you could have seen the look on that scyther's face. Priceless! I'm glad your memory was so vivid, Blazefang! Haha!"

Blazefang stared at the espeon in disbelief. A psychic type had read his mind…there was nothing lying would do now. That espeon had to be more powerful than any psychic type Blazefang had ever heard of, and the houndour shrank back in fear. The fact that Solus was _laughing_ at having seen the memory of the scyther getting hurt so badly suddenly made Blazefang wish he were anywhere else but there.

Boneclaw didn't look as surprised, simply confused. The rest of Blazefang's pack had gathered closer to listen, most of them looking frightened or puzzled.

"You see," Cyclone said calmly, "I have gathered this army to help me find and track down other Forbidden Attacks. I believe that with them on our side, no human weapon can stand against us."

Blazefang looked confused. "H-human…weapon?"

Cyclone gave him one of his rare faint smiles. "Yes. For too long, humans have caused pain and misery to pokémon. We are here to set them free…to show the humans that pokémon are not meant to be slaves. Our land is not for their taking, and we are not tools to use for their work or their silly battles. Nor are we pets to keep locked inside a building. _Nor are we things to be beaten and tortured._ "

"You're crazy!" Blazefang shouted. "If you want to wage war against the humans, be my guest! But I've never even come in contact with one. I don't have anything against them. This isn't my fight!"

Blazefang couldn't tell if Cyclone was angry or disappointed. The vaporeon was about to speak when Solus spoke up.

"Can I torture him to make him join?" the espeon asked, grinning widely. "I've been practicing-"

"No," Cyclone replied. "It wouldn't be wise. Not for him. However…if he is unwilling to join…we could always kill him. After all, if the legend is correct, Forbidden Attacks get passed on to the nearest pokémon of the same type once the first user passes away…and I'm sure there are plenty of willing fire types here."

Blazefang stared at Cyclone in utter shock, while the charmeleon standing behind Cyclone looked suddenly pale, and the rapidash looked eager. Blazefang still stood as if frozen, paralyzed with disbelief and fear. "I…I…"

"We'll give you until tomorrow to make your decision," Cyclone replied calmly, turning away from him and beginning to walk up the hill.

"See ya in the morning!" Solus cried mockingly as he followed the other pokémon over the hill and out of sight.

Blazefang stood where he was, staring off into space, his body rigid and stiff.

Then he ran.

"Blazefang-what?" one of the houndour called as the leader bolted past him, but Blazefang gave him no heed. The houndour kept running, not letting exhaustion or even cuts on his paws from the rocks slow him down. Terror filled his mind at the thought that someone from Cyclone's army could be following him. He kept running. He had to get away…far away…at any and all costs.

  
**-ooo-**  


Boneclaw looked around at the astonished group of houndour, his gaze traveling over each of their startled faces.

"He's not coming back…" one of them whispered. "Are you going to be our leader now?"

Boneclaw wasn't sure what to say. He didn't know how to be a leader, and he wasn't sure what the pack should do now. "Well…I…" he began.

"I say we talk to Cyclone," a small, mangy houndour called Flarefire spoke up. "From the looks of it, he forced a lot of those pokémon to join him. Maybe we should join willingly before he decides to make us. Then he might let us go after we've served his army for a while."

"What?" another houndour cried. "Have you forgotten about the tribe? About Articuno?"

"The tribe will be fine!" Flarefire snapped. "I still say we talk to this Cyclone. And maybe if we help him, he'll help us."

Boneclaw was ready to argue, but he realized Flarefire was right. The pack couldn't hide from such a great number of pokémon, so talking to Cyclone was likely the best course of action. Perhaps the army leader _could_ help them in some way. He knew that it would be wiser to try to gain the vaporeon's favor than be forced into serving him.

  
**-ooo-**  


Cyclone looked up as the entire houndour pack, minus their leader, skidded to a halt at the base of the hill in front of the large army of resting or sparring pokémon. The vaporeon walked slowly over to them.

"So, you want to talk?" he asked them before any of the houndour had said anything. "May I ask…where is Blazefang?"

"He ran off," Boneclaw replied truthfully.

"Disappointing, but it's no problem at all," Cyclone replied. His eyes flicked toward Solus for the briefest moment, and the espeon ran over to converse with some of the stronger-looking pokémon. "Now, what did you come here to tell me?"

"We want to know how long you expect us to serve under your leadership if we choose to join you," Boneclaw told him. "And whether we'd have to fight, or just help out for a while."

"We could always use help," Cyclone replied. "Strong houndour like you would make good prey hunters. And only as long as we need it." He paused for a moment, then said, "I can tell you want something in return. What is it? Food? Territory?"

"Yes," Boneclaw replied, feeling excited. "Our territory by the mountains isn't large enough, and there are these growlithe-"

"And you want their territory, am I correct?" Cyclone asked, and Boneclaw nodded. "That's a simple thing to ask," the vaporeon continued, "very simple. We are definitely capable of driving out a few growlithe for you. If you join me, consider it done."

Excitement and eagerness rippled through the houndour pack, and Boneclaw smiled.

"Then we're in."

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang was afraid he was going to collapse from exhaustion. He was running blindly now, paying no heed to his tired limbs and cut paws as he blundered through the darkness, ignoring all sound and scent. Then suddenly, he burst into a clearing full of other pokémon.

Blazefang stopped dead in his tracks; he recognized many of them. The white growlithe, the jolteon, Wildflame, and one of the two scyther were all staring at him in shock. Blazefang took one look at Stormblade's wounds and reeled back, shocked and disgusted.

Suddenly long, sharp claws sank into the fur of his neck and he was lifted bodily upward. He found himself staring into the yellow eyes of a large heracross, who held him as effortlessly as if he weighed nothing. He struggled, but could not loosen the heracross's powerful grip. He found himself staring into the bug type's eyes again, noticing the long thick scar that ran over one of them.

"Stop!" Blazefang gasped.

The heracross's eyes narrowed, as a confused arcanine and an angry ninetales approached them. "What are you doing here?" the heracross growled.

"Nightshade, put him down!" Wildflame cried, and Blazefang sensed worry in her voice.

"Why?" Rosie asked. "Didn't he drive you out for evolving? And he made his pack attack us…and…just look what he did to _Stormblade!_ "

Hearing this, Nightshade's grip tightened on Blazefang, and the terrified houndour knew that if he tried to use a fire attack, this heracross could snap his neck.

"Let him go," a voice spoke up. "He's not here to attack us." Blazefang turned in shock to see that the speaker was Stormblade, the scyther he had wounded. "Just send him away…you don't need to hurt him."

Nightshade's gaze softened a bit and he lowered Blazefang to the ground, pointing in the direction he had come. "Get out," he muttered.

Blazefang realized that these pokémon must have told the heracross about him. He could scarcely believe that the one who had told the blue bug type to stop had been the scyther he'd injured so badly. All the same, it was clear that he was not welcome here. Yet, though they were his enemies, he was terrified of running blindly in the dark again.

"But…I have nowhere to go!" Blazefang gasped.

Before anyone could say any more, a noise from ahead startled Blazefang. He watched as the female scyther stepped out from behind a tree, carrying the limp and bloody form of a pidgey in her mouth. Seeing him, she froze, dropping the prey. Then without any warning, she ran toward him with an enraged growl, scythes raised and ready to kill.

Blazefang leaped to the side, feeling the scythe scrape along one of the bone-like bands on his back. He landed roughly on all fours, while Thunder turned and ran at him again before anyone could try and stop her.

Blazefang felt a dark feeling creep over him, and everything around him began to take on a yellowish tinge. He shook his head, feeling strong energy starting to pulsate through his body. He couldn't use Shadowflare…not again. But the scyther was trying to kill him, and enemy pokémon were all around him…did he really have a choice?

Blazefang leaped away as Thunder slashed at him again, ignoring the cries of Wildflame and some of the others. Nightshade rushed to stop her, but Thunder moved too fast for him, heading straight for Blazefang again. He was finding hard to fight it now; every instinct was screaming at him to use the attack. Ignoring it, he fired a flamethrower, which Thunder dodged easily.

Thunder swept the dull side of her scythe at him, knocking his off his feet and pinning him down. "Well…" she growled angrily. _"Look who it is…"_

_To be continued…_


	31. A New Danger Arises

Blazefang leaned back, ignoring the sharp rocks that pricked at his fur as Thunder's scythe came closer, the sharp edge hovering dangerously close to his neck.

"Stop!" Blazefang cried. "You're insane! Listen to the others, they said that-" The houndour gave a yelp and moved to the side as Thunder's scythe came down, the movement slowed only by the deep cut in her arm.

Blazefang hurriedly backed away as Thunder dove at him again. However, something stopped her in her tracks. Redclaw now held tightly onto one of the scyther's wings. Angrily, Thunder turned to face him.

"What are you doing?" she shouted. "Let me go…or I'll make you!"

Redclaw didn't want to obey her, but seeing the look in her eyes, he realized that if he didn't, someone was surely going to get hurt. He knew that even with a type disadvantage and all her injuries, Thunder could rip him to shreds if she wanted to; she hadn't been one of Master's most favored pokémon for nothing. Reluctantly, he let her go.

Thunder dashed toward Blazefang again, and Redclaw felt an eerie feeling creep through his body as Blazefang's eyes suddenly seemed overcast with yellow. However, before Thunder could strike, Nightshade had quickly darted in her path, blocking the deadly blade with his long horn.

As the two struggled against each other, Blazefang faced the other pokémon. "All I want is for you to _listen_ to me!" he shouted, his eyes losing their yellowish glow.

Nightshade had managed to grab both of Thunder's arms in his claws. "Stop this!" he cried, staring into her fierce eyes. "Let's listen to him. Then he'll leave!"

"No!" Thunder growled, fighting against Nightshade's grip. The heracross held her arms firmly, ignoring the blows as she tried to kick him to get him to release his grip.

Stormblade glanced over to the two struggling pokémon as he painfully propped himself up with his scythes. "Stop!" he cried, and Thunder turned to stare at him angrily. "He might have something important to say, and either way, he's not causing us any harm. Don't…don't… _kill_ him…"

Somehow, this seemed to snap Thunder out of it, and she turned and pulled away from Nightshade and walked back toward the tree where she had been resting. "He'd better make it quick!" she growled, leaning against the tree and watching Blazefang as if she still wished to sink her blade into his throat.

Blazefang was still gasping for breath; Thunder's attack had just made him more panicked and exhausted. "Learn to keep her under control!" he snarled under his breath. "I already have enough trouble with _one_ psycho wanting to kill me!"

"What do you mean?" Rosie asked, her teeth bared in a snarl. "Did one of your houndour slaves finally show some sense and turn against you?"

"No," Blazefang replied, shaking his head as he walked forward. Snowcrystal felt a small prickle of unease as she noticed that Blazefang hardly seemed to react to the insult. "There's an army…of pokémon," the houndour continued. "From what I could gather they force any able bodied pokémon they come across to join them…they even tortured some of them…" He remembered the vast groups of common species he had seen amongst the others in the army, and Solus's words about torturing pokémon in order to get them to join. "And their leader…" he continued uneasily, "is a vaporeon called Cyclone. He wants to use me in some war he's waged against humans or else kill me so one of his followers will gain the Forbidden Attack."

Everyone else glanced at each other, confused and alarmed at this statement. "Forbidden Attack…" Spark mumbled quietly.

Blazefang nodded. "He wants to track down more Forbidden Attacks and he's got plenty of followers to help him. I don't know what he's promised or what he's threatened them with...but it's clear that if he ran into you, he'd try to make all of you…or at least those who aren't badly injured…join him. And he wouldn't take no for an answer either."

For a moment, silence fell upon the small group as they stared at the houndour in disbelief. "That doesn't make sense!" Rosie snarled, breaking the silence. "How can one vaporeon do all this? He couldn't have possibly forced so many pokémon to join him even if he did bribe some of his followers. I think-"

" _I_ think we should find out for ourselves whether or not he's telling the truth," Nightshade interrupted. "Is the army nearby?" he asked Blazefang. "If so, I can fly overhead and see if this is really a threat or just a story."

"Not far from here," Blazefang replied, pointing with his snout in the direction that he had come from. "Go that way. The army lies beyond a large hill. You'll see them there-"

Without waiting for him to finish, Nightshade took off, leaving Blazefang standing alone with the others, feeling weak and vulnerable in the presence of his enemies. For a while they sat in silence, and Blazefang tried to avert his eyes from the awful wounds covering Stormblade's body, which were left exposed by the many large rips and tears in the tattered and filthy bandages.

After what seemed like a long while, the heracross returned, a grim look on his face. "The houndour was right," he told the others reluctantly. "I saw a very large group of pokémon in the area where Blazefang told me to look. Some of them, an espeon and a scyther, were leading a group of what looked to be some pokémon who had escaped from the burning forest. One of them was fighting the whole way." He shook his head sadly. "It seems they really are looking for new recruits, and will soon have flying pokémon looking around this way too. There were several flying types around, and I only narrowly avoided being seen."

"See?" Blazefang told them. "I was telling the truth! They-"

"What are we supposed to do?" Snowcrystal asked worriedly. "If all this is true, they'll force us to join that army and leave Stormblade and Rosie to fend for themselves."

"I say we start moving again!" Spark answered. "Or at least find a safe place to hide until this…Cyclone, or whoever, passes by."

"But if they're after Blazefang, they're sure to search this area more thoroughly," Rosie said quietly. "We should get out while we can."

"That's right!" Spark agreed.

"But how can we?" Snowcrystal asked. "Stormblade's still sick…"

"And he's not getting any better," Thunder muttered. "We should just go. It'll make no difference for him how many days we wait."

"That's not true," Redclaw replied with a disapproving glance at Thunder. "However, it _is_ best that we leave this place. Is there anywhere we can hide for now, Nightshade?"

Blazefang listened intently, hardly noticing that the others seemed to have forgotten he was there. The heracross, the one called Nightshade, thought for a moment before replying.

"Based on what I've seen and the houndour's word, Cyclone will be looking for any healthy pokémon to join him, regardless of species. Those who had homes in the forest no longer have any shelter, and that army will probably end up stumbling across some of them, if not many, I'm afraid. Apart from the forest, there aren't many places to hide around these areas, other than the human town where I met Redclaw…which of course, isn't safe. And the forest, as you know, has burned to the ground."

Blazefang shifted uneasily at the last statement, but the heracross continued without acknowledging him.

"The only thing I can think of are the hills to the north of here…if we can get past that area, Cyclone's pokémon might not venture that far."

"Well, that seems easy enough," Spark stated happily.

"Easy!" Blazefang exclaimed. "Cyclone's probably going to track me down and what if he does chose to-"

"Who cares?" Rosie growled. "You're certainly not coming with us!"

"Quiet!" Nightshade told them. "What matters is that we all get out of this army's way. Though if Cyclone's going to send out pokémon to search for Blazefang…they'll probably be looking for other strong pokémon too. No one's safe from them while we're here."

"I don't know…" Wildflame whispered. "This…this just seems too strange. I still don't see how all those pokémon are willing to join that vaporeon and force others to as well."

"They must have no other choice," Redclaw replied grimly.

"Well, I think it's certain that we have to keep moving," Snowcrystal told the others. "We need to leave now and get out of this army's way. But…do you think you'll be able to make it?" As she made the last statement, she turned to Stormblade, the only pokémon who hadn't taken part in the conversation so far.

The scyther didn't answer, and merely stared silently at the ground.

"He doesn't have a choice," Rosie told Snowcrystal firmly.

"We could always go and hide him somewhere…then come back later after the army is gone," Spark suggested.

Snowcrystal shot Spark a glare, obviously disapproving of the idea. "We can't just-"

"Uh…I think you're not realizing something," Blazefang whispered timidly. "If pokémon are going to search, we'd be easily spotted trying to travel through a bunch of hills, no matter how fast we're going. Is…is there are another way?" he asked the heracross, giving him a fearful glance.

"You're right…" the heracross replied reluctantly. "The hills would take at least a day to travel through, but for a powerful flying pokémon it would take only a short time. The only other place I can think of is Stonedust City…" He paused, seeing several members of the group flinch visibly at the mention of the city, and then whispered, "Unless…"

"Unless…what?" Spark asked, while everyone gave Nightshade a look of mixed curiosity and dread, knowing that the suggestion he was about to make probably wasn't a very pleasant option.

"There is…another way…through the hills," Nightshade continued. "A cave that leads right under them and to various other areas...Cyclone's pokémon won't follow us through there and flying pokémon can't see us, plus the cave is damp and rocky, so it's near impossible to follow a scent in there."

"That's perfect!" Spark cried happily, sounding relieved that the news hadn't been as bad as he'd thought it would be.

Nightshade gave him a worried glance and sighed. "It's not a straight tunnel or a small group of caverns, Spark, but a massive cave system. It has many exits...the only trouble is finding those exits. It leads very deep underground, and from what I've heard from pokémon who have gone through it, it's nothing short of a gigantic maze."

A silence followed this statement, until Spark spoke up loudly. "I vote no cave!" the jolteon cried, giving Nightshade an irritated glance as if he was annoyed that he had suggested it.

"I'd be willing to risk it," Wildflame told Nightshade. "It would be better than being forced into some army fighting for a cause that has nothing to do with me. Plus if these pokémon are willing to kill for Forbidden Attacks, or torture pokémon into obeying them, I don't want to be anywhere _near_ them."

"It's probably our best chance," Redclaw agreed reluctantly. "If anything, we might be able to hide near the entrance until the army passes by…"

"You'd be waiting an awful long time," Blazefang growled. "Tell me where the cave is. I'm going."

Nightshade was about to reply when an earsplitting screech rent the air. The heads of all nine pokémon lifted toward the sky as a rather large and fierce looking noctowl swooped overhead, its talons coming nearly close enough to brush Redclaw's thick mane. His eyes connected with Blazefang's for a brief moment, and without saying a word, the noctowl flew off, heading in the direction that Blazefang had come.

"That was one of them!" Blazefang whispered, leaping to his feet with a look of alarm etched across his face. "He's gone to tell the army…there won't _be_ a place to hide. Where is the cave?"

"Great!" Rosie growled. "Now the army's going to come right to us thanks to you!" She gave Blazefang a glare and looked to Nightshade. "They won't be able to follow us easily through that cave. If we cross through there I think we'll be able to avoid them and then find somewhere else we can rest."

Redclaw nodded. "I guess the only way to avoid this whole mess _is_ to risk going through the cave," he agreed. "I don't know how dangerous this army really is, but avoiding it is certainly the best option. We'll follow you, Nightshade."

"We should leave immediately," Nightshade told him with a nod. "I didn't like the look of the pokémon in that army. Some were quite fearful and others were acting downright cruel to the newer recruits they were bringing in. Follow me; I know a quick route to the caves. Wildflame and Spark, you help Rosie keep up. As for Stormblade…can you carry him on your back, Redclaw?"

Neither Redclaw nor Stormblade looked pleased at this suggestion. It was clear from Redclaw's expression that he didn't fancy getting any bad cuts on his back while Stormblade just looked as if the very thought of it was humiliating enough on its own. However, seeing that there was no other way to travel quickly, Stormblade allowed Nightshade to assist him onto the reluctant arcanine's back.

Redclaw stood up slowly, trying not to jostle Stormblade who now lay across his back, looking thoroughly embarrassed about it. "Just don't cut off any of my fur," Redclaw muttered under his breath.

"Just try not to run too fast," Stormblade replied, gritting his teeth against the pain as Redclaw started to move forward after the others who had begun to follow Nightshade.

Blazefang began to trot after them, but stopped in his tracks as Rosie glared at him. "Don't think you're following us!" she spat. "They're mostly after _you_. We're not going to let you put us in any more danger!"

"I'm going to that cave!" Blazefang snarled back and continued to follow, and no one bothered to try and stop him again.

As quickly as they could manage while still keeping pace with the injured pokémon, the group followed Nightshade through the moonlit plain, heading for the tall grassy hills that could now be seen faintly against the darkened sky. The journey was very uncomfortable for both Redclaw and Stormblade; Stormblade's scythes kept nicking Redclaw by accident, and nearly every movement Redclaw made caused Stormblade even more pain. Rosie was faring better, as she had become somewhat accustomed to using only three legs, and after eating some of the berries Nightshade had found, the pain wasn't unbearable.

Blazefang trailed after the group, glad that his dark fur would make it difficult for most flying types to see him from above. A few bird pokémon passed over them through the air, and though Blazefang had heard Redclaw point out to Snowcrystal that they could be just solitary pokémon out hunting, he was still afraid.

Never pausing to rest, the group of pokémon followed Nightshade silently through the night, their paws hardly making a sound as they trotted quickly together, keeping their eyes on the shapes of the hills that loomed ever closer, and the heracross that guided them.

Just when Blazefang began to feel as if he would pass out if he had to run any longer, they had reached the foot of the hills, and Nightshade told them to rest. Under the cover of darkness and the shelter of the large stones at the base of the hills, the pokémon all huddled together, trying to catch their breath.

Redclaw lay down, while Stormblade slowly crawled off his back and onto the ground. "Never…again…" he whispered to the arcanine, thinking back on how painful and uncomfortable the swift ride had been. Had Redclaw been moving slower, however, he might not have minded as much. Rosie was curled up beside Redclaw, looking more exhausted than anyone, and Spark wasn't much better off.

Blazefang looked warily to the group but kept his distance; he was too weary to look for the cave himself. Instead, he lay down against the cool stone, closing his eyes and trying not to think of the danger he was in.

After a few minutes, Nightshade told them to get up again. Now that they were close to the cave's entrance and in the shelter of some tall rocks, Redclaw did not have to carry Stormblade, though the scyther still had to rely heavily on Wildflame to help him walk. As the houndoom followed the others to where Nightshade was leading them, she was forced to move at a slow pace so that Stormblade could keep up with her. She knew he was struggling just to walk even with her help, and every so often he would make small cries or whimpers of pain. Turning her head, she could see Blazefang trailing after them timidly, trying not to be noticed. Sighing, she turned and focused instead on following the others ahead of her.

She stopped and let Stormblade lean against her for support when Nightshade and the others halted in front of a gaping hole in the stony side of one of the hills, leading deep underground. Wildflame felt a warm breeze emitting from the cave, ruffling her fur.

"So, this is it?" Spark asked from up ahead. His voice was carried away by the breeze, making it harder for Wildflame and Stormblade, who stood further away, to hear him. "It looks rather…obvious, don't you think?"

Rosie turned her head toward Blazefang, baring her teeth in a snarl. "It's going to be pretty obvious if they run across it while tracking _him!_ " she growled.

"I don't think we have to worry," Nightshade replied calmly. "I believe that if some of the pokémon in Cyclone's army are from the forest, they will know of this cave, and most likely avoid it. And I doubt that even those who don't know will bother searching through it for one pokémon. Even if they did, it's unlikely that they would succeed in finding what they were searching for."

"I say we drive Blazefang off before we do anything else," Rosie growled, and Wildflame stiffened, shooting a warning glance at Blazefang, who hadn't seemed to have heard.

Blazefang took the hint and slowly stood up, ready to run or fight as some of the other pokémon turned to look at him. However, there would be no time for a battle. Another loud screech sounded above them, and a pidgeot, followed by two noctowl, landed between Stormblade and Blazefang. Around the moonlit area, grass rustled and parted, revealing the forms of various other types of pokémon, all facing the travelers. "Stay where you are," the pidgeot told them loudly. "I have a message from Cyclone."

Blazefang took one look at them and bolted into the cave. The others stood up, and Redclaw, Nightshade, and Thunder walked forward, a dangerous gleam in their eyes.

"We've heard about Cyclone," Redclaw growled. "And we want nothing to do with this. Leave!"

Snowcrystal noticed a few of the pokémon dart into the cave after Blazefang, while the rest of the strangers approached the group. Wildflame and Stormblade moved closer to the others as Redclaw and Nightshade stood in front, with Thunder coming to stand beside them. "Get in the cave!" Redclaw hissed at the others, and Snowcrystal, Spark, Rosie, and Wildflame, helping Stormblade, vanished into the cave, almost immediately becoming shrouded in darkness.

Snowcrystal could hear Redclaw's voice echoing outside, and Wildflame led them down one of the many black tunnels until she crouched against the cave wall, Stormblade at her side. The others crouched down too, hoping to remain hidden until Redclaw and the others returned.

Wildflame turned toward Snowcrystal, an annoyed look in her eyes. "Hide that stone!" she growled, eying the glowing red crystal around the growlithe's neck. Snowcrystal quickly obeyed, covering it with her paws. Suddenly the sound of frantic pawsteps in their direction caused Snowcrystal to look up.

"Redclaw…?" she called, standing upright.

"Get down!" Wildflame hissed, pulling Snowcrystal back against the wall and covering the crystal again. The dark shapes of two four-legged pokémon – who were too small to be Redclaw – darted around a corner in the tunnel they had come from and began to head right towards them.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in fear, the faintest traces of her crystal's light from beneath her paws the only thing allowing her to distinguish the shapes of the pokémon from the darkness.

Suddenly the pokémon running in front gave a shriek of mortified terror, and Snowcrystal's eyes widened as he vanished before her very eyes. The second pokémon froze, then quickly bolted back the way he had come, the quest to find Blazefang and any potential new recruits for Cyclone forgotten. Snowcrystal stood up and walked forward, wondering where the other pokémon had vanished to.

She soon found out.

Just ahead of her, filling nearly the whole cavern, was a massive black pit that reached deep into the depths of the cave, dark and forbidding. She heard a faint yet sickening crunch as the pokémon's body landed far below. She shuddered, backing away, her eyes wide with fright.

Rosie peered forward, using the full light from Snowcrystal's crystal to see the dark hole. "We would have fallen in there if we hadn't kept so close to the wall," she whispered, sounding horrified.

"That would not be fun," Spark stated obviously as he stood up and headed back along the narrow ridge separating the wall from the pit. "Let's move to a safer spot, all right?" he asked, his voice sounding shaky.

One by one the pokémon filed after him, Stormblade with the help of Wildflame. Once out of the cavern containing the pit and into another with safer ground, they stopped to rest again.

Snowcrystal was still catching her breath when the sound of footsteps came near. She whirled around, frightened, only to sigh in relief when she noticed Redclaw, Thunder, and Nightshade returning. Nightshade and Redclaw had no wounds, but Thunder was limping on one leg, and one of her eyes was tightly closed, blood seeping out of it.

"Thunder tried to fight them, but we managed to escape…I think they're only after Blazefang right now," Redclaw explained for the others.

"Good!" Rosie replied. "They can have Blazefang. Let's go further into the cave…I'm not quite sure they've stopped searching for us for good."

"We fire types can use ember to light the way ahead of us," Snowcrystal suggested.

"Good idea," Nightshade told her. "But we're still rather close to the entrance. Let's wait until we're deeper in the cave, where the light won't be seen by our enemies so easily."

"We're supposed to wander around in the dark?" Spark cried in dismay.

"I'll lead the way," Wildflame offered, "and don't worry, I'll make sure to test if the ground is safe _before_ I walk on it."

Thunder peered through the darkness doubtfully, not noticing as Stormblade approached her. "Thunder?" he asked, causing her to jump slightly. She turned away from him as he questioned her. "What happened? Is your eye badly hurt? Do you want me to-"

Without bothering to answer, Thunder lashed out with the back of her scythe, knocking Stormblade's head sharply against the rock wall. "Okay," she said to the others, no longer acknowledging him, "let's get a move on already."

As soon as Wildflame vanished into a large tunnel ahead, Thunder quickly followed her, and was followed by Nightshade, Spark, Rosie, and then Redclaw. "Do you want me to help you, Stormblade?" Redclaw asked, but received no answer. Snowcrystal walked over to Stormblade, who had sat up, still leaning against the wall with his head lowered as he stared at the ground.

"Come on, Stormblade!" the small pokémon cried, nudging his uninjured leg. "We have to leave! It isn't safe!"

"Sure…fine…" Stormblade replied dully, not looking up.

"We need to leave as in NOW!" Redclaw called from up ahead, his ears pricked as the sound of pokémon approaching reached them.

Stormblade didn't say anything. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to try. When Snowcrystal tried to talk to him, he barely heard her.

"Redclaw's going to help you walk," the growlithe whispered.

"I don't need any help," Stormblade told her, looking up. "Tell the others to go on ahead. I'll follow you."

Snowcrystal was about to argue, but she stopped herself, realizing that Stormblade wasn't going to listen. Instead, she just nodded, and followed Redclaw into the cave.

Up ahead, it was completely dark, and even the light from Snowcrystal's red crystal wasn't enough to see much of anything. "Can't somebody use ember now?" Spark complained as he limped ahead of Rosie and Redclaw.

"Just a bit farther," Wildflame replied from up ahead. "I can't hear any of those pokémon following us, so they must have just gone after…Blazefang…but I want to be sure-" Her words were interrupted as she suddenly walked head first into a large boulder. With a growl she backed away, muttering a very vulgar swear word.

Spark gasped. "Wildflame!" he cried angrily. "That's a BAD WORD!"

"Oh, shut up!" Wildflame muttered irritably. The houndoom turned to the boulder and sighed. "Guess I have no choice," she told herself, and breathed out a small plume of flame.

The way in front of them was partially blocked by what Wildflame had thought was a boulder, but in reality was a tall pillar of stone, formed long ago when a massive stalactite and stalagmite joined together. The only way through the passage was through a narrow gap between the pillar and the opposite wall.

"We won't all fit through there!" Rosie growled.

Snowcrystal was about to say something when Stormblade gave a gasp of pain from behind her and staggered against the wall, and another pokémon gave a surprised yelp and stumbled straight into her. Pushing herself away, Snowcrystal instantly recognized Blazefang's black and red fur as Wildflame turned her head and the small ember flame toward them.

Wildflame let the flame go out in shock. "Where did you-" she began, but Blazefang was already scrambling past the others and toward the houndoom. Confused and angry, Stormblade stood shakily back up and watched as Redclaw used his fire attack to provide light for them again.

"Are you just going to stand here?" the panicked houndour asked Wildflame, before moving toward the opening leading further into the tunnel.

"Wait a minute," Redclaw told him, blocking the way. "You can go through here…but _we_ go through first."

Blazefang bit back an angry reply and simply nodded reluctantly, seeing no other option. Redclaw moved aside and indicated that the smallest pokémon go first. Spark and then Rosie were the first two to push their way through, though with difficulty, and they waited on the other side as Snowcrystal easily passed through the opening. Redclaw turned to Wildflame, Nightshade, Thunder, and Stormblade, unsure if any of them would be able to fit through such a narrow space. "Wildflame," he suggested, "you try."

The houndoom walked forward, stepping into the opening and trying to force her shoulders through. Claws scraping against the ground, she tried to push forward, ignoring the pain as her fur scraped roughly against the cave's uneven walls. She made it a tiny bit further before at last she had to give up and crawl painfully back out of the hole. "I can't…" she muttered in frustration.

"Well…I don't think the rest of us will be able to…" Redclaw began, but was quickly interrupted.

"I'll try!" Thunder spoke up, and pushed past Wildflame until she stood in front of the narrow crevice. Turning so that she would be entering it sideways, she flattened her wings against her back and pressed her body against the wall, slowly edging her way into the slim opening. It was a struggle to make any progress. The rough rock scraped painfully against her open and bleeding wounds, and there wasn't enough space for her to move backwards or forward, so there was no way of preventing that. As she edged sideways closer to the opposite side, the passage got narrower, to the point where she almost felt like she was being crushed when she tried to go further. Redclaw peered through the opening, noticing that her progress had gotten steadily slower until she stopped. He had heard of pokémon that had tried to enter narrow caves and gotten hopelessly trapped, and he couldn't help growing a bit worried.

Yet for once Thunder was glad she was so thin. After a few more seconds of struggling to free herself, she made it to the other side where Rosie, Spark, and Snowcrystal waited.

Blazefang turned to look at Wildflame, Redclaw, Nightshade and Stormblade and rolled his eyes. "None of you guys are going to fit in there!" he muttered. "Let me go through…" He took a step toward the opening, but Redclaw blocked it again.

"Not until we find a way," the arcanine growled. He looked up, studying the rock. "Do you think we could try breaking this pillar…at least enough to widen the gap a little?" he mused.

"We could try," Nightshade replied. "We just have to be careful not to break it too quickly…I don't want to cause any sort of collapse."

"A collapse?" Spark repeated from the other side, sounding nervous. "This sounds a little too dangerous…"

Rosie just sighed and glanced around, her eyes darting to Thunder's wounds. "Yikes, Thunder, you're bleeding!" the ninetales exclaimed. "Couldn't you have waited back there with the others?"

Luckily, Thunder didn't get a chance to reply as a shout from Stormblade on the other side of the crevice distracted those waiting on the far side.

"What happened?" Snowcrystal called worriedly.

Out of view of the white growlithe and the other waiting pokémon, Redclaw turned around, seeing Stormblade lying on the ground and three pokémon standing behind him. They were a charmeleon, a rapidash, and another scyther, who stood with her foot on Stormblade's neck. Blazefang gave a shriek and tried to run for the opening between the pillars, but Redclaw blocked him again. "It's you they want," the arcanine hissed from between clenched teeth. He turned to the three standing there. "Let Stormblade go," he growled to the strange scyther. "I'm sure this _Cyclone_ pokémon has no use for him."

The strange scyther's eyes widened a bit at the mention of the name Stormblade, and she glanced down at the pokémon she held to the ground, looking confused, but only for a moment, and she turned to Redclaw again. "It's not him we want," the scyther replied, and stepped in front of Stormblade, followed by the charmeleon, who approached Redclaw.

"Just let them take Blazefang already!" Rosie shouted from the other side of the stone pillar, listening intently to the conversation.

Redclaw hesitated; he'd heard of the things Blazefang had done, but did he really deserve to be forced to fight, and potentially kill, for these pokémon who were trying to make him join an army? Boldly, he stepped forward. "He doesn't want to join you," he stated firmly. "Look elsewhere for recruits."

"He knows Shadowflare," the scyther growled in reply. "We won't find it anywhere else."

Redclaw silently hoped that Blazefang would do something, that he'd threaten her with the Forbidden Attack and try to get them to leave…or _anything,_ but the houndour remained silent.

"Enough of this!" the rapidash cried angrily, stamping his hoof down hard. "Either you three and the houndour come with us or we'll report back to Cyclone and have him send more pokémon to hunt you down."

"Let them try it," Nightshade replied calmly with a small smile. He knew better than anyone that tracking was nearly impossible in the cave.

The three pokémon looked as if they were going to back away and retreat. "Fine," snorted the charmeleon as he and the scyther began to turn away.

"I've got a better idea!" the rapidash snarled.

If Nightshade hadn't happened to jerk backwards in surprise at that moment, he would have been gored by the rapidash's horn as the fire pokémon lunged forward. Missing his target, the fire type slid into the big stone pillar, causing the cavern to shudder. Redclaw turned and sank his teeth into the pokémon's hind leg, noticing that the scyther and charmeleon weren't attacking, and seemed rather shocked themselves.

The rapidash kicked Redclaw in the muzzle with his free leg, while Nightshade ran to Stormblade, who seemed unable to get up. In the confusion, Blazefang bolted into the narrow space leading to the next cavern, pushing his way painfully through the small space until he made it through and lay panting near Snowcrystal and her three friends.

Not noticing that Blazefang had fled, Redclaw tackled the rapidash that had threatened them, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. Turning toward the pillar of stone, he slammed against it with a take down attack, hoping to cause it some damage so he and the remainder of the group could rejoin the others.

A resounding crack rent the air as the massive stone column shuddered. Several large cracks appeared in the rocky surface, but it didn't move. Furious, the rapidash stood up, ready to charge at Redclaw again.

Making sure Stormblade was standing on his own, Nightshade left his side and ran toward the large pillar, slamming his horn into one of the cracks. There was a loud breaking, grinding sound, and a chunk of rock fell to the ground, widening the hole. "Get in!" he called to Stormblade and Wildflame, while Redclaw dodged a thrust from the rapidash's horn. The scyther and charmeleon watching the battle stood warily, not wanting to get involved with the fight, especially now that Blazefang was gone.

After Wildflame had darted through the widened opening and Stormblade had managed to make it through, Nightshade rammed the pillar with his horn again, knowing that he needed to make the opening wider for Redclaw.

After a few tries, another section of the column broke off, and Nightshade jumped into the opening, calling to Redclaw, "hurry! This way!" Redclaw turned to look, and stopped a second too long.

He gave a cry of pain as the rapidash slammed into him, knocking him into the weakening pillar behind them. A loud rumble was heard.

"Uh…I think we should be getting out of here…" the charmeleon muttered anxiously, seeming to snap the rapidash out of his frenzied rage.

Abandoning Redclaw, the horse-like pokémon leaped up and ran after his two companions as they headed back the way they had come, while Redclaw bolted into the widened hole. He still had to struggle to get through it, but he made it to the other side quickly. And not a moment too soon. Redclaw ducked his head as the entire pillar collapsed, chunks of rock falling from the ceiling.

With a jolt of panic, the nine pokémon who had gone into the tunnel beyond the pillar realized that a large part of the ceiling above was collapsing. In their terror, some of the pokémon scattered; others tried to take shelter, or in Stormblade's case, crouched down by the cave wall, unable to do anything else.

Snowcrystal had been running forward away from the collapsed stone column, when she forced herself to stop and turn to look for her friends. She gave a shriek of terror as the sound of many rocks hitting the cave floor and piling on top of each other reached her ears, and the ground shuddered, knocking her off balance.

In helpless terror, the growlithe tried to cover her ears with her paws to block out the horrible roaring noise as she lay on the ground, crying out in terror as small rocks pelted her huddled form.

Then suddenly, it stopped.

Snowcrystal coughed, freeing herself from the small chunks of stone that covered her. The cave was completely dark. The first pokémon she thought of was Stormblade. Lighting up the cavern with a small ember, she quickly spotted the scyther and ran over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked, nudging his shoulder carefully.

"Stormblade hasn't been okay for weeks," Rosie grumbled, standing up slowly near where Stormblade lay. To Snowcrystal's relief, she didn't seem hurt by the cave in.

Stormblade looked up, but didn't look at Snowcrystal. "Sure. I'm fine. Not hurt worse…" he replied quietly.

Snowcrystal glanced around and saw Thunder get shakily to her feet, and turned to look for the others. There was no sign of them. She quickly noticed a huge wall of rock and debris from the collapse, blocking off the small area behind them. Realizing that the others must be trapped on the other side, she hastily climbed the rugged boulders, hoping to find a way she could slip through to reach her friends. Rosie, meanwhile, was studying the cavern they'd found themselves in, gazing into the dark tunnel that lay ahead of them, cool cave air ruffling her fur. The others, she realized, must still be back near where the stone column had fallen.

Snowcrystal pawed at the rocks, not seeing any place where she could possibly get through to the other side. She gave a small squeak of surprise as some of the smaller rocks near the top shifted. Using ember again, she saw Nightshade's claws break through, then retreat.

"Nightshade!" she cried, running up to the hole. The heracross did not try to break through the rocks, but she heard his voice from the other side.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Redclaw, Wildflame, and Spark are fine. So is that houndour, Blazefang."

"I'm fine!" Snowcrystal answered. "Rosie and Stormblade aren't hurt any worse…I don't know about Thunder…but can you break through these rocks?"

Nightshade took a moment to reply. "There's a very large rock near the top of this heap of boulders on this side," he replied at last. "I can't try to shift more than a few of these smaller rocks without causing it to fall over. I can move the rock itself, but it might make the whole tunnel collapse! There's enough space for us to go back the way we came and find another route; Cyclone's cronies are gone. I'm afraid we'll have to go separate ways."

"But-" Snowcrystal began.

"Just help the others," Nightshade replied. "You'll be fine if you stick together and make sure either you or Rosie provides light to see by. Be careful, and remember to mark the walls of the tunnels you pass by with your claws so you know you've been there and won't end up going in circles."

"I…I'm not sure I can-" she replied hesitantly, but Nightshade cut her off.

"Just lead the others," he replied calmly. "The rest of us on this side need to get going. This place could still collapse." Another rumble was heard, and the heracross's voice sounded more anxious. "We need to go now. Get the others and move further along the tunnel. You should be safe once you're away from here."

"Okay…" Snowcrystal whispered uncertainly, and she heard Nightshade scramble back down the rocks on the other side. She then headed down the pile of boulders to the cave floor.

"Good luck, Snowcrystal!" she heard Redclaw call from behind the rocks as she and Rosie did what they could to help Stormblade get up, and along with Thunder, the four of them walked away from the scene of the collapse.

  
**-ooo-**  


A short while later, Snowcrystal's group stopped to rest, safely away from the danger of falling rocks. Rosie had curled up near the wall of the cave to try and get some sleep, and Thunder had soon done the same. Stormblade sat away from the others, refusing to talk to anyone.

Leaning against the smooth and wet cave wall, Snowcrystal's thoughts constantly wandered back to the group of friends who were separated. Were they all right? Would they find a way to reach her again? Had Blazefang left, or was he still with them?

Sighing, she lay her head on her paws, listening to the soft sound of water dripping from somewhere further within the cave as she closed her eyes and willed sleep to come to her. If there was anything she needed now, it was to have as much strength as possible for the journey ahead.

_To be continued…_


	32. A Shadow in the Dark

When Snowcrystal woke, she was aware that she had only managed to doze off for a short while. Lifting her head, she glanced at the others. Rosie was still asleep. Thunder might have been as well, but Stormblade was wide awake.

Snowcrystal slowly stood up, hearing the faint sound of water dripping from somewhere deeper in the tunnels. She turned and walked toward Rosie, using the light of her crystal to see by. As she walked past Thunder, the scyther stirred and got to her feet. Snowcrystal noticed that she was using both legs to stand again, but she still looked unsteady on her feet.

Rosie slowly opened her eyes and looked up as Snowcrystal approached. Surprisingly, she didn't seem very tired. "I guess we're going now?" she asked, giving the growlithe a questioning look.

Snowcrystal nodded. "We've got to find a way out of here and meet up with the others as quickly as possible," she replied. "We'll be able to rest again later."

Soon Snowcrystal was leading the way through the cave, using the light from her small fire attacks to see the way. Rosie helped at times, though not quite as much, as it still wasn't easy for her to walk over the rocks. For them, the fact that they had to walk slowly for Stormblade wasn't a problem. However, for Thunder, it was.

Thunder was in a bad mood to begin with. The deep cut on her arm was made worse by the shackle rubbing against it, and it had begun to show signs of infection. Some of her wounds were bleeding again, and it was hard to see in such a dark place, especially when she still could not open her injured eye. And to make matters worse, _Stormblade_ was setting the pace for the whole group.

Angrily, she slashed a small stalagmite in half as she followed Snowcrystal, wishing she didn't have to rely on the growlithe's light to travel through the darkness. "Can't we go any faster?" she growled. "There's no food in this cave, so it's not like we can just take as much time as we like!"

"I thought you didn't mind going without food so much," Rosie replied, turning to look at the thin scyther. "And it's not like we'll be here for weeks."

"Why can't we go on ahead and let Stormblade follow our scent?" Thunder muttered.

"It's too hard to follow a scent in here," Snowcrystal told her, letting the flame die out for a second. "We have to stick together."

The others were silent for a moment, and then Rosie slowly nodded and Thunder sighed and looked away. "Fine…" the scyther muttered.

For a while longer, the small group of four traveled together in darkness through winding tunnels and past strange towering rock formations. Snowcrystal felt worried and afraid, wondering if the tunnels she was choosing to enter were the ones that would lead them out of the cave, or if she was really just getting her friends hopelessly lost.

Rosie had the task of helping Snowcrystal mark the cave walls with her claws. It was while she was doing this for what had to be at least the fifteenth time, Stormblade, who was still struggling to catch up, suddenly collapsed.

Snowcrystal rushed over to him, worried he might be hurt worse. It took her an instant to realize that he had simply passed out. Rosie turned away from the wall and approached Snowcrystal, using her ember attack to light up the area around them. After that, she could clearly see Stormblade lying motionless on his side, his limbs sprawled out in random directions. There was blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Rosie kept her fire attack up as Snowcrystal glanced around frantically. "Is there any water here?" she asked, looking back and forth from Rosie to Thunder.

"I don't think water will do him much good," Rosie replied worriedly, shaking her head.

"Well, we have to-" Snowcrystal began, facing Rosie, but a cough from Stormblade behind her made her turn around. Stormblade was stirring slowly, and lifted his head long enough to spit out a small bit of blood. Then he lay back down again, closing his eyes. Snowcrystal didn't know if he had the strength to get up.

Rosie stepped closer to him, while Thunder watched from afar, a look of what was almost horror on her face, as if the scene before her had suddenly awakened some terrible memory. Snowcrystal sat beside Stormblade next to Rosie, and told the ninetales, "He can't go on like this. We need to rest now."

While Snowcrystal lay beside the half-conscious Stormblade, using her ember attacks to keep him warm, Rosie and Thunder kept watch. Rosie jumped at the slightest sound from within the cave, glancing constantly all around her, as if she expected some pokémon to jump out of the darkness at her from behind one of the many stone columns. Thunder was calmer, and not having any fire attacks to help her see by, she had to rely on sound and scent. However, neither of them could detect any potential danger.

"Snowcrystal…?" a weak voice mumbled, and the growlithe turned to see Stormblade, his eyes barely open, looking at her. Stormblade's voice sounded weak and forced, and she could hardly hear what he was saying. "If the others are waiting…why don't you keep going? You have to get out…you can leave me here…I'll catch up. If the others are…"

"What?" Snowcrystal exclaimed, shocked. "We're not leaving you here! You know you wouldn't be able to catch up! We aren't leaving anyone here. We came into this cave together, and we'll leave it…together. All you need is some rest…then we can keep going," she added more gently. _'All you need is some rest…_ ' she thought. _'If only that were true…'_

Stormblade didn't answer and merely closed his eyes again. Rosie stood up and limped over to the scyther and sat beside Snowcrystal once more. Both of them looked down at Stormblade, and from where she stood, Thunder could hear them whispering quietly to each other.

Thunder sighed and turned away. False hope, that's all it was. Those two were just prolonging the inevitable. They simply couldn't accept the fact that Stormblade was going to die from his injuries. She had accepted it. In the long run, there was simply nothing these pokémon could do.

Yet at the same time, she could not help but feel distressed at the sight whenever she looked at Stormblade. Out of all the pokémon she traveled with, she felt as if he knew her best, not that that was saying much. Though she knew that she shouldn't care about his pain or the pain of any of the others, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him because of the pain he was in; she had been there. Annoyed, she closed her good eye and slowly sat down, trying to push the troubling thoughts to the back of her mind. This was what she got for allowing herself to get close to these pokémon.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Confused, and completely lost, Blazefang had no choice but to trail after the group as Nightshade led Redclaw, Wildflame, and Spark through the winding passages of smooth wet stone. The others seemed too distracted with their own matters to pay much attention to him, and as long as he stayed far enough behind the group, they didn't bother him much. He was glad he was a fire type and able to use his own fire attacks to provide light to see by, otherwise he would be stumbling after the others in the dark. He was a nocturnal pokémon, but a moonlit field or forest was one thing, and an underground cave was another.

Up ahead, Redclaw, the arcanine, was talking to Wildflame while the heracross paused momentarily to listen to them. Blazefang looked up hopefully, wondering if they were going to stop and rest, but they turned and kept going after a moment. The houndour sighed wearily and trudged after them.

While Wildflame used her ember attack to light the way, Spark, who was still limping, ran up to Redclaw with a grin on his face. "Hey Redclaw!" the jolteon cried, a bit too loudly for the arcanine's liking. "Now that Stormblade's with the others… _I'm_ the injured pokémon around here. You guys all have to take care of me now! And I'm tired…so carry me…"

"You've got four legs. You can walk yourself!" Redclaw grumbled.

"Fine!" Spark muttered, acting offended. Redclaw rolled his eyes and was about to reply when Nightshade interrupted him.

"Looks like we've gone in circles…" the heracross sighed. "See these claw marks? One of us made them when we came by this way. We took the tunnel leading left…I guess we need to try the right path now."

"Uggh…we're never going to get out of here at this rate…" Wildflame muttered, peering around. "How long do you think we've been walking?"

"Eleventy hundred million days…give or take a few," Spark replied with a grin.

Wildflame rounded on him. "Can you take this seriously even for just a little bit?" she growled.

"What? And end up all stressed and worried like you?" Spark replied.

"Look…if we don't find a way out, we'll be trapped here, got it?" Wildflame snapped. "If you're not going to give me a real answer when I ask a question, don't say anything at all!"

"Calm down, Wildflame," Redclaw told the houndoom softly. "Spark's right about one thing; worrying won't do us much good. We'll just have to keep looking for a way out, and most importantly, we need to stay calm."

Wildflame felt her fur lie flat again, realizing that he was right. "I know…" she muttered quietly, lowering her head with a sigh.

As the group started to follow Nightshade into the right tunnel, Spark made an observation. "Hey, look," he pointed out, "there's claw marks on the side of this wall too."

Nightshade looked up from where he was busy clawing the wall in another place to mark their path, and saw what Spark was looking at. There _were_ claw marks in the wall, very similar, yet slightly different in shape to the ones he had just made. Carefully, he ran his claws over them. "These ones weren't made by me, and they weren't made by Wildflame either…and they're too small to be Redclaw's…" he mused, and then darted back to the other claw marks on the left tunnel's wall, Wildflame at his side. After a moment of examining them closely, he sighed. "These look the same. Obviously someone else made these…and recently by the look of it. I think they may have made them to try and confuse us."

Blazefang shifted uneasily on his paws, while Redclaw glanced around, worried. Wildflame decided to speak up. "Well, they'll have to try harder than that," she growled. "We now know we haven't gone through either of these tunnels, and we'll just have to have Redclaw mark the way. His claw marks are pretty recognizable."

"Good idea!" Nightshade complimented her, and the group headed off down the left tunnel.

As they walked, they often saw other rooms and small spaces that led to bigger caverns, all with the same marks. Some of the places marked even led to spaces too small for Redclaw to fit through. However, just as a precaution, Nightshade checked every one closely to make sure that the marks really were the strange ones, and not their own.

"Whoever's trying to confuse us isn't thinking this through very well," Spark remarked after a while.

"I'm not so sure they're trying to confuse us anymore, Spark," Nightshade told the jolteon. "I'm beginning to think that these marks might be a warning."

"As long as we stick together, we should be fine," Redclaw stated. "Let's just keep going and make sure we aren't going in circles."

Nightshade nodded and he and Redclaw walked further over the slippery stone, Spark and Wildflame following just behind them. Blazefang followed them at a distance, feeling an eerie feeling creep along his spine. He wished the pack were here…or even that the heracross and his friends would allow him to travel with them. But neither of those things were going to happen. Trying to forget his worried thoughts, Blazefang sighed and took another step forward.

He was immediately met with a loud screech as something jumped down on him from above.

" _TRESSPASSERS!_ We've found you!"

 

  
**-ooo-**

It was a while before Stormblade was ready to travel again. Even then, the going was painfully slow, and Stormblade would often stop, and each time he did so, it took longer for Snowcrystal and Rosie to help him get up and keep going again. Thunder didn't try to offer any help, though she did make a few remarks to the others that forcing him to travel like this was only making things worse. Rosie had quickly gotten tired and ended up walking beside Stormblade, leaving Snowcrystal to light the way on her own.

The small growlithe wasn't sure how much farther the group could go that day. They were all tired, hungry, and thirsty, yet there was no food to be seen, nor was there any source of water other than the scarce droplets falling from the ceiling and the occasional tiny puddles. She decided that they'd find a place to rest and try to sleep for a while.

As she walked ahead of the others through a narrow passage, she realized that up ahead, the tunnel opened up into a much larger cavern, with a high domed ceiling covered in long, pointed stalactites. Snowcrystal ran ahead, emerging from the tunnel and into the big cavern. The sight took her breath away.

She was standing on a stone ledge above an oddly smooth cave floor below her, looking out over a cavern bigger than any she'd ever seen, even in the vespiquen's hive. Colorful and complex rock formations, ranging in hue from golden yellow and orange-brown to grayish purple, covered the cavern, forming strange and intricate patterns on the cave wall and the many pillars of stone. Parts of the cave were lit up by large clusters of crystals that glowed, much like the ones she had known back in her home. A feeling of homesickness washed over her, and she wondered what her friends back at the mountain were doing now.

Snowcrystal turned her head as Thunder came to stand beside her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked the scyther.

"For one big, giant enclosed space? Sure," Thunder replied. She turned her head as Rosie and Stormblade stood beside them.

"Wow…" Rosie gasped, "I've seen caves before…but none like this…it's amazing! I never knew stone could be so…colorful."

Snowcrystal wondered what Stormblade thought of it, but when he didn't say anything, she realized that at the moment, pain must be a far more pressing issue for him than the beauty of a cave. She sighed. "At least I won't have to use fire attacks for a while until we get through this part of the cave," she said, indicating the crystals. "And the floor is smooth…it'll be easy to walk over." She directed this last statement at Stormblade, who didn't respond. She wasn't even sure he had heard her.

"Do you think we should walk through here before we rest?" Rosie asked Snowcrystal.

The growlithe nodded. "Yes, it'll be easy. And if we need to, we can always rest somewhere in this cavern." She stepped toward the edge of the rocky ledge, looking down at the smooth ground below. "Let's go."

She leaped down, but once she landed, she soon figured out why the stone floor was so smooth; it wasn't stone at all. Her paws landed with a squelch in thick, gooey mud. Lifting one of her paws with a little difficulty, as the mud was sticky and reached halfway up her legs, she turned to the others, trying to shake the mud off her paw and flinching when a drop of water from above struck her nose. "It's…uh…muddy…" she told them sheepishly.

Rosie peered down at the ground and then gingerly leapt to stand beside Snowcrystal on three legs, the mud only reaching a little bit above her paws. "It's not so bad," she told the two scyther, who were waiting. "And it shouldn't be a problem for you two."

"That mud is just an infection waiting to happen," Thunder muttered grudgingly, but she too leaped down to stand beside Snowcrystal, ignoring the pain shooting up her injured leg. Being taller than the other two, the mud wasn't much of a problem for Thunder to walk through, but Snowcrystal was worried that she would be right about the infection.

Stormblade, still on the ledge, leaned over to get a better view of the ground below. At any time before his injuries, he could have effortlessly made the jump. Now, it seemed impossible. He turned to peer at his wings, all four of them battered, burned and useless. He turned back to look at the other three pokémon on the ground. He knew the only way he'd ever get down without injuring himself further was to climb.

Snowcrystal watched as Stormblade turned away from the edge of the rock he was standing on, and limped over to the side, where the ledge sloped down a little to meet the ground below it. The scyther leaned forward, using the tips of his scythes to steady himself, and began to slowly, hesitantly, climb down.

Stormblade hadn't gone far when his scythe slipped on the wet stone, causing him to trip and tumble down into the mud. He slowly tried to stand upright, looking down at the mud covering the thin but deep burns around his legs.

While Stormblade started to lick his wounds clean, Thunder began walking ahead, determined to get out of the cavern. "Wait up!" Snowcrystal called, running with difficulty through the mud to catch up to her. She stopped at Thunder's side, panting. "We have to stick together…and wait for Rosie and Stormblade."

To her surprise, Thunder didn't object, and stayed where she was. Rosie reached the others first, though it was clear the ninetales found it a bit harder to walk through the mud on three legs. At last Stormblade reached them, no longer bothering to try and clean the mud from his wounds. Snowcrystal looked at him and sighed yet again. "Come on," she told the others, knowing that Stormblade and Rosie wouldn't be able to climb back onto the ledge anyway. "We might as well just keep going until we find a good spot to rest. Follow me…"

Snowcrystal began walking, heading toward a large group of stalagmites near the center of the cavern, the others trailing behind her. As she walked further, the mud she was walking through got deeper. The others, apart from Stormblade, didn't seem to notice or care much, but Snowcrystal found that wading through the mud was becoming harder and harder. After a short while, the mud had gotten so deep it reached her belly fur, and it was so thick that she found it hard to force her way through it. Stopping, she turned to Thunder. "Maybe you should go first," she suggested, realizing that Thunder could move through the mud without much trouble, and make the way easier for the rest of them.

Thunder moved to the front of the group, and Snowcrystal found it easier to walk through where the scyther had stepped, but further on, the mud was still getting deeper, and stickier. It wasn't long before Thunder got fed up with fighting her way through the thick gooey mud, and decided to fly over it instead, despite the injuries to her wings. Snowcrystal watched the scyther fly over to another ledge on the far side of the cavern, where she stood waiting for them, though unable to see them clearly from that far across the stone room.

Snowcrystal was finding it increasingly more difficult to wade through the mud. Near the center of the cavern, it got much deeper, and her paws could no longer touch the bottom. Instead, she was forced to crawl over the mud's surface, trying not to sink too far and get stuck. Behind her, Rosie was forced to do the same, only on three legs.

"I think the combee's cave was nicer," the ninetales remarked, trying to distract herself and the others while she struggled to keep her paws from sinking too deeply.

"Well at least there aren't any angry pokémon chasing after us this time," Snowcrystal remarked, realizing what Rosie was trying to do. "I'll take this over being chased by a swarm of combee any day."

"Heh, me too," Rosie replied. "I can't stand bug pokémon…well, most bugs anyway," she added in a whispered apology to Stormblade. "Being chased by a swarm of combee was really…ugh…oh great…I think I'm stuck."

Snowcrystal turned her head, seeing Rosie lying on the mud with her forepaws reaching out in front of her. Her back legs had sunk deeply into the ooze, and as she struggled to pull them free, the suction from the thick, sticky mud kept her from making much progress.

As Snowcrystal watched, she realized that her own paws were sinking. Quickly pulling away, she shouted a warning to Rosie. "Don't stop!" she hissed warningly. "Keep moving forward or else you'll just sink further."

Rosie nodded and pulled herself forward, inch by inch, until her back legs were free enough to allow her to crawl over the surface of the mud again.

By this time, Stormblade was up to his waist in mud, and was making slower progress than the others, despite the fact that he could still touch the ground and didn't have to worry about sinking. As he got further, Snowcrystal realized that the mud was deeper still further on, and was still so thick that Stormblade could hardly force his way through it.

Snowcrystal quickly found that it was easier to walk over the mud when she walked quickly, not allowing her paws much time to sink. Rosie caught on and followed Snowcrystal's example, calling encouragement to Stormblade. Stormblade, however, couldn't follow the example. Unlike them, he only had one good leg, and his scythes quickly and easily sank through the mud when he tried to put any weight on them. He was also heavier than the others; even an underweight scyther weighed more than a small ninetales or a growlithe.

Snowcrystal didn't dare stop for fear that she would get stuck, but she was growing increasingly worried. She became even more so when they reached the group of stalagmites, which blocked out most of the light from the nearby crystals, eclipsing the group in darkness. Snowcrystal kept close to the stalagmites, in case she needed to use something to help her pull herself free of the mud. Here, the shadows from the stones made the ground even darker, and she had to rely on the light from her crystal to see. After a few more steps, she noticed a strange smell, but didn't focus on it long, and continued to make her way past the rocks.

Suddenly she stumbled into something, causing her to fall onto her side in the mud. She quickly got up and backed away, trying to see what she had walked into by scraping some of the mud off her crystal with her claws. She soon realized what it was that she had stumbled into. What lay ahead of her was the skeleton of some canine pokémon, half submerged in the mud by the rocks. Letting out a squeak of surprise, Snowcrystal backed away.

Rosie looked up, stopping in her tracks at the sight of the long-dead pokémon. Snowcrystal edged around it, calling to Rosie to keep going. Snowcrystal found herself unable to look away from the still skeleton of whatever pokémon had tried to travel through the cavern. It was bigger than she was, but it looked horribly like a growlithe, and Snowcrystal got a sickening jolt when she realized that along with the churned up mud around the pokémon, there were claw marks on the stalagmite nearest to it.

"What an awful way to die," Rosie remarked sadly, noticing the same thing she had. "Being trapped in the mud and slowly starving to death…" She shuddered.

"K-keep g-going…" Snowcrystal whispered quietly, turning away. However, the image of the growlithe's skeleton and the desperate claw marks on the stone was forever branded into her mind. She kept her gaze focused ahead, not knowing if she could force herself to look back even if she wanted to. Rosie kept silent until they left the shadows of the stalagmites and emerged into the open again.

The ninetales breathed a sigh of relief. The ledge Thunder was waiting on wasn't far away, and as they came into the light again, Thunder turned her head towards them, saying nothing. As Stormblade managed to make it past the stalagmites, Snowcrystal and Rosie, already far ahead, noticed with relief that the mud was shallower at the bottom of the ledge, and the two exhausted fire types climbed up the slope and reached Thunder.

Snowcrystal looked out over the mud again, calling to Stormblade. "Keep going, Stormblade! It's not so deep further on!" However, she knew that he was in one of the deepest parts of the mud, and she realized with worry that he looked more exhausted than any of them.

Stormblade moved forward, ever so slowly, but got no more than a few paces before he stopped, feeling too weak to go on. "Don't _stop!_ " Rosie called to him. "Do you _want_ to get trapped there?"

Reluctantly, Stormblade kept struggling to move toward the others, but this time he only got a small step further before he stopped again. Snowcrystal quickly edged her way down off the ledge and into the shallow mud, facing him. "It gets easier over here!" she told him. "You're almost through the worst part…just keep going and it won't be so hard!"

This time Stormblade looked up at her but didn't move. "Keep going!" Snowcrystal shouted at him again.

But Stormblade's strength had left him. As he tried to struggle forward, he found himself unable to move. Although he wasn't in danger of sinking further as long as he was standing, the sticky mud made it impossible for him to move backwards or forwards in his weakened state. Snowcrystal watched as he struggled wearily for a few more moments before doing the worst possible thing he could have done, laying down on the surface of the thick mud.

"Stormblade! No, don't-" Snowcrystal shouted, but Stormblade didn't respond. Without hesitating, Snowcrystal raced across the surface of the mud toward him. Rosie stayed behind on the rock ledge, looking panicked. Snowcrystal reached Stormblade's side quickly. "Get up!" she shouted urgently. "Don't lay down…you have to keep going!"

"I-I…can't…" Stormblade's voice was hardly even a whisper.

Snowcrystal felt her paws sinking further, but at the moment she didn't care. "You have to get up! Don't give up Stormblade! You…you… _can't_ give up…"

"Stormblade, don't just lay there!" Rosie's panicked shout sounded across the cavern from the ledge she stood on, but to Snowcrystal, her cry seemed very far away.

Stormblade lifted his head painfully and tried to rise, but it was clear that he simply did not have the strength. He lay down again.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried, pulling her paws free of the mud and edging closer to him. She whined softly, nudging the side of his head. She knew she should get back on the ledge, but she couldn't bring herself to leave his side when she had no idea if he would be able to make it or not.

Back on the ledge, Rosie paced back and forth anxiously. If it hadn't been for her broken leg, she would have dashed into the mud to try to help Stormblade as well. Yet in reality, she realized, all they could do was try to encourage him. Snowcrystal was far too small to help Stormblade out, and she knew that she wouldn't be of any help either. Thunder was the only one who remained calm, watching Snowcrystal and Stormblade impassively.

"Stormblade you have…to try…" Snowcrystal gasped, trying to push the scyther's blade out of the mud. "You can't just…give up…" Stormblade's only response was to close his eyes.

"Snowcrystal, get out of there!" Rosie shouted in worry. The growlithe looked down to see herself submerged up to her shoulders. Fighting to free herself, she crawled forward out of the mud, turning to Rosie.

"What do you want me to do? Just leave him here?" she shouted back.

"You're too small to be of any help to him!" Rosie called back, the fear for both her and Stormblade showing in the ninetales's panicked gaze. "Get out or you'll be stuck too! We'll think of something! Just…let me think…"

Snowcrystal refused to listen. Rosie could hear the growlithe's cries grow more and more panicked as Stormblade still didn't move. "Oh no…" she whispered. "He's giving up…oh no…"

Thunder could hear both Rosie's panicked whispers and Snowcrystal's desperate shouts echoing around the walls of the cave. She closed her eyes, trying to drown it all out.

"Snowcrystal you need to get back here!" Rosie cried. "It's dangerous! There's got to be another way…just…come back! Get back where it's safe!"

"NO!" Snowcrystal shouted back, still trying in vain to push Stormblade out of the mud. She was simply too small…there was no way she could help him, but she was refusing to let herself believe it. In the back of her mind, she knew that if she stayed there she would soon become stuck too deeply in the mud to be able to get out, just as Stormblade now was, but she couldn't bring herself to leave Stormblade's side.

"You're no use to him trapped!" Rosie shouted, fighting back the panic that was threatening to overwhelm her.

Thunder opened her eyes. Her gaze slowly moved from Rosie to Snowcrystal and Stormblade. She stood still, the cries of the growlithe and ninetales echoing all around her. She sighed.

Rosie was nearly knocked off her feet as Thunder rushed by her, taking to the air and flying out over the mud. She blinked in surprise, hardly registering what had just happened. Snowcrystal looked up as Thunder landed roughly beside her, her feet skidding slightly in the mud. "Move aside," Thunder told the stunned growlithe, who obeyed.

Stormblade's eyes opened in surprise as he looked up at Thunder as if the mud and blood covered scyther was the last thing he expected to see. Without waiting for a response from him, Thunder leaned down and sank her unusually long fangs in the top of Stormblade's wing.

Stormblade was too weak to even cry out in pain as Thunder pulled on his wing, backing up to keep herself from sinking into the deep mud. It was much harder to try and pull him out than she expected, and she didn't seem to be making any progress. Instead, she was starting to sink herself. Despite this, she pulled harder, ignoring the acrid taste of Stormblade's blood in her mouth.

Snowcrystal backed away from Thunder, making sure to stay constantly moving to keep her paws from sinking deeply. "Keep trying, Thunder!" she called, her hope beginning to be renewed.

After a few more moments, Stormblade felt himself being pulled ever so slightly out of the mud. Feeling a small bit of strength returning to him, he lifted his head again, trying to help Thunder by pushing against the ground with his good leg and attempting to crawl forward using his scythes.

Exhausted, Thunder let go of Stormblade's wing, spitting out the blood. "Stupid deep mud…whose idea was it to come this way anyway?" she muttered, before grabbing his wing again and starting to pull.

Fighting against the sinking mud that felt like it was trying to pull him down again, and trying not to think about the possibility of his wing getting ripped out of his back, Stormblade, aided by Thunder, used what little strength he had left to crawl out of the deepest part of the mud. Even then, the worst part wasn't over. Allowing Stormblade to lean against her, Thunder had to do most of the work fighting her way through the thick mud, knowing that flying was out of the question. Snowcrystal raced back and forth from the ledge to the two scyther, refusing to get to safety until they had managed to reach the rocky ledge where Rosie waited. When at last Thunder managed to help Stormblade pull himself up onto the ledge, both of them collapsed, exhausted.

Snowcrystal climbed up after them, feeling exhausted herself. For a while, there was nothing any of them could do but gasp for breath.

"Thunder…thank you…" Stormblade whispered, looking up at her. "I couldn't have done that alone."

Thunder stared back at him in surprise, a moment before Snowcrystal ran over to her, wagging her tail and happily licking her face. "You did it!" the growlithe cried. "You saved his life! You're a hero!" Startled and confused, Thunder pulled away from her and stood up.

"That was…really brave of you," Rosie told the scyther, her gaze filled with respect.

"Brave?" Thunder repeated. "Why should I be afraid of mud? I have usable wings."

"Of course it was brave!" Snowcrystal cried, not seeming to have heard Thunder's last statement. "You saved Stormblade's life…" she added in a more serious tone. "I don't think any of us can thank you enough." Thunder didn't reply; in fact she seemed completely clueless about how to respond.

While Stormblade lay down, too exhausted to get up, he watched Snowcrystal and Rosie talking to Thunder, and realized with confusion that it seemed to only be making Thunder look more miserable than before. And he certainly knew that it wasn't because Thunder had any sort of problem with others seeing her doing a good deed.

As the two overjoyed small pokémon continued to praise Thunder, the scyther's gaze darted from side to side. Then, without saying anything, she turned and darted into a tunnel veering off from the ledge they were standing on.

Rosie paused, looking confused. "Was it something I said?" she wondered aloud, glancing at the others.

Thunder had no intentions of leaving the group or going far. She simply wanted to be alone. Noticing a dark, small cavern to the left of her, she turned and walked into it, crouching down against the rough stone. Rosie and Snowcrystal's voices reached her through the darkness. "Thunder?" Snowcrystal cried. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here!" Thunder yelled back, annoyed. "Don't follow me. I just want a moment's peace…and I'm obviously not going to get it with you three around!"

"Oh…okay," Snowcrystal replied in a confused tone, and she and Rosie turned back and walked to Stormblade.

When she was sure the two of them had left, Thunder lay down, trying to ignore the tears that came to her eyes and dripped to the rock below her, looking exactly the same against the cold stone as the water dripping from the stalactites above her.

Back on the ledge by the large cavern, Snowcrystal lay curled up next to Stormblade with Rosie right beside her. They had decided to rest there and continue the journey when Stormblade was stronger. Snowcrystal was nearly asleep when Thunder finally reappeared, looking a bit worried about something. Looking up, Snowcrystal smiled at her. "Oh, hi Thunder…" she whispered sleepily.

"Look, if you guys want to talk about how happy you are that Stormblade's here, save it for later, okay?" Thunder told her.

"Oh…all right," Snowcrystal replied.

Rosie looked up and watched Thunder move to the other side of the ledge and lie down. "You can sleep here with us if you want to," the ninetales told her.

"How about… _no,_ " Thunder muttered, before laying her head down and closing her eyes.

Rosie just sighed and closed her eyes as well, hoping that traveling through the rest of the cave would be easier for all of them, and that they would have the strength to make it through.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Cyclone had long since realized that Blazefang was in no way going to cooperate with him. The houndour would probably have to be killed by a trusted fire type in his army. But the real question was…who to trust?

The vaporeon did not turn as Solus approached him from behind. Sunlight glinted off the red letter 'R' on the espeon's collar as he came to stand beside Cyclone. "So…are we going after them?" he asked.

"Not through the cave," Cyclone replied calmly, not even turning to look at Solus. "We can't afford to lose our strong pokémon. Instead, I will send some of them to guard the tunnel entrance in the hills. The rest of us will simply find all exits to the cave system and wait there for the houndour to come out."

"How are we going to find all the exits?" Solus asked.

"Some of the forest pokémon should know," Cyclone replied calmly, and stood up, heading back to the main army. "Stay calm, Solus. The fire Forbidden Attack is not lost…everything's merely been… _delayed…_ "

_To be continued…_


	33. The Dark Maze

Redclaw, Nightshade, Wildflame, and Spark all jumped at the sound of the loud cry and Blazefang's panicked yelp. They turned around to see the houndour wrestling with something small and covered in dark grayish fur. With a growl, Blazefang sent the pokémon flying with a kick from his back paws. He got to his feet again as the stranger landed nimbly on all fours and turned to face him.

Blazefang recognized the pokémon as a sneasel, a fellow dark type. Though the pokémon looked ferocious, she was much smaller than he was, and still quite a young pokémon by the look of her. The houndour took a step forward.

"Listen!" he barked. "We don't want to be in your cave any more than you want us to! We're tryin' to find a way out! Know of one? If you do, tell us and we'll leave faster!"

The sneasel's fur bristled. "I know every rock and wall of this cave," she spat back. "But I don't help those who threaten us. Wander through the cave all you want, but leave this place! This cavern belongs to us!"

"Threaten? I'm not trying to threaten you! Are you blind?" Blazefang growled back furiously.

"You threaten us when you intrude upon our sacred haven," the sneasel replied, meeting his stare evenly.

"Haven?" Blazefang scoffed. "You call this underground wasteland a haven? Just how do you get food here? It's nothing but a damp, dark old cave."

At that point, Nightshade decided to step in. "Look," the heracross told the sneasel. "This houndour means no harm. We're looking for a way out. Could you please-"

"Find a way out yourself!" the sneasel shouted boldly, leaping onto her hind paws and glaring at him. "If I told you the route, you'd be able to find your way back here and others would know of this place. Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Spark rolled his eyes. "This pokémon's crazy," he muttered. "There's nothing here but rocks."

The sneasel grinned. "That's all you see, isn't it?" she told him, her eyes glinting.

Feeling he'd had enough of this, Blazefang brushed past Nightshade, tackling the small sneasel roughly to the ground. "That's it!" the houndour yelled. "Either tell us the way out, or I'll make you tell!" Growling, he pressed his paw against the dark pokémon's neck. "Tell!"

However, no answer came from the sneasel save for a long, eerie, drawn out wail of fear. Nightshade quickly moved forward in an attempt to stop Blazefang while Spark and Redclaw flattened their ears at the sound of the sneasel's shrill scream. But before Nightshade could reach the houndour, they were swarmed by a massive group of zubat, golbat, and crobat coming from seemingly out of nowhere.

Chaos ensued. Blazefang found himself backing frantically away from the sneasel and toward the cave wall as he attempted to fend off the attackers, snapping his jaws at any that came too close. It was a futile effort; there were far too many of them, and he could feel more and more of their fangs sinking into his legs and shoulders, faster than he could retaliate. The other three were in similar situations, though Spark was fighting them off much easier than the others with the use of his long-ranged electric attacks.

Blazefang threw back his head and blasted a flamethrower into the mass of swirling bat pokémon above. By the light of the flame, he could see the pokémon quickly maneuvering out of the way and gathering together in massive swarms that seemed to fill the entire upper cavern. Blazefang stared in awe for a moment, and then as the flames from his attack died out he was ambushed by them again.

Through the mass of screeching bat pokémon, he could hear the others' cries, and every few seconds a bright flash from Spark's electric attacks illuminated the cave and showed him the dire situation they were in. No matter how strong any of their attacks were, they would run out of strength long before their enemies ran out of numbers. However, despite the hopelessness of the situation, Blazefang was determined that, if he had to go down, he would go down fighting.

With a snarl he leapt at his opponents, scratching and biting whichever pokémon were nearest. Though the urge to use Shadowflare welled up strongly within him, he resisted it. He would not fall victim to that urge again, whatever the cost. If he was to win the battle, he would win it on his own, without the help of the Forbidden Attack. Growling, he flung two golbat away from him with a kick of his hind paws. Whirling around, he opened his jaws to blast them with a searing flamethrower. But something stopped him.

A loud voice sounded through the confusion. Blazefang could hear the words clearly, even over the sound of the fighting.

" _Stop! What is happening here?"_

At once, all activity ceased. Blazefang could see the startled looks of Snowcrystal's three friends as the bats moved away, still staring menacingly at them. The houndour looked up carefully, seeing the pokémon through the gloom by the light of the small jolts of bright electricity still flying off Spark's fur. Standing clearly on a rock was a large weavile, who regarded them with neither fear nor loathing. Since most of the bat pokémon were staring at Blazefang, the houndour was glad when Redclaw decided to speak.

"Look, we-" the arcanine began, but a zubat interrupted him.

"We heard a shout," the small winged pokémon explained. "That houndour…was attacking her…" he waved his wing toward the small sneasel, who was still staring at Blazefang with cold eyes.

The weavile's expression did not change. "Was this attack provoked?" he asked calmly.

Before anyone else could speak, Nightshade stepped forward. "The young sneasel stopped us and told us we were trespassing," the heracross explained. "We did not know it, though the claw marks we saw on the cave walls must have been there to try and lead us away from here. We should have heeded the warning, but we are strangers to this place. We tried to explain to the sneasel that we did not mean to intrude into anyone's territory and it was purely an accident, but for whatever reason she did not want to help us find a way out. That houndour there, Blazefang, pushed her to the ground, and for that I apologize to you for him. It was uncalled for, though the sneasel attacked him first. We don't want to fight anymore. We only want to get out of this cave safely, and to find our friends. We will leave this cavern immediately if that is your desire."

As Nightshade finished, the weavile appeared much calmer. "Then I believe this has simply been a misunderstanding," he replied. "You are free to go."

Blazefang looked up in surprise, only to duck down again as several of the bats swooped low and vanished into the darkness. "Wait!" he called to the weavile, walking forward. "Can you help us find a way out?" The weavile seemed to look a bit hesitant and Blazefang quickly added in an attempt to persuade him, "I know something you might need to know. There could be an army of pokémon searching through this cave and you need to be warned about what they're like. They've been chasing me because of the Forbidden Attack and I've been…"

He paused, for a hush had come over those still remaining in the cavern. Blazefang froze. He realized he'd just made a very bad mistake. Now they knew that he may be the reason an army could be coming. Yet when the weavile spoke, it was quite a different reaction to what Blazefang had expected.

"Did you say…Forbidden Attack?" the weavile asked him.

"Yes," Blazefang replied. The thought to lie didn't even enter his brain at the moment; he was just focused on being able to leave the cavern without being attacked again. "I…I know the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare," he added, wondering if that would intimidate the pokémon a little.

The weavile's expression changed to one of worry. "Then we need to talk," he told Blazefang and the others. "Come with me…I believe this concerns every one of us."

"But…but…Shade…" the small sneasel spoke in a worried voice, "we can't trust them to keep this a secret! We can't let them into our sacred cavern!"

"Star, this is much more important!" Shade replied, while Redclaw and Spark exchanged confused looks. "Besides," the weavile continued, "they do not seem like the type to want to cause us harm in any way."

"But must you speak with them _there?_ " the little sneasel replied, looking horrified.

"I don't know how safe we are here now," the weavile replied. "And maybe entrusting them with our secret will convince them to keep theirs. Also I do not want to talk about such things in a place where any wandering cave pokémon could hear. I need to speak with them in private."

Star made no response, and merely nodded, hoping Shade was right. With that, the weavile stood up, addressing the four traveling pokémon that stood before him. "Now," he began, extending his claws toward them, " _follow me._ "

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal hadn't slept for long when she woke suddenly. Looking around, she saw that Thunder had vanished again, but Rosie was sleeping soundly beside her. Stormblade was lying with his eyes closed, but she could tell he was still wide awake. As she stood up, she realized that most of the mud covering her fur had hardened, and came off easily, though her white fur was still filthy. Carefully she walked over and prodded Rosie in the shoulder.

The ninetales stirred and looked up at her sleepily. "Are we leaving already?" she asked.

"Well, we have to soon," Snowcrystal responded as Stormblade opened his eyes and looked at her. Snowcrystal turned to the tunnel Thunder had vanished to earlier and sighed. "I'm going to look for Thunder," she told the others, and without waiting for a response, she dashed into the tunnel.

It didn't take her long to find Thunder in a small cavern. The scyther was asleep, but as soon as Snowcrystal got near her, she woke up. "Uh…we're going to leave soon," Snowcrystal began hesitantly.

"Fine," Thunder stated quickly, standing up and pushing past Snowcrystal to join the others still on the rock ledge. She turned away from Rosie and Stormblade, ready to ignore anything they might try to say to her. Snowcrystal sighed and sat down, letting the others rest.

After another short while, they got up and continued their tiresome journey through the maze of stone walls, ignoring fatigue and thirst as they sought a way to freedom from the dark underground prison. A maze of tunnels and caverns lay ahead of them, twisting and turning in random directions and often crossing paths with other tunnels.

Snowcrystal led the way soundly, keeping her gaze focused on the path ahead. After a while, something made her pause. "I think I can hear water up ahead…" she whispered, running forward toward the sound for a moment before remembering that the others couldn't keep up, and slowing down. However, even at a slower pace, she still nearly stumbled into the water before she saw it.

The faint glow from her gem and the flickering firelight from her ember attack shone over the rocky ground in front of her which sloped gently down to a pool of crystal clear water. However, there was something hauntingly eerie about the place, something mysterious. The water was shallow near where Snowcrystal was standing, and the rock beneath the water was smooth, but from what she could see further on, the water got steadily deeper. As she softly blew a slightly bigger flame into the air, she realized that something under the water was glittering. Rosie noticed it immediately as well.

"Look!" the ninetales cried. "There are lots of little shiny stones under the water!"

"I think they're crystals," Snowcrystal replied. "Just really small ones."

Rosie walked closer to the water, bending down to lap at its smooth surface. Snowcrystal and the others walked toward it and did the same. After a long while of traveling through the cave, the water tasted very cool and refreshing. Snowcrystal felt oddly comfortable in this cavern, and it wasn't until she used another fire attack to light up the area and saw Stormblade shivering that she knew why; it was colder here. Glancing over her own muddy fur, Snowcrystal gently felt the water with her paw. It didn't seem _too_ cold despite the temperature of the cavern. "Well, I guess it would be nice to wash this mud off while we're here," Snowcrystal told the others before wading into the pool.

The growlithe felt a sudden rush of unease at the feeling of the water lapping gently at her fur, but she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind. Fire types usually found water uncomfortable, but a little swim was no hydro pump attack; it couldn't hurt her. She waded a bit further before turning to look at the other three. All of them were still standing on the bank.

"What's the matter with you guys?" Snowcrystal asked them, letting her fire attack die out so that she could speak.

"I'd rather be covered in mud than wet," Rosie stated simply.

"It looks cold…" Stormblade whispered wearily.

Just out of pure curiosity, Rosie turned to Thunder. "So what's your excuse?" she asked.

"I don't want to get wet," Thunder told the ninetales with a hint of annoyance.

"It's not as cold as it looks," Snowcrystal told the others, directing her statement particularly at Stormblade. She thought it might even help him; the scratches she had gotten from previous battles felt soothed by the water. "You three all need your wounds cleaned, and the water makes mine feel better. You should try it."

"My wounds are fine filthy," Rosie replied hurriedly. "They don't need to be wet. They just…don't."

Snowcrystal rolled her eyes. "Then provide some light for us, okay?" she told her, and surprisingly, Rosie didn't argue.

Though the thought of a cool pool of water was appealing, Stormblade still wasn't sure he liked the idea of getting wet when he was already cold, but he needed to clean his wounds somehow. With slight hesitation, he hobbled closer to the water's edge to stand in the shallowest part, still looking uncertain.

Thunder stayed put. "I'm not a water type," she muttered. "I'm staying right here."

Stormblade turned to look at her. It struck him as odd at first that she would refuse, but then it occurred to him that she might have never been in water her entire life. Wild scyther had a natural liking for water. It wasn't uncommon for forest scyther to clean themselves in shallow ponds or streams, and there was usually plenty of prey around those areas too. He was sure that if Thunder had grown up in a forest and was used to it, or even just gave it a chance once, she would like it. "Why don't you just try it?" he asked her. "You might-"

"No," Thunder said firmly.

"It would at least clean your wounds a bit," Stormblade replied.

Thunder looked indecisive for a moment, but after a few seconds of hesitation, she gave in and walked past Stormblade and toward Snowcrystal, ignoring the pain that flared up in her leg when the water first touched the wounds. Sighing, she walked closer to Snowcrystal, who had managed to wash the mud out of her fur and was pouncing on some of the larger crystals beneath the water. As Thunder walked past, Snowcrystal swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out, setting a crystal by the edge of the water and then jumping back in with a splash to find another.

"What are you doing that for?" Rosie asked when Snowcrystal surfaced again with another crystal in her mouth.

Snowcrystal set it down by the other one and just shrugged. "I don't know," she stated innocently. "I just like them. I wonder how many pokémon actually get to see this place. It doesn't look like many have been here."

Thunder, who had been listening, didn't agree with Snowcrystal about liking the crystals. Some of the large crystals were sharp and scraped the wounds on her feet, further aggravating her. When she bent down to look at them, she didn't think of them as fascinating or beautiful; they were just a nuisance that made wading in the water a lot less pleasant.

Stormblade hadn't gone deep enough into the water to see the crystals, and instead lay down in the shallowest part of the pool, where the rock beneath was smooth. Seeing this, Snowcrystal brought one of the crystals over to show him.

Despite not wanting to get in the water, Rosie was glad for the chance to relax. Her leg was paining her, though after she lay down to rest for a while, she felt a little better, but was still very tired. Listening to Snowcrystal talk to Stormblade, even though he didn't respond, the ninetales sighed and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift peacefully away into sleep…

She had nearly fallen asleep when something made her jolt awake. Somewhere from within the cave, there was a strange sound. It sounded like a calm, peaceful melody, which was at the same time haunting and eerie. "What's that?" Rosie asked, sitting up quickly.

Snowcrystal, who had had her head under the water during the time, looked up, confused. "What's what?"

"I heard it too," Thunder said calmly, facing the darkness away from the others, where the pool of water got deeper.

Snowcrystal waded over to her and used a very small flame wheel to light up the area more. The water went on much farther than she had expected, deep into a maze of caverns. It was more like an underground lake than a pool. Her eyes widened in surprise; she couldn't even see where the water ended, and in several places it vanished into dark tunnels.

"Don't use fire attacks!" Rosie growled. "Do you want whatever made that noise coming here?"

"Sorry," Snowcrystal muttered hastily, letting the flame die out. "Come on. I think we should get out of here in case whatever it is isn't friendly." She turned to leave and nudged Thunder's leg, nearly getting kicked in response.

"Sounds like a good idea," Rosie muttered, standing up and stepping back as Snowcrystal stepped ashore, shaking water from her fur. "Come on, Stormblade," the ninetales called to the scyther.

At that point, Stormblade hardly cared whether or not there was an unfriendly pokémon lurking about; the water felt soothing on his aching wounds, and he didn't want to move. However, knowing that he and his friends could possibly be in danger if they stayed in the area, he slowly got up and stumbled over to them.

After Thunder had reached them, Snowcrystal crept into a tunnel that led away from the water, the others following uncertainly behind her. After only a short walk they emerged into another cavern which bordered the lake on another side. There was no sign of the haunting melody, and the group carried on.

"Wonder what that sound was…" Snowcrystal mused to the others as she climbed over several slippery wet rocks, leaving the lake behind her.

"Do we really want to know?" Rosie muttered, trying to catch up with Snowcrystal, while Thunder waited at the topmost rock, her gaze fixed on a tunnel ahead that sloped downwards.

Snowcrystal lifted her muzzle and closed her eyes, pushing all her troubled thoughts out of her mind as she focused on trying to identify a single scent, even the smallest hint that an exit to the cave could be near. After a moment she sighed and opened her eyes. She had sensed nothing. "Come on," she told the others, trying to look confident. "I think the air smells fresher through here." None of the others argued or noticed her growing unease, and she walked into the sloping tunnel silently. She felt bad about leading them when she had no idea where she was going, but all she could do was choose a path and hope for the best. The others didn't need to worry. It would only make things worse.

For a little while they kept walking, Snowcrystal often having to go back and encourage Stormblade while Rosie and Thunder waited. It was during one of the times when Stormblade had fallen far behind that, while waiting for him, Rosie noticed the faint sound of rushing water. The ninetales looked up at Thunder. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

"I've been hearing it for a while," the scyther replied briskly, not even turning to look at Rosie. The ninetales said nothing, remembering how Thunder had reacted after saving Stormblade before. She obviously didn't like being talked to much.

Rosie slowly lowered her head toward the ground, surprising a sigh while lightly scraping the smooth stone floor with her claws. She was a bit thirsty again, and the sound of the water nearby was making her want to get up and keep going.

The sound of approaching footsteps reached the ninetales' ears. She looked up as Snowcrystal arrived, followed much more slowly by Stormblade. "Thunder and I heard water up ahead," Rosie told her, getting to her feet again. "It's probably nearby. I can lead the way."

To her relief, Snowcrystal nodded, and Rosie limped briskly over the smooth boulders lining the floor of the cave while listening for the increasingly loud sound of rushing water.

Snowcrystal had been trotting beside Stormblade when she heard Rosie give a sudden shriek. For an instant she froze, then bounded forward until she reached the ninetales' side, nearly falling victim to the same trap Rosie had just narrowly avoided.

The two fire types were standing on a rocky ledge which dropped steeply into a small, yet deep and swiftly flowing river. Rosie stood frozen, her eyes wide as she imagined what would have happened had she not managed to scramble away from the edge at the last instant.

"What are you standing there for?" Thunder snapped from behind the two. "Make your fire attacks brighter! I can hardly see."

Snowcrystal backed further away from the water, motioning for Rosie to do the same. "All right Thunder," she replied, lighting up the cavern and peering around. They had seemed to have reached a dead end, with the only way past the tunnel being the river. "Let's turn back," she whispered. "There's nowhere else to go."

"Turn back?" Stormblade rasped from behind the others, looking thoroughly horrified at the thought. "We can't go back that far. There must be some other way…I don't want to walk over all those rocks again."

"Calm down!" Rosie growled at him impatiently, before walking carefully along the edge of the rock overhang above the river, peering at her surroundings. All at once she spotted something that both lifted her spirits and caused her to freeze to the spot in fear at the same time. "Look at this," she told the others, motioning to a narrow ledge winding up the cave wall above the river, leading to what looked like another cavern above the one the swift-flowing water was vanishing into. "Looks like the only way to get any further is to climb up that ledge to those rocks up there."

Snowcrystal looked doubtfully at Stormblade. With one leg rendered completely useless, the scyther would have a hard time balancing on such a narrow ledge, but Stormblade seemed to show no fear. She could clearly see a look of dread on his face, but despite that, he looked calm and ready. Snowcrystal noticed Rosie looking at her expectantly, and remembered that she was the one who had to make the decision. The ninetales looked afraid, but there was trust in her eyes. Snowcrystal thought it over for a moment before replying.

"Let's go up to that cavern," she told the others, walking over to the smooth stone and stepping onto the first part of the ledge. "Go carefully, but not too slowly. The sooner we reach those rocks up there, the sooner we're safe." Deciding it would be best to get the ordeal over with and not give the others too much time to dwell on the decision she had made, Snowcrystal began making her way along the ledge, feeling very at ease after having lived so long on perilous mountaintops.

Rosie, who followed after her, was not so calm. The ninetales' body was pressed closely against the wall as she stared wide-eyed at the swirling waters churning below her paws, as if she expected some monster pokémon to leap out of the river and attack her. She made slow progress as she followed Snowcrystal one very shaky step at a time.

Thunder followed next, not seeming at all worried. She had decided to walk on the ledge instead of flying across; her injured wing throbbed horribly even after the small distance she had flown in the mud-filled cavern. The scyther felt dizzy and weak, but she pushed it to the back of her mind; she could handle it. Stormblade went last, moving slowly yet confidently behind Thunder.

It hadn't taken Snowcrystal long to reach the top of the opposite wall and climb up into a small cavern with a low ceiling above where the river vanished into darkness. Seeing Snowcrystal sitting safely seemed to give Rosie hope, and the ninetales moved faster, eager to be out of danger and beside her friend.

She hadn't gone five paces when her back paw struck a large, loose rock. It tilted downwards, causing Rosie's hind legs to slide off the edge of the rock wall. Scrabbling furiously with both forepaws, the ninetales pushed her back paws against the rock and hoisted herself upwards, before darting toward Snowcrystal and the safe cavern above. Moving so fast her paws seemed to fly over the stones, and she did not stop until she had reached Snowcrystal's side and sat in a shivering huddle beside her, her injured foreleg lifted off the ground.

Thunder was about to follow when she peered back at Stormblade. Despite his injuries, the male scyther didn't seem to be having much of a problem following her, although his progress was slow. When she looked at him, what caught her eye was not the way he was traveling, but the way he had stopped and was looking at her.

"Thunder? Are you…all right?"

Confused, Thunder narrowed her eyes. "Of course I'm all right!" she shouted. "Why don't you keep going instead of just standing there-" She paused suddenly, realizing that her entire body was shaking, badly, and she felt dizzy. Her vision was blurring, and she closed her eyes tightly, waiting until most of the dizziness passed. The last thing she wanted was to pass out right then and there. Once she thought she wasn't about to faint, she opened her eyes and headed along the ledge again, despite how weak she felt.

She thought Stormblade shouted something, but she couldn't hear him clearly, and she was certain the cry that Snowcrystal made sounded much farther away than it should have, and her vision was blurred. But none of that was important, as the next thing she knew, she had stepped on the loose rock that Rosie had stumbled over before. She froze, trying to climb back up to safety. However her strength had completely left her. Before she could try to fly, she felt herself plunging into the icy water. For a moment, she struggled and her head broke the surface, only to be thrust under again into a world of inky blackness. Suddenly wide awake with her vision clearer, she fought to reach the surface again, catching a brief glimpse of Snowcrystal and Rosie's horrified expressions before she vanished into the dark tunnel and away from any light the previous cavern had provided.

Before she knew it, her head was underwater again, and this time she felt herself falling over a rock face with the water for several feet before slamming back into the river again and being swept even faster along with it. Fighting frantically to reach the surface, she realized very quickly that scythes certainly weren't any good for swimming. Exerting what little remained of her strength, she at last managed to reach the surface again and gasp for air. Everything around her was shrouded in complete darkness; she could not tell where the river was taking her nor could she pinpoint the direction she had come from. Still struggling to keep her head above the water, she could feel herself losing strength fast, and the cold water was numbing her limbs. Frantically she wondered if there was some way she could fly out of the water to safety, not realizing in her dazed state that that was impossible in her current condition.

The scyther was caught by complete surprise as her shoulder was suddenly slammed into a pillar of stone, causing her to cry out in pain. An instant later, water rushed over her, forcing her under again into the swirling black chaos. But all along her right side she could feel smooth stone, and once she surfaced again she quickly realized that it was a ledge of some sort, leading up to the pillar she had crashed into. Before the dark water could pull her under again, she reached out with both scythes, jamming them into the grooves of the rock. She could feel the water pulling at her, making it difficult to hold fast to the slippery wet stone. She was afraid to move her scythes in case she lost her hold, but she knew that if she didn't, she would lose her strength and the water would sweep her away.

Little by little, she moved her scythes further up the rock, while scraping her claws against it underwater in an attempt to find a foothold. Painfully she crawled onto the rock and away from the water, finding herself on a small rocky ledge near the cave wall. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go other than back into the water, and she wasn't about to do that.

Feeling exhausted, she lay down, deciding that when she felt stronger she would fly to a place where she could start looking for the others. As much as she hated to admit it, she would have to depend on them until her wounds started to heal. Then, she would be able to learn to be a better hunter. The problem that lay ahead of her now was finding her way through the darkness. No light shone in the cavern; it made no difference whether she opened or closed her eyes. Thunder only knew where she was by the sound of the underground river rushing by.

The lone scyther closed her eyes, listening to the river as she rested. After a short while, she felt something wet and sticky running down her back. Her first thought was that it was water, but she quickly realized from the smell that it was blood from the whip cuts on her back, which had obviously opened up again. Frustrated, Thunder stood up, slashing her scythes against the rock wall in agitation while muttering to herself. "Stupid cuts are never going to heal at this rate…now how am I supposed to get away from those other poké-"

Thunder froze as the same eerie melody she and the others had heard before returned, distant at first, but growing steadily closer. Thunder whirled around, unable to see anything in the darkness. "Where are you?" she yelled blindly in the direction of the river. "Come out and fight!"

At first, no sound met her cry. Even the eerie melody was gone. Thunder waited, staring into the inky darkness. Then all at once, something burst out of the water, taking Thunder by surprise. The scyther could see nothing, but sound and smell told her that something massive was looming in front of her. Her first thought was gyarados, but she quickly realized that this scent was very different, and she couldn't recognize it.

Overcoming her shock quickly, she darted forward, stopping just at the edge of the rock ledge and swiping at the strange creature with her scythes. The whatever-it-was swerved out of the way, unharmed. Thunder stood completely still, unsure of where it was now. Then out of nowhere, something long and scaly crashed into her, pinning her against the wall and holding her there. She could hear a second creature come to the surface of the water and wondered how they managed to not get swept away. A small but bright light from somewhere further up the river appeared next, and through what little light it provided from such a distance, Thunder could see two pairs of eyes staring straight at her.

_To be continued…_


	34. Shade's Warning

Nightshade and his friends, as well as Blazefang, were all thoroughly confused yet made no objections as Shade beckoned them to follow him. Spark, knowing that the weavile wanted to speak with Blazefang most, kept pushing the houndour roughly ahead of the others as all the bat pokémon still remaining in the cavern watched them suspiciously. Blazefang diverted his attention to the ground, feeling every one of their gazes boring into him. Their suspicion and mistrust hung over him like an ominous dark cloud.

Shade approached a group of odd-looking tall stalagmites, walking up to the rock formation from the side and seeming to vanish behind it. Redclaw and Nightshade exchanged perplexed glances and the group hesitantly followed.

Nightshade, who had approached the rock first, quickly realized that a wide tunnel was hidden behind the stalagmites, hidden almost perfectly from a distance. Motioning to the others to follow him, the heracross walked into the dark opening. The others followed, the bat pokémon leaving them and flying off into other tunnels.

At first it was pitch black, but no one dared use a fire or electric attack for light in case the weavile mistook it for a threat. There was no sign of the small sneasel, and Nightshade guessed that she had gone into another cavern. The heracross lowered his head when he felt his horn scrape against the roof of the tunnel, which was closer to the floor than it had been at the beginning of the rocky passageway, and he heard Redclaw mutter something in pain as his head struck against it.

Then all at once, the cavern got brighter. Nightshade noticed an opening to a big cavern up ahead, and the light coming from it seemed brighter than any he'd seen in the cave so far. When the group stepped into the cavern, their eyes widened in amazement.

Glittering gems of all sizes were embedded in the rock wall from floor to ceiling. Several of the luminous crystals also jutted from the ceiling itself, casting soft light on the shimmering stones and making them glisten like diamonds. Looking up, Nightshade saw several massive stalactites reaching down from the roof of the cave far above them like jagged fangs. He found it impossible to tell how big they really were from a distance, though they looked gigantic.

"This way," Shade said calmly, and the heracross quickly turned to follow the weavile, his gaze passing over what looked like crude drawings made by pokémon claws on one of the cave walls. They were led into a winding tunnel, lit by soft multicolored light from numerous small crystals of various hues. In spite of the situation they were in, Nightshade had to admit that the sight was stunningly beautiful.

The group passed a few small entrances to other tunnels, though they didn't have much time for a closer look at any of them. At last, Shade led them into a small cavern lit by crystals that glowed a soft white. Once he made sure that none of the other cave pokémon were around to eavesdrop, the weavile turned to the group of pokémon in front of him, concentrating especially on Blazefang. His first question to the houndour was direct and clear.

"Where did you find the stone that gave you Shadowflare?"

Blazefang was taken aback, but at a glare from Spark and Redclaw, he knew better than to do anything but tell the truth. "I found it by a bunch of rocks in the lands near my pack's territory," he answered. "It was by the large snow mountains. I…I didn't know what it was at the time. There were a bunch of ghost pokémon who I guess were guarding it…" his voice trailed off and he fell silent.

"Ghost pokémon?" Shade repeated in confusion but decided to say nothing more on the matter. "Listen," he told Blazefang sternly, looking the houndour fully in the eyes. "No matter what you think…no matter what urge possesses you…you must _never_ use that attack under _any_ circumstances, understand?"

"Look, I don't want to use any more than you want me to!" Blazefang replied hastily, "I-"

" _How many times have you used it?_ " Shade interrupted, fixing Blazefang with another piercing stare.

"Twice…" Blazefang muttered regretfully, still deciding to be truthful. "But I've resisted it since then. I realize that it's dangerous…do you…do you know anything else about the For-"

"Once should have been enough to figure it out!" Shade shouted angrily. Blazefang recoiled in shock, and the weavile's expression returned to one of calm. "I am sorry…" he muttered quietly. "But I don't know how to express how important it is that you never use the attack again."

Spark couldn't resist the urge to speak up. He turned to Blazefang. "Yeah, Blazefang! So don't roast any more scyther, all right?" He shot the houndour a glare.

Shade turned to look at the jolteon, curious. Without saying anything to him, he looked at Blazefang again. "Did any of your friends witness the Forbidden Attack?"

"Look," Redclaw pointed out, "we are _not_ his friends."

Blazefang glared at the arcanine. "Of course not!" he growled. "But we're not here to fight about that, are we? Shut up!"

Spark bared his fangs threateningly and his fur turned to pointed spines that sparked with bright electricity. "And you're not here to boss us around!" the jolteon cried.

"Quiet!" Shade told Spark with another stern glance. "Blazefang…" He spoke in a quieter tone, looking into the houndour's confused red eyes. "Do you know what will happen if you use your Forbidden Attack too many times?"

Blazefang thought for a moment, remembering what Wildflame had told him. "It…it gets stronger…" he stammered, hoping he was remembering right. "It gets…harder to control…"

Shade's serious look did not change. "That's not all," he told the houndour. "Not only is this attack devastating to all it encounters, but use it one too many times… _and you lose your mind._ "

Blazefang stood frozen to the spot, trying to contemplate what exactly that would mean. He tried not to show it in his expression, but the thought absolutely mortified him.

Shade seemed satisfied at how easily he had gotten through to the houndour. When he spoke again, he addressed all five of the travelers. "I warn you of this because only a season ago, somewhere near this place, the Forbidden Attack _Deathfreeze_ was used by an ice type pokémon. No one knows how the pokémon stumbled upon it but luckily he was stopped before he was able to do much damage. However, those who stopped him knew they couldn't kill him…they had to keep him alive. Though they realized…the attack had changed him. He wasn't sane. From what I heard, the pokémon who found him took him far away, having to use hypnosis or sleep powder any time he showed signs of using the attack. I am sure that is not what you want your fate to be," he added with an almost sympathetic look at Blazefang.

Wildflame, who had been listening carefully along with the others, looked horrified. "So there's someone out there who knows a Forbidden Attack and can't control it?" she gasped. "Then it's only a matter of time before-"

"When I last heard of this, the pokémon was being kept under constant watch," Shade replied. "The attack seems to be triggered easiest by anger, fear, or pain…most likely by threat of physical attack. They are doing all they can to prevent it. And since no traveling flying types have reported some sort of huge natural disaster, I'm rather certain they are doing a good job, but there is no telling what would happen if another one of the attacks gets out of hand. Entire forests could be destroyed in minutes!" He then turned to Blazefang once again. "Don't let just anyone know you have the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare," he warned. "And I don't think I need to tell you to stay out of the way of that army."

"We need to get out of this cave fast," Redclaw interrupted. "For all we know, there could be pokémon from the army that know of the exits. From what Blazefang said, their leader Cyclone is willing to do pretty much anything to get Blazefang on his side, or kill him and take Shadowflare for one of his own followers. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to ambush us."

Blazefang, however, wasn't listening. Two phrases that Shade had said stood out clearly in his mind. _'Forbidden Attack Deathfreeze was used by an ice type pokémon…only a season ago…'_ The houndour froze. _'Only a season ago…'_ That had been around the time when Articuno had left.

"There is an exit the army would not find it easy to get to, even from the outside," Shade told Redclaw, not noticing Blazefang's look of sudden panic. "Though you will need the help of one of the water types in this cave. Mystic might be able to carry you through the water, but it will be no easy task; even at her fastest speed you'd be holding your breath a long time…"

Blazefang wasn't listening. He thought back to what Shade had said, his mind numb. The weavile had seemed like he had been avoiding mentioning what pokémon had used the attack…was that because he didn't want them to know that a legendary had fallen victim to it? Blazefang mentally shook himself. _'No…'_ he thought. _'It was just a coincidence. Articuno had to be smarter than to use that attack more than a few times if he ever found it.'_

_But if he hadn't known what it was…_

"I suppose that's something we'll have to risk," Redclaw replied, interrupting the houndour's thoughts. "If it's the safest way out, I'd rather we go that way then have to risk the army finding us. But first…first we have to find our friends. Do you think…"

"I can ask some of the golbat here to search," Shade replied. "But remember, the cave is very large; it could take a bit of time. You're welcome to stay here while you wait."

The weavile stood up and led them back through the tunnel and into the largest cavern, where they were told to stay until their friends were found. Blazefang, who had nowhere to go, chose to wait in the cavern as well, at the side opposite from the others. He was still thoroughly shocked at the thought of Articuno being a possible candidate for the owner of Deathfreeze. Eventually, he managed to shake the thought from his mind…or at least nearly.

' _Articuno wouldn't have done that…he couldn't have found a Forbidden Attack…right?'_

  
**-ooo-**  


As soon as he had seen Thunder vanish into the dark tunnel, it no longer occurred to him to try and move up to the small cavern where Snowcrystal and Rosie waited. It was only their shout that brought Stormblade to his senses again. Forcing himself to focus only on the task ahead, he made his way up to his two friends, almost forgetting the pain of his wounds. When he sat down in the safety of the cavern above, there was nothing more to distract his thoughts.

_Thunder was gone._

For a moment he sat completely still, gazing into the dark water below as if he expected Thunder to somehow manage to swim back to them, then he turned to the others. "I need to go look for her," he told them.

In that moment, Snowcrystal saw a bit of his old self returning to the look in his dark blue eyes. She remembered the strong scyther who had sought to protect her and the others, the scyther who was able to defend and to help. She had to remind herself that that Stormblade was long gone. Reluctantly, she opened her mouth to speak, but Rosie spoke up first.

"Are you _crazy?_ " the ninetales cried. "You'd get yourself _killed!_ "

That statement seemed to come as a shock to the scyther, and the fire in Stormblade's eyes died down to be replaced with the same misery and helplessness the others were used to seeing. "Oh…" he mumbled, as if just realizing it, "you're right…"

Snowcrystal stood still, looking from him to Rosie. She wanted to help him…she wanted to help them both. But there was nothing she could do for Stormblade. At that moment, she finally realized what it really meant for him to be injured by Blazefang's Forbidden Attack. If what Spark had learned about them was true, it would never heal…not ever. Stormblade was a young scyther, and yet he would never again be able to fly or hunt or live as a normal pokémon. He would he never again have practice battles for fun with other scyther, even though battling meant so much to them. He would never again be able to help or protect those he cared about. He would feel like he was only hindering them. Even though she had known this all along, it seemed to her as if only now was she realizing what this truly meant. _What did Stormblade really have to live for anymore?_

She looked up to see Rosie peering over the edge of the rock and down into the swirling black water, looking both worried and terrified. Quietly, she walked over to the ninetales. "I'll look for her," she whispered quietly.

Rosie was the first to speak. "What?" she asked, looking at the growlithe with a shocked expression. "How would you-"

"I'm going to find Thunder," Snowcrystal repeated, looking the ninetales sternly in the eye, making it clear that she would not be convinced otherwise. "I have my fire attacks and my crystal to light the way," she explained. "I want you two to stay here. Don't leave this place. I'll find my way back."

"How?" Rosie replied. "You're not going…into the river are you?" she asked with a hint of panic.

"Not if I don't have to," Snowcrystal replied as she jumped onto the thin stone ledge leading down to the larger cavern by the river. "Stormblade," she added, turning her head to look at him, "watch over Rosie. Make sure you both stay safe." She then continued to make her way down the ledge. Rosie's eyes narrowed, annoyed that Snowcrystal was telling Stormblade to watch over her, but she said nothing.

Snowcrystal was glad that Rosie didn't reply; she had wanted to give Stormblade some sense of feeling important, though she was not sure if it had worked at all. When she reached the big cavern below, she turned and faced the swift dark river. Her eyes scanned the walls on either side, a small flame wheel lighting up the area. At first she saw nothing, but then a small narrow ledge half hidden by shadows and leading down toward the water caught her eye. Letting the fire die out, she let herself be guided by the light of her crystal, and stepped onto the ledge, beginning to walk steadily along it.

It was frighteningly narrow; even a pokémon of her small size would have trouble walking across it. Only her experiences scaling steep rocky mountain cliffs kept her calm and steady as she slowly walked across. She glanced up with a small hopeful smile at Rosie, who was peering down from above, then with a deep breath she walked along the ledge into the tunnel and plunged herself into darkness.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder attempted to twist free, but with her arms pinned tightly against the rock by the creature holding her, she was unable to move her scythes. So, she did the next best thing, and sank all of her fangs into the pokémon's scales. She could feel the larger creature flinch, but it did not move.

She was trying to think of anything else she could do to get it to release her when the second creature spoke up. "Wait…" the voice said. "This pokémon can't fight us. It's injured." There was a pause and the same creature asked, "What do you think it is, Mystic?"

The largest of the pokémon slowly drew back from Thunder, who noticed that the light she had seen further upriver was coming closer. Instantly ready for any sort of surprise attack, Thunder staggered upright, watching the pokémon move closer and reveal itself to be a lanturn…an electric type. Her whole body tensed, eying the first two pokémon who had come across her. As the lanturn moved closer, the light from the glowing orbs on his long antennae illuminated the area. Thunder was staring straight at a large milotic and a lapras. The milotic was much bigger than Thunder had thought they should be; its massive serpentine form seemed to tower over her. The light from the lanturn reflected softly off of the graceful pokémon's pearly white scales. To Thunder, it almost looked beautiful.

The scyther stood glaring while the three pokémon stared at her strangely, as if they didn't know what she was. The lapras, who didn't seem to have trouble staying still in the swiftly flowing river, looked at Thunder curiously, but kept her distance. The milotic turned to the other two pokémon.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "I've never seen it before. But it's obviously no water type." She then looked at Thunder. "Hello," she stated calmly. "My name is Mystic. This is River," she added as she motioned to the lapras. She then waved her tail toward the lanturn. "And this is-"

With lightning speed, Thunder darted forward, close enough to the edge of the stone ledge to swing both scythes at the milotic. Mystic narrowly avoided having her neck sliced open as she quickly jerked back.

"Not a very friendly pokémon, is she?" the lanturn muttered as the three drew back from Thunder, far enough to be out of range.

"Well, I don't blame her!" River the lapras said with a glare at the lanturn. "Mystic did attack her and probably hurt her worse. Plus, she's trapped here." She turned to Thunder, trying to look friendly, and said, "I can take you to a safe place. You can ride on my back. It won't take very long-"

"GO AWAY!" Thunder screamed, backing away from the edge of the rock and crouching down in the shadows away from the lanturn's light.

The three water types looked at each other in either worry or confusion. Mystic sighed and turned away. "Let's leave it alone then…" she said smoothly, "if that's what it wants…"

The lapras turned to Thunder again quietly. "I really think you should let me take you to a safer place," she said softly. "The others won't hurt you…"

Thunder wanted nothing more than to show that lapras that she wasn't the weak pokémon it seemed to think she was, but now that she thought about it, she needed to get away from the river to find a way out of the cave. And after all, if the lapras tried to trick her, she would be riding on her back, and Thunder was very capable of giving her a slash to the neck if she was threatened. "Fine!" the scyther spat reluctantly. "Take me to a place where I can leave the river and find my own way out!"

As the lapras moved closer, the milotic hissed a warning. "Careful, River," she warned in a smooth but wary voice. "That pokémon is dangerous."

"All she wants is to get out," River told her. "I don't think she belongs in this cave." She then turned to Thunder again, trying to smile. "Well, come on!"

A few moments later and Thunder was crouched down on the lapras's spiny gray shell as the large pokémon sped through the water, guided by the light of her lanturn friend from up ahead. Mystic swam gracefully behind them, and Thunder glanced warily back at her every few seconds. Her scythes were by her sides, but her whole body was tensed, ready to attack the lapras's neck or head at any sign that these pokémon were about to try and harm her. Every so often River would ask her questions; _"What is your name?...What are you doing here?...How did you get those wounds?"_

She ignored all of them. She wanted to get away from these pokémon, and as soon as possible. The journey, though it felt like hours to the injured scyther, really only lasted a few minutes. Though when the water pokémon stopped, Thunder noticed the cavern she had ended up in was colder, and she could not help shivering. River swam calmly up to the riverbank.

"There. You're safe here," she told Thunder in what the scyther thought was a too-sweet voice.

Without hesitation, the scyther leaped off her back and onto the rocky ground, holding back a cry at the pain that surged up her leg. Instinctively she put her scythe to the ground to steady herself, but that only sent pain scorching through her newly injured shoulder.

Seeing this, River looked concerned. "You're hurt bad, aren't you?" the lapras asked, squinting through the semi-darkness.

"No!" Thunder growled. "Leave me alone…"

"She's obviously not an inhabitant of this cave," Mystic told River with a disapproving glance at the scyther, while her lanturn friend nodded.

"Do you remember the way out?" River asked the milotic. "Maybe you could help her!"

"I only know of one way out," Mystic replied. "And it would not help her. One can only get there by swimming underwater, and she wouldn't be able to hold her breath that long. Now, River and Whirlpool, come, the savage creature wants to be left alone."

The milotic and lanturn swiftly turned and vanished, leaving the cave almost dark, the only lighting coming from some dimly glowing pale green and blue crystals. Thunder couldn't tell if River was still there, and really, she didn't care. When she finally chanced a glance back, there was no sign of the lapras. With a sigh, she lay down, telling herself that no random stranger pokémon would have a reason to help her without expecting anything in return. She had been right to tell them to leave.

Quietly she lay down, ignoring the pain from her wounds. She decided she would rest a while, then find her way out of the cave. She felt exhausted. Maybe, she thought, she'd even be able to sleep for a while…

Thunder's attempts at sleep were suddenly interrupted by a large splash as River surfaced from the water again. The scyther stood up, watching the lapras set a dead goldeen by the edge of the river.

River looked at Thunder uncertainly, watching the scyther, who was staring at her angrily. The lapras had not known what species of pokémon Thunder was or what she ate, but judging by the fact that the stranger had two fangs jutting down from her mouth, the water type assumed she had to be a carnivore. "I brought you some food…" she told Thunder hesitantly. "I'll just leave it here if you want it." She quickly turned and left, not wanting to startle the scyther any longer.

Thunder did not move even after the lapras left. She waited for a long while, wondering if it was some sort of trap, before she couldn't take her hunger anymore and warily limped to the edge of the river and picked up the prey, bringing it back to safety. It didn't take her long to finish eating it, and after she was done, she stood up, looking for a tunnel to walk into. She felt surprisingly stronger. Without a backward glance, she turned and limped into the nearest tunnel, glad to leave the river behind. From a distance, the lapras watched her sadly, then turned and dove back into the water.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal couldn't stop herself from shivering, though not from cold, but from fear. The tunnel was dark and damp, and the rocks below her feet were slicked wet with frigid water. Further along, she had found the going easier as there were several large boulders by the riverside to climb, but the further she went, the more worried she became. There was no sign of Thunder anywhere…no scent or any other indication that the injured scyther had made it out of the water. Though Snowcrystal wasn't usually bothered by cold, she found the chilly rock tunnel threatening and oppressive. She didn't know how well a thin, weak and hurt scyther could stand up to cold. Taking a deep breath, she kept going.

  
**-ooo-**  


Thunder's newfound strength hadn't lasted long. She hadn't gone far, and already she felt the exhaustion and dizziness she had experienced before returning. Nevertheless, she forced herself to take one shaky step after another, ignoring the drops of blood that fell to the ground from her shoulder and whichever of her other wounds happened to be bleeding at the time. She felt weakened, completely drained of energy as if she had just come out of one of Master's arena battles. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest…

_And why couldn't she?_

Somewhat unnerved at the fact that the realization that there wasn't anyone to force her to keep going hadn't come until now, she looked around quickly, spotting a sheltered corner in the small cavern she was standing in. With a lurching, painful stride she made her way over to it. By the time she reached the sheltered spot, her strength left her completely, and she crumpled in a senseless heap beside the still gray walls.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal stood peering over a steep ledge, watching the river flow swiftly downwards into another tunnel. Carefully she jumped down from the rock formations jutting from the cave wall and landed carefully on the stone riverside below. The space between the water and the cave wall was wider here, and she could see tunnels veering off to the sides. As she was about to follow the river, she faintly noticed a familiar scent. _Thunder!_

Turning around, she followed the scent carefully into one of the tunnels. It struck her as strange that she hadn't noticed it by the river, but she realized that Thunder could have found a way out elsewhere and wandered through the tunnels for a while. With the scent getting stronger, Snowcrystal dashed forward, and almost stumbled upon the limp form of the scyther who now lay against the wall. Shocked, Snowcrystal approached her carefully, wondering if she had gotten hurt worse. She nudged the side of Thunder's head, and when the scyther didn't respond, the growlithe whined softly, curling up beside her and feeling both greatly relieved and deeply worried at the same time. She decided to stay there and wait until Thunder was strong enough to make the journey back to the others.

Snowcrystal hadn't waited long when Thunder started to stir, her eyes opening slowly as she looked around. Upon seeing Snowcrystal the scyther jerked away from her. "What are you doing here?" was all Thunder could manage to say, though her voice sounded strained and weak.

Snowcrystal quickly stood up and backed away to give Thunder some space. "I went looking for you," she told her calmly. "Rosie and Stormblade are waiting…do you think…do you think you could fly back to where we were once you're feeling better?"

"I feel fine," Thunder lied, getting unsteadily to her feet.

"I don't think so," Snowcrystal told her. "You need to rest."

"We can rest when we get back to the others," Thunder replied quickly.

"You'll never make it in your condition!" Snowcrystal told her, annoyed. "Just rest for a little. Everyone needs to rest sometimes."

"I know that!" Thunder shouted irritably, though surprisingly, she sat down without further argument. "But I won't stay here for long," she told Snowcrystal firmly.

Snowcrystal sighed in relief, glad that she'd gotten Thunder to listen to her at least for a little while. She only hoped that the scyther would be strong enough to fly back to the others; after all, she looked as if she could pass out again at any minute. It was no secret that Thunder's wounds were severely weakening her, and the energy she used to hide that weakness was gradually failing.

Snowcrystal waited longer than she thought Thunder wanted to, but the scyther said nothing and Snowcrystal wondered if she was secretly glad of the chance to rest more. She noticed with unease that Thunder had injured her shoulder, the one that the bullet had struck. She began to wonder just how long they should wait after all.

However, her decision was made for her as Thunder suddenly stood up, spreading her tattered wings. "Okay, let's go!" the scyther told Snowcrystal quickly, and then limped to the edge of the river and flew unsteadily above it, looking as if she could barely manage to keep from falling into the water.

Snowcrystal followed uncertainly, stepping on the wet stone ledges again as she followed Thunder, silently willing her not to lose strength and fall into the river again. Luckily, Thunder managed to make it to the rocky ledge near where they had first reached the river surprisingly quickly. Exhausted, the scyther turned to lick her injured wing.

"Thunder!"

Rosie's excited shout made Thunder jump, and she turned her head to give the ninetales a loathing glance. Rosie however, didn't notice. "Stormblade! It's Thunder! Snowcrystal found her!" Rosie and Stormblade had appeared from another tunnel, one that led right down to where their friends were.

Snowcrystal jumped onto a rock closer to the river's edge where Thunder was. Stormblade peered down from the rock he was standing on and looked at Thunder with first relief, then concern. "Thunder? You're alive! What happen-"

He was interrupted as Rosie shoved him gently aside. "You don't want her yelling at you again do you?" she asked him, looking annoyed. "You're probably just making it worse."

However, Stormblade barely noticed. After Thunder manage to stagger painfully along the rocks and into the small tunnel, Stormblade limped closer to her, only to be pushed aside roughly as she walked past.

Snowcrystal appeared next, watching the scyther with a worried expression. "Let's all rest now," she told to the others, hoping Thunder wouldn't think she was deciding that just for her. "We can try to get some sleep, then we can keep going."

"Sounds good to me," Rosie yawned, lying down by the wall of the cave and curling her nine tails around her.

Without another glance at the others, Thunder lay down as well. She did not expect to fall asleep, though while she would never admit it, she felt as if she couldn't take another step. Her wounds felt as painful as if she had just gotten them. Trying to push any thoughts of exhaustion to the back of her mind, she closed her eyes.

"You know, you don't have to hide everything all the time. Hiding just makes things worse."

Furious, Thunder opened her eyes to see Stormblade standing there, leaning on his scythes for support, like he usually did. "Leave me alone!" Thunder growled, her eyes narrowing.

Stormblade didn't seem surprised at her reaction, but he didn't leave. "I just want you to know that I will do whatever I can to help you…"

"Go away," Thunder muttered angrily.

"Look, when we get out of this cave…" Stormblade began, "I…I might know of some herbs that could-"

"You're not helping."

"But I-"

"Will you just leave me alone?" Thunder shouted, making Snowcrystal and Rosie look up. "Right now, all you're doing is preventing me from resting. And what could you do to help me anyways? You can't even take care of yourself. You're completely _helpless…_ "

Stormblade looked down at the floor to avoid meeting Thunder's gaze. "I'm sorry," he told her, backing away. "I'll leave you alone. But…remember, if you ever need any-"

"Just go away!" Thunder growled back, turning away from Stormblade as he hobbled back to the others. To her relief, no one tried to say anything to her. Good. She didn't want to think about it anymore.

A while later, Thunder awoke feeling confused; she barely even realized that she had fallen asleep. Even though she still felt terribly weak, she didn't feel quite so bad now. She turned her head, noticing Snowcrystal standing above her. "What it is it?" she muttered in annoyance, but she didn't feel like yelling anymore.

Snowcrystal was smiling, which surprised Thunder. "Some golbat are here," the growlithe told her happily. "They can take us to the others…and they know a way out!"

  
**-ooo-**  


Outside the cave, the tall grass swayed with the night breeze. A group of pokémon walked by, their paws hardly making a sound as they warily glanced around them. One of them, a lucario, shivered as he stared at the dark, dank entrance to the massive cave.

"Still no sign of that Blazefang houndour," he muttered irritably. "How long does Cyclone expect us to wait here?"

"As long as it takes," another, a persian, replied. "Now shut up!"

"I say we leave this place," the lucario muttered. "I've seen what Cyclone does to some of his followers. He's not the type of pokémon I want to be serving under. No one's around; let's desert 'im."

"And run into one of the other groups?" a ponyta replied. "They're all over the place waiting for that houndour to show himself! Do _you_ want to be reported to Cyclone and be dealt with by Solus?"

The lucario muttered something incoherently and focused his gaze drowsily on the cave entrance again. "Well, I sure hope we don't have to stay here much longer. When's the other group going to take our place?"

"Morning," the persian replied. "Now keep still and watch for any sign of movement. One of us will find the houndour…sooner or later."

The three pokémon moved into the shelter of the bushes, lying in wait by the cave exit, just as the other groups were waiting by the many places where one of the cave's tunnels reached the surface.

_To be continued…_


	35. The Crystal Abyss

It wasn't long before Snowcrystal and her friends met up with Nightshade and the others in the large cavern. The golbat knew the entire cave by heart, and quickly showed them the shortest way to the place where their friends rested. The going had still been somewhat slow, but this time it hadn't just been Stormblade who was slowing the group down. Thunder had been having difficulty keeping up as well, though she had tried to disguise that fact by acting as if she wanted the others to walk ahead with the strangers instead of near her.

Despite the journey being slow, everyone had made it without any danger. Now the group huddled in the cavern, listening to a few zubat who had explored the cave while looking for Snowcrystal's group talking to Shade.

"We went by a few of the exits…there are strange pokémon everywhere…just waiting. One of them shot a flamethrower at us."

"He's right. They all seemed to be expecting something."

"We know just what they're waiting for," Redclaw told them, his gaze dark and serious. "They want Blazefang's Forbidden Attack…well, Cyclone wants it for one of his fire type cronies."

In the short time the group had talked with Shade, Redclaw had explained everything they knew about Cyclone and his intentions, while Blazefang huddled sullenly in a corner of the cavern, his back pressed against the smooth rock as he listened to the conversation with dread.

"I think your only surely safe way out," the weavile leader began, "is through the exit I told you about before. You can only get there by swimming through a vast underground lake, and the exit is in the middle of a large canyon, full of tall rocks and foliage and very difficult to climb down from the top. Flying pokémon will find it difficult to track you with all the cover the area provides, though you will have to be careful."

"Underwater?" Rosie cried, her eyes widening. "Are you crazy? That's-"

"There are water pokémon here that would be willing to help you if I asked them to," Shade replied. "But like I mentioned to some of you earlier, it may be difficult to hold your breath for the length of time it takes a water pokémon to swim through that tunnel. But no, it certainly won't kill you," he added before Rosie could protest again. "It would be best to leave soon," he added, "in case the army finds out from any local pokémon that there is a hidden exit they haven't checked."

Almost involuntarily, Snowcrystal glanced sideways at Stormblade. The scyther was still lying motionless, sprawled across the floor the same way he had since they had reached that cavern. The raw burns that covered his body looked sickly in the pale light. He gave no sign or any indication that he was listening to anyone.

"Well, I think it's about time we got out of here," Nightshade told Shade, startling Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. "From the sound of it, there's plenty of food and water in this canyon, so I don't see any reason for us to wait around here."

Spark brightened up at the mention of food, and Wildflame looked eager to keep moving. However, Blazefang and Rosie both looked worried. Redclaw went to help Stormblade and the rest of the group gathered together.

"Follow me," Shade told them, and began leading the way ahead.

"We barely got a chance to rest!" Rosie mumbled as she limped after the others, keeping close to Snowcrystal and Wildflame.

During the short journey, Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling worried as they walked through strange passages and tunnels that twisted in every direction. She had no sense of where they were going or where they had come from anymore, but she reminded herself that Shade knew what he was doing.

Stormblade had decided to walk by himself, despite the fact that he was obviously weakening. Thunder had kept to the front of the group during the first part of the walk, but after another dizzy spell, she had been forced to walk at a slower pace, though she was still ahead of Stormblade.

Snowcrystal's fur prickled uneasily as they once again reached the edge of a vast underground lake. She noticed Thunder growl and back away warily. Once near the water, Stormblade lay down and closed his eyes, too exhausted to move.

"So do we just have to wait?" Snowcrystal asked Shade.

The weavile was about to answer when Rosie suddenly shouted, "What is _he_ doing here?"

Snowcrystal turned to see Blazefang stop in his tracks, a look of fear plastered across the houndour's face. Snowcrystal had suspected that he would follow them, and it didn't surprise her to see him there.

"Go find your own way out!" Rosie yelled to the houndour. "We're not helping you."

"Actually, Rosie," Nightshade interrupted, "I think it would be wise to help him."

Rosie rounded on the heracross. " _Why?_ " she demanded.

Nightshade turned toward her, his yellow eyes serious. "Do you want Cyclone to get his claws on Shadowflare?" At this response, Rosie was silent.

"How are we going to ride some water pokémon under the water?" Snowcrystal asked Shade, who had been briefly distracted by Rosie's outburst.

"Either Mystic or River can carry you. I know them well, and I'm sure they'd be willing to help. It won't be an easy journey though," Shade warned, "but it will get you out safe."

"But Shade…" Wildflame spoke suddenly, walking toward him. "I've been thinking…there's no way Stormblade could make it through that. He barely has enough strength as it is. And being carried…will probably be too painful because of his injuries."

A silence hung over the group, and Snowcrystal was sure that if Stormblade were carried, it would only make his injuries worse. "There's not much we can do about that," she told the others regretfully. "He'll have to do it."

She was surprised when Stormblade suddenly spoke up. "No I won't," he told her, and added with bitter regret, "I'm not strong enough. I wouldn't make it. If one of the cave pokémon can guide me to another exit and then to the rest of you, I could meet up with you later."

"But what about the army?" Rosie asked.

"They won't bother me," Stormblade told her. "I can't fight for them, so they won't want anything from me. And if a zubat guides me, he or she could easily hide from them… Look," he added, seeing their doubtful faces, "I'm not some helpless hatchling. I'm strong enough to do _this_."

"You can barely walk," Snowcrystal pointed out, realizing too late that it was probably the wrong thing to say.

"I can travel at my own pace," Stormblade said simply. "Believe me, I don't want to weaken myself more than I already am."

"All right," Snowcrystal told him. "Just…be careful. I'm sure whoever wants to guide you will help you if you need it." She wasn't sure what the pokémon guiding Stormblade would be able to do to help him, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Maybe Stormblade _was_ stronger than he seemed.

Snowcrystal jumped suddenly when a large pokémon's long neck and head burst out of the water, confronting Shade with curiosity. It was a graceful pokémon, a large serpentine creature covered in pearly scales ranging in color from creamy white to bright red and blue.

"Shade?" the milotic asked, regarding the travelers with curiosity. "Who are these pokémon?"

"They're travelers, Mystic," Shade explained. "They need to get out of the cave in secret as quickly as possible. I don't have much time to explain now, but I will certainly explain later. I need you to take these pokémon one by one through the underwater exit...and fast."

Snowcrystal noticed the milotic's eyes drifting toward Thunder and the large water type pokémon sneered slightly, but the scyther didn't seem to notice. The milotic turned to the group and sighed. "Very well," she told them, "but don't think you're going for a pleasant swim. All I ask is that you don't pass out."

At that statement, Rosie and Wildflame exchanged nervous glances. "You'll be fine," Stormblade told them gently. "I'll meet up with you and the others later."

"Thanks, Stormblade," Rosie told him, smiling, though she still looked rather scared.

"So who's going first?" Shade asked, and after a moment where no one said anything, Redclaw volunteered.

Snowcrystal watched with fascination as Mystic bent down and lifted the arcanine by the scruff of his neck, making him look like a small puppy hanging from its mother's jaws. It looked almost comical. Mystic turned and carried the arcanine over the water, swimming to where the lake met the opposite wall of the cave. Then, while still holding Redclaw in her mouth, the colossal milotic dived under, creating a large splash that soon settled, leaving the water crystal clear and smooth again.

For what seemed like ages, but really couldn't have been more than a few minutes, the group waited in silence. Snowcrystal kept leaning her head against Stormblade's leg, watching the water worriedly.

Then all at once, Mystic's graceful head reared out of the water, and she turned to face the rest of the group. Snowcrystal once again felt very small at the sight of the huge milotic towering over all of them.

"He made it safe," she informed the others. "He's recovering now. So who is going to go next?"

Wanting to seem brave in front of the others, Spark volunteered. Like Redclaw, he was picked up and carried under the water. This time, Snowcrystal was less worried, and when Mystic later surfaced and told them that Spark had made it safely as well, Wildflame, wanting to get it over with, went next.

This time, Mystic seemed to take longer, and when she returned, she explained that Wildflame had breathed in some water during the journey, but would soon be all right. Rosie refused to go next, and Nightshade, who had volunteered to go last, suggested that Thunder take the next turn.

At first Thunder had refused, not liking the thought of another pokémon touching her, but the others managed to convince her to let Mystic carry her by the wings, under the promise that she would be allowed to attack the milotic if she purposely tried to drown her. Obviously Mystic had no such intention, but the promise seemed to make Thunder more willing to be carried under the water.

Afterward, Blazefang volunteered, and then Rosie, although with hesitation. Snowcrystal waited for Mystic to return after taking Rosie through the tunnel, knowing that her turn was next.

"Are you scared?" Stormblade asked her, turning to look down at her.

"A little…" Snowcrystal admitted, still staring at the water.

"It'll be all right," Stormblade replied, following her gaze. "The others seemed to have made it through all right. You'll be just fine."

"I…I hope so…" Snowcrystal replied shakily, and looked back up at him. "Are you sure you'll be all right traveling alone? I mean, I'm sure Mystic could…"

"There's no way she'd be able to carry me with these injuries," Stormblade replied, almost bitterly. "And I won't be alone. One of the cave pokémon will be willing to guide me. So don't worry. I might take a little while meeting up with you and the others, but I'll be just fine. I promise."

"Are you sure?" Snowcrystal asked him, uncertain.

"Positive."

"Okay…" Snowcrystal said with a sigh, but quickly drove any doubts away from her mind. She was probably worrying too much.

A large splash caused her to look up, and Mystic looked at her. Slowly the growlithe stood up and walked over to the huge milotic, dozens of different thoughts running through her head at the same time. She had no idea what this experience was going to be like.

"Good luck!" Stormblade called to her, trying to smile.

Snowcrystal turned and smiled back at him as Mystic leaned down toward her.

"Remember," the milotic said, "just before we reach the cave wall over there, take a deep breath."

Snowcrystal felt teeth meet in her scruff as her body was lifted off the ground. Mystic lifted her head high above the water, and Snowcrystal was fascinated with how the vast cavern and its glimmering crystals looked like from above. Mystic slowly neared the wall, and once they were close, Snowcrystal took a deep breath and then the milotic plunged into the icy water.

Despite the fact that she was too used to cold to be bothered by it, the speed at which the milotic had dived and was carrying her through the black water came as a huge shock, and she had to fight the urge to instinctively struggle. Feeling like she would need a breath of air soon if she moved too much, Snowcrystal forced her body to relax and closed her eyes, trying to remain calm and to not use up any of her energy; that would only make her run out of air faster.

As the two of them seemed to glide through the water, Snowcrystal suddenly felt the urge to open her eyes. She did so, realizing with great surprise that she could _see_. While she had expected the underwater world to be completely dark, somewhere far deep down in the water's depths were large and small specks of glowing light. They covered the entire floor of the tunnel far below, and up ahead, there were even more. She realized that these must be more glowing crystals. Further on, these crystals covered the entire floor of the large underwater tunnel Mystic was swimming through, which was narrow but very deep, like some sort of massive abyss.

Starting to feel dizzy, Snowcrystal focused her gaze on the way ahead, still too fascinated by the glowing crystals far down below to close her eyes. That was when she noticed it.

Up ahead, some of the lights seemed to be flickering out in large groups, yet a moment later those crystals would be bright again, and others would go dark. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't the crystals' light going out, it was something huge swimming above them like a dark shadow.

The growlithe's eyes widened, and just when she began to wonder if it was another milotic, Mystic swerved violently to the right, almost causing Snowcrystal to gasp in shock. Mystic turned again and then swam in a straight direction, but was clearly increasing speed, when before that hadn't seemed possible. Snowcrystal fearfully wondered what was wrong; she had lost sight of the dark thing, and a moment later several things happened at once.

Snowcrystal heard a horrible sound, like some sort of deranged roar distorted by the water, and Mystic's whole body violently shuddered as if something had crashed into her. And at the same instant, the milotic let go of Snowcrystal.

Though she made no sound, the weakening growlithe was screaming in her mind. Without thinking, she lashed out with all four paws, trying to swim back to Mystic. She quickly realized she was hopelessly wasting energy, growing weaker, and she held still, hoping that the milotic would be able to help her. She looked up, and her eyes met one of the eeriest sights she had ever seen. Mystic was entangled with a massive gyarados, which was trying to sink its teeth into her side.

She was distracted from the sight of the two thrashing serpents when she became aware that she was sinking, slowly but surely, toward the crystals below. There was a stabbing pain in her chest, steadily growing worse.

She could not hold her breath much longer.

She couldn't tell where Mystic or the gyarados were anymore. She could hear them, but they sounded far away. Even the light of the crystals had dimmed. Everything around her was fading. The pain was growing worse. And then she could stand it no more, and inhaled.

Water instantly filled her mouth and throat, choking her and making her thrash about in shock as icy needles of pain shot through her chest and head. In a panic, she thrashed her paws, not knowing if the direction she was swimming was up or down. Terror filled her mind. She was a fire type, and the prospect of drowning suddenly seemed all the more frightening; she felt her body growing weaker, feeling as if the water was extinguishing her very life. The pain intensified for a few more agonizing moments, then it started to dull, and at the same time, so did everything around her…the sounds, the sights, the fear…then it all went black.

  
**-ooo-**  


Mystic had not expected this gyarados to be here. He was a cave dweller, a strange gyarados who wanted nothing to do with the outside and in turn sought to protect the cave from intruders. Though he did not usually come to this part of the cave, she did not think he could have mistaken her for an intruder. She wondered if he'd caught the scent of all the strange pokémon she had been carrying through the tunnel and misunderstood her intentions, thinking that she was using the tunnel to bring pokémon to and from the cave.

Luckily, in a matter of seconds, Mystic had managed to twist free of the large gyarados, sending him flying backwards into the wall with a twister attack. Rushing forward, she slammed her tail into the side of his head, momentarily stunning him.

"Leave!" she cried, her harmonious voice sounding clearly even through the water. "I am helping them exit the cave!" Without waiting for a response, she turned and swam in wide circles, going deeper into the dark water, searching for the white growlithe who had been swallowed up by the cold blackness. Yet even with the light of the crystals from below, the water was too dark for her to see the small pokémon. It barely registered to her that the gyarados was no longer trying to attack. She was too frantic in her search. Quickly she swam in wider and wider circles, looking left and right for any sign of the small pokémon.

Then she saw a sign. Somewhere down below, just a tiny pinprick of light, was a small, glowing red dot…the growlithe's crystal. Mystic rushed forward in a headlong dive toward the light, feeling the water grow colder the deeper she submerged. Her eyes were focused on the small dot of light, fearing she would lose sight of it if she looked away. Time seemed to stand still as the distance between herself and the light shrank ever so slowly…

Then she could see the growlithe. Swimming faster, she caught up to the quickly sinking pokémon. Gripping Snowcrystal's scruff again, the milotic swam upwards, as fast as she was able to, hoping the tiny bundle she held in her mouth was still alive. Then, the water began turning from black to deep blue. There was light ahead; the calm river which flowed out of the cave was dappled with sunlight further ahead. Mystic swam faster, and the surface seemed to rush to meet her.

Mystic felt both joy and relief as her head broke through the surface and into open air. All around her, lush vegetation and the wide, calm river gave her a feeling of relief. But she knew there couldn't be relief quite yet. Racing over to the bank, the milotic quickly set the small puppy pokémon onto the sand.

Snowcrystal lay unmoving.

"Snowcrystal!" Wildflame shouted from somewhere nearby, racing over to her. The houndoom still looked shaky and weak, but quite healthy compared to the growlithe lying on the shore. Some of the group got up and approached her, while others hung back, watching.

Redclaw gently pressed his muzzle to Snowcrystal's side. The growlithe made no movement at first, but then stirred weakly, her eyes flickering open a second before closing again. Redclaw nudged her once more, seeing the small growlithe begin to move again.

"I'm going to go back for the last member of your group," Mystic told them, seeing that Snowcrystal had started to recover and was beginning to cough up some of the water. She watched as Wildflame and Redclaw sat next to her, helping her in any way they could. "After that, I must leave. I don't like swimming outside of the cave in plain sight, and I still have to look after River." With that, she turned and dove back into the water, vanishing into the dark hole deep below the river's surface which led into the cave.

Snowcrystal felt her senses slowly returning to her, and she paused to look around, her eyes widening in shock when she saw the way they had come from. A massive wall of stone reared up to great heights where the river began, flanked on either side by the massive cliffs that formed both walls of the canyon. Below the wall of stone, somewhere beneath the water, was the entrance to the cave. She turned to look at the canyon that stretched far into the distance, and up ahead she could see a small area where the sides of the cliffs were more like gently sloping hills, which led to a more flat area covered in trees and rocks halfway up the side of the canyon wall.

"There…" she whispered, lifting her head weakly. "That seems like the easiest way to travel along these cliffs…" she tried to get up and stumbled, and Redclaw stopped her fall with his foreleg.

"You need to rest for now," the arcanine told her. "We will leave once Nightshade arrives and you have recovered."

"I'm fine…" Snowcrystal whispered uncertainly, pulling away from him. However a few seconds later she felt a wave of dizziness and lay back down. Though she felt terribly weak, she considered herself lucky that Mystic had found a way to rescue her quickly and bring her to the surface.

After a short time, the milotic was back with Nightshade, who seemed to have fared far better than most of the others during the journey. Mystic informed them that nothing had gone wrong, and just when Snowcrystal was about to ask about the gyarados, she decided against it. Mystic would probably be able to reason with him later, considering that she had been a good enough fighter to keep him at bay long enough to rescue her, and mentioning the gyarados might cause the others unnecessary worry.

"Well, now that you're here…you better get going," Mystic warned. "That army won't know there's an exit over here, so flying pokémon might not be headed this way, but still…be careful."

"We will," Wildflame told her, and the milotic, looking uneasy about being in the open, vanished back underwater.

"We're going to rest here for a while before we move on," Redclaw told Nightshade. "Some of us need to."

No one argued with the suggestion, and for a while the pokémon lay down in peace, though Redclaw kept glancing skyward quite often. Blazefang, who was lying away from the main group beneath the shelter of a few trees, shared the arcanine's worry, though he did nothing to show it.

Once everyone had recovered enough, they set out at a slow pace up the easy-to-climb slope, heading to the flat ridge of stone and earth along the cliffs that Snowcrystal had pointed out. Blazefang trailed behind the group, at a loss for what else to do.

Nightshade and Redclaw found themselves acting as the leaders for the group, and once under the shelter of the trees along the wide ridge halfway up the cliffs, they allowed the group to stop and rest, as Stormblade still needed to catch up.

"Do you think Stormblade will make it here okay?" Snowcrystal asked Redclaw while everyone was either resting or hunting.

"We may have to wait a while, but we'll travel slow and take plenty of breaks," Redclaw replied. "I don't want to stay in one place too long, but I do know it'll be hard for Stormblade to catch up." He sighed. "I really don't know if he should have offered to make that journey alone."

"At least he won't be completely alone," Snowcrystal replied. "And he knows that he needs to rest often…he told me he'd be fine…I'm just a little worried."

"Well, Cyclone's army won't see any use for a badly injured pokémon," Redclaw replied. "As for us, well…we're going to have to be careful for a while, especially since there could be flying pokémon around."

Snowcrystal stood up and walked over to the edge of the steep cliff leading down to the river. "I know…but this place looks so peaceful…and it seems like there will be plenty of food. It really feels safe here."

"Compared to what we've been through, it probably is safe," Redclaw replied, walking over to her. "We'll be able to travel slower, sleep longer, and rest more often. But we still have to be careful, and keep looking to the skies…"

Snowcrystal paused to glance upward, but all she saw were a few pidgey fluttering by to land beside a nest in a tree further down below. Still, the thought that a pokémon from Cyclone's army could soar overhead and recognize Blazefang made her afraid. If they saw any suspicious pokémon, Blazefang would have to hide as quickly as he could, for the sake of everyone. She nodded nervously, repeating Redclaw's words in a whisper to herself.

" _Keep looking to the skies…"_

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade had been shown the way to the nearest cave exit by a crobat who had volunteered to lead him after Shade had explained the situation to a group of the cave pokémon. By now, the scyther was so severely weakened by pain and hunger that it was sheer willpower alone that kept him going. The crobat, Echosong, watched him with concern as he stumbled yet again, leaning heavily on the wall of the cave to keep himself from falling.

"I think you should rest again," she advised him.

"No…" Stormblade replied shakily. "I want to find the others. Let's keep going."

Echosong sighed. "All right…it's not far now."

Silently the two pokémon traveled through a narrow tunnel which led upwards, until finally, light shone up ahead.

"Careful, Stormblade," Echosong warned him. "Those strange pokémon are probably lurking around out there. I'll fly out quickly, and you just make it past those pokémon. Like you said, they'll probably just ignore you, and I'll meet up with you once you're out of their sight. All right?"

"All right," Stormblade replied, nodding shakily.

Echosong suddenly zoomed toward the cave opening, vanishing into the brightness. Stormblade waited a few moments before starting to follow her, slowly but surely nearing the light.

When he stumbled out into the brightness, the scent of strange pokémon was everywhere, but that didn't surprise him. However, the moment he had stepped out of the cave, he was momentarily blinded by the strong sunlight. Closing his eyes in surprise, he started to hobble forward. He only got a few paces before something roughly grabbed him around the neck, digging its claws into the burn marks left by the metal collar Team Rocket had put around his neck back at the old building.

"Well who's this?" a voice sneered. "Is he a friend of yours?" By this time, Stormblade's eyes had adjusted to the light long enough to see that the pokémon holding him was a very large tyranitar.

"Eh, put 'im down," muttered another pokémon, an ursaring. "He'll be carrion in a few days."

"Fine," the tyranitar muttered grudgingly, throwing the scyther roughly to the ground.

Stormblade lifted his head and slowly got to his feet. There were three pokémon there, the tyranitar, an ursaring and a scyther…the same scyther he had seen before in the cave. His eyes widened in shock as he noticed that the scyther was holding Echosong in her jaws. The crobat was dead, and there was a deep slash across her body.

The ursaring followed Stormblade's gaze and looked at the other scyther. " _That_ one looked healthy though!" he remarked.

"So?" she muttered, dropping the crobat to the ground. "There's barely enough food to go around as it is. Cyclone will never know!"

Stormblade froze. He recognized her voice, and now that his eyes had completely adjusted to the light and he could see her clearly, he realized it wasn't just her voice he recognized. He knew this scyther.

"What are you staring at?" the scyther spat, glaring at Stormblade. It became obvious to him that she didn't recognize him, even though he remembered that she had heard someone call him by his name in the cave.

"Silverbreeze?" Stormblade asked slowly. "What…are you doing…away from the oth-"

Before he could register what had happened, the other scyther had slammed the dull side of her blade so hard into the side of his head that it knocked him over. "None of your business!" she spat. "And how do you know my name? Who are you?" Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and she seemed to recall something. "Wait…back in the cave…one of those other pokémon called you Stormblade. Is that your _real_ name?"

Confused, Stormblade wondered why she would ask something like that. Surely she would know that Stormblade was his real name. He had to remind himself that with his injuries, he was completely unrecognizable. He decided not to answer.

However, after Silverbreeze took a closer look at him, she confirmed the answer for herself. Laughing, she stepped back to the others. "So this is what's become of you?" she cried. "You're certainly not so high and mighty now!"

"Silverbreeze…" the tyranitar began, "what other pokémon did you see in the cave? Was this scyther with the houndour?"

Silverbreeze stopped, turning back to Stormblade. "I couldn't see the houndour in the cave," she began, smiling a little. "But you're right; they all went in as a big group. He was one of them."

The tyranitar walked up to the cringing Stormblade and lifted him roughly by one of his wings. "Well then, you can tell us where the houndour is, can't you?"

Stormblade hesitated. He didn't know the exact location of Blazefang, but even if he had known, giving away the houndour's location would also be putting his friends in danger. "I don't know!" he growled.

"Uh-huh. Sure you don't," the tyranitar growled. "You were with them. Someone was leading you out of the cave, so obviously your 'friends' have the means to find their way out, but we haven't found them! Where are they? Where are they planning to escape?" he bellowed loudly, shaking the scyther roughly.

When Stormblade didn't answer, the ursaring sighed. "This isn't working," he muttered. "Bring him to Cyclone. He'll deal with him…and Cyclone will probably be pleased with us too. And you know what that means…a reward!"

"He's right," Silverbreeze agreed. "Solus has ways of making pokémon talk. You stay here," she told the ursaring. "Guard the cave entrance. We'll tell Cyclone you helped too. Now let's go!" She glanced at the tyranitar who had grabbed Stormblade's arm above the blade. He began to drag him over to her as she led the way back to the army's main camp.

_To be continued…_


	36. Into the Canyon

Cyclone had always hated humans.

Sure, he had once had a trainer for a period of time, but he had put up with it because the trainer could provide him with things he needed which he could not get anywhere else.

An evolution stone, to name one such thing.

Cyclone felt no guilt at abandoning his previous master in the desert with the rest of his pokémon. Humans as a species were cruel, and the fact that his trainer was a nice person did not change the fact that the majority of humans took pokémon away from their homes and thought nothing of it.

Apart from his trainer, Cyclone had not met any particularly nice humans. He had been born in a city where eevee had become incredibly common through breeding. As a result, many eevee, namely males, were left unwanted.

Cyclone grew up on the streets of the city, along with his parents who had been thrown out of their humans' home because they had become too old to breed. He was their last child, yet no one had purchased him simply because he looked small and weak for an eevee his age, and many of the humans wanted females.

Though he lived a meager existence on the filthy streets of a crowded city, life did not seem bad to him because he knew no different. His parents had never been given the chance to evolve, but although they were still only eevee, they did their best to protect him. They strived to make his hard life happy, and despite living in such awful conditions, both of his parents discovered a new joy at finally being able to raise one of their pups themselves instead of having him taken away by the humans at a very young age.

At this stage of life, Cyclone felt that everything was one big adventure, and his parents helped him see it that way. Whether they were digging through garbage for scraps or finding somewhere to shelter from the rain, Cyclone's mother and father always made it into a game for him. At many times it kept him calm even in the worst of situations. He was about as happy as a nameless stray eevee in the midst of a massive city could be.

One day when Cyclone and his parents were walking back to one of the many different places on the streets they called 'home,' the three eevee were unexpectedly chased by a growlithe, and in their panic, veered off into another street. It wasn't long before the growlithe stopped chasing them, but the eevee were exhausted. Cyclone had complained about it being cold, so they started to head back. Cyclone hadn't recognized anything around him, and it had been getting dark. He had been scared.

Cyclone's father then suddenly let out a warning cry, and the three eevee bolted as a couple of teenage humans strode into view. The first human had spotted the eevee and ran forward, grabbing the tail of Cyclone's father as he darted by. Frightened, the young eevee's mother had told him to hide as she rushed to confront the humans holding her mate.

It was a futile effort; both of the humans had pokémon and easily defeated the small eevee. Though Cyclone had been young, he remembered distinctly from the humans' words that both of them considered the now common eevee species 'unwanted vermin' and were tired of seeing endless amounts of eevee being adopted into trainers' teams or being left to run freely through the city. Therefore, they decided to let their pokémon have a little fun with the 'common vermin.'

The two trainers then turned to their pokémon, ordering them to attack the two older eevee, and from his hiding place, Cyclone watched as his parents were tortured and killed before his very eyes.

A little less than a day later, Cyclone was found by a trainer, a young boy who brought him to his house and cared for him. Cyclone hated and feared the human, but it was thanks to him that he survived. Having nowhere else to go and knowing that a trainer was his ticket away from the awful city where he had been raised, Cyclone reluctantly decided to join him.

In the years he stayed with his trainer, Cyclone made many attempts to escape after being given one of the things he wanted…evolution. All of these attempts failed and the boy's other pokémon tried to convince him to stay. Cyclone agreed, though in his mind, he knew it would only be until he got stronger.

Secretly, he taught himself to hunt, as he knew that one day he would no longer rely on humans for food. He hated the silly nickname given to him by his trainer, and began to call himself Cyclone, in honor of his evolution.

Throughout the years, Cyclone had seen pokémon being pushed past their limits in battle, beaten, or even accidentally killed during a match. He was blind to the examples of kind trainers around him; he did not believe that humans could be kind. His trainer, he believed, was only using him to win battles and earn money.

Cyclone's hatred of humans increased when one day he witnessed sections of a forest being cut down, and the homes of pokémon being destroyed. He was further enraged when the surviving pokémon were captured and brought back to the city.

His trainer hadn't done anything to stop those humans.

It was only when they had gotten lost in a desert that Cyclone finally abandoned his trainer and the other pokémon, leaving them without water. He had needed it for himself more.

After a long while of walking, he had realized that he was lost. Soon he had collapsed, too dehydrated to use any water attacks, and that was when he had found the green stone. Out of curiosity and fascination, he had reached forward and touched it. The stone sent violent energy surging throughout his body. The energy was so raw and powerful that he had passed out from the shock.

When he had awoken, he had felt a new life flowing through his veins. No longer did he feel tired or weak, and the energy lasted him long enough to find food and water, allowing him to make his way out of the desert. At some point during this time, he had remembered a story his trainer had once told the pokémon, and realized with fascination what his newfound power could be. _A Forbidden Attack._

The story had been vague, and his trainer had only been interested in describing each of the attacks and what they did. Cyclone had heard a voice whisper to him upon first touching the stone, and he had used the attack to see just what it was. The description in the story had matched almost perfectly. _Acidstorm_ was his.

From then on, he began formulating a plan, which led him to quickly seek out someone knowledgeable about the legend of the Forbidden Attacks. He had soon found such a pokémon.

Now, with a vast army at his side, Cyclone sat atop a grassy hill, his sleek, short fur wet after a morning of hunting. He was waiting for any reports of the whereabouts of the houndour Blazefang, who possessed Shadowflare but had been unwilling to join the army. The vaporeon had decided that the attack needed to be taken by force.

Blazefang needed to die.

As Cyclone sat on the cool, damp grass, he picked up the sound of some of his followers approaching. He stood up and walked over to them, hoping for news of the houndour.

Instead, the tyranitar he had appointed to watch one of the cave's exits threw a wounded scyther at his feet. Cyclone's eyes widened. The scyther's back and arms had been burned horribly, leaving flesh and muscle exposed in some places. The vaporeon stood staring, but he hid his disgust well, retaining his usual calm and emotionless expression.

"Why have you brought this scyther here?" he asked, his voice betraying the faintest hint of annoyance. "Scyther aren't prey, and this one is no use to us as a fighter. Unless he has a good reason to be here, throw him into the canyon and tell me what you've found by the cave."

"Oh he has a good reason to be here, all right!" the female scyther, a pokémon whom Cyclone already greatly trusted, and who was called Silverbreeze, told him with a smile on her face. "He was part of the group that the houndour went with into the cave. A pokémon led him out of the cave, so we know that the cave pokémon are helping them. He ought to know where the others, and Blazefang, have gone."

"Hm…well then, good job," Cyclone complimented, the faintest hint of a smile crossing his face. "But let me guess…he wouldn't tell you anything, so you brought him here?"

"Yes, Cyclone," Silverbreeze replied respectfully.

"Oh, but you'll soon get him to talk, right?" the tyranitar asked, giving the motionless scyther a small kick. Stormblade groaned and tried to move away.

Cyclone regarded Stormblade as if he was some particularly dirty piece of filth. The vaporeon turned to Silverbreeze. "Get Solus," he ordered. "And you," he added to the tyranitar, "bring anyone from the army who isn't on duty here as well."

Not wanting to question him, Silverbreeze and the tyranitar ran off.

  
**-ooo-**  


Cyclone watched as the army gathered below the hill. He turned toward Solus, who was grinning widely.

"Hey Cyclone," the espeon asked, his eyes narrowing to mere slits, "do you really think this scyther knows where Blazefang is?"

"It's possible," Cyclone replied calmly. "Now remember, do whatever you want, just don't _kill_ him. I'm going to have a word with the army." The vaporeon turned and walked to the hill, while the espeon darted excitedly beside him.

Stormblade could barely register what had happened, but at some point, he had been knocked out and dragged to the very top of the hill after coming face to face with the army's leader, Cyclone. Now he lay in the wet grass beneath the slowly setting sun, some sort of tough vines tied around his arms just below the base of the scythes, and around his snout. He assumed from Cyclone and Solus's actions that he was about to be made an example of. He had made up his mind to ignore his fear and remain defiant. After all, despite the fact that the espeon had tried to read his mind, Cyclone was still going to have him tortured, and would have even if Solus's attempt had been successful; he had gathered the army there for a reason.

Stormblade did not know why Solus's mind reading attempt did not work. From what he had heard from Cyclone himself, the espeon had perfected his mind reading ability to the point where he could read the minds of unevolved dark types, although he still couldn't hurt them with actual attacks. However, when Solus had tried it on Stormblade, it hadn't worked. Solus had discovered some of Stormblade's other memories, like being locked out in the snow by Justin, teaching Spark how to hunt, lying on a bed in the pokémon center, his talk with Thunder…but no matter how deep into his mind the espeon had delved, he could not see any of the memories regarding Blazefang. Stormblade was not sure why this was so; he hadn't been strong enough to resist it in any way, but he had deeply frustrated Solus and it had been easy to see that the former Rocket espeon had been both humiliated and furious. Now that his interrogation was about to start, however, Solus seemed to be in a much better mood. Solus had known that Stormblade was the scyther Blazefang had attacked; he had seen it in Blazefang's memory. Stormblade had heard him telling Cyclone about it.

The scyther lay miserably on the ground as Cyclone called out to the pokémon assembled below, his words magnified into the minds of every pokémon present by Solus's psychic abilities.

"Now I know you're wondering why I told you to come here," Cyclone began, his calm, level voice intensifying within Stormblade's own head, "I know that some of you have witnessed what happens to traitors…but now I will show you all what happens to those who refuse to aid us in our quest to stop the humans." He turned to Solus and nodded.

The espeon padded lightly over to Stormblade, removing the vine around his mouth by snapping it with his teeth. "Let's hope for your sake that you're one of the smart ones…the ones who say what Cyclone wants to know right from the start," he muttered.

Stormblade ignored him. He knew that no matter what he did, Cyclone had brought the army here to see Solus torture someone, and that wasn't going to change.

The espeon backed up, turning to look at Cyclone and the two pokémon who had come to stand by his side, the tyranitar and the scyther Silverbreeze. Solus smiled, revealing pointed fangs. "Well then, let's begin."

Stormblade jerked back as some sort of very intense white hot, pulsating pain filled his head, and he thrashed in agony, gouging the grass and earth with his scythes as he did so. It felt as if some powerful fire type was shoving long, red-hot claws deep into his head. As he struggled on the ground, he caught a fleeting glimpse of Solus standing rigidly as if in deep concentration, his eyes a fiercely glowing light blue.

All at once the pain stopped. Stormblade gasped for breath, looking up as Solus approached him. "So," the espeon stated casually, his eyes returning to their normal black. "Where is that houndour?"

_'Lie…'_ Stormblade thought frantically to himself, trying to think of something convincing. A wave of agonizing pain rushed through his head again, though this time it was gone almost as soon as it had started.

"No, lying wouldn't be a good idea," the espeon snarled. "Tell us the truth."

Stormblade hesitated, and the memory of the others waiting at the side of the underground lake came involuntarily to the front of his mind. Solus made no move or response other than a frustrated growl; he couldn't read the memory.

"I know I can't read it!" Solus shrieked in response to Stormblade's confused thoughts, his claws digging into the ground in rage. "But I know that you know it! Where is he?"

Several of the pokémon watching below exchanged confused glances with each other and shifted nervously, hoping the scyther would tell Solus. Some wanted the houndour to be a part of the army as much as Cyclone did, and others simply didn't want to watch this anymore.

"I can tell what you're thinking," Solus told Stormblade angrily. "You're afraid to tell because you don't want your friends in danger, don't want Cyclone to have the attack…well let me tell you… _you don't have a choice!_ "

Stormblade shrieked as the pain returned, twice as intense. "TELL US!" Solus roared, but the scyther could barely hear him over the pain that filled his head and mind, forcing away all other thoughts. He couldn't hear Solus anymore. In fact, he could no longer tell if he was still screaming, or if he was really only screaming in his mind. Nothing he did lessened or worsened the agony. It was just one steady stream of constant pain.

Once again the pain suddenly stopped, and Stormblade was left lying shivering on the ground. Through his dazed vision, the scyther could see Solus's lithe form approaching him.

"Well?" the espeon asked, looking at him through blazing violet eyes.

Stormblade did not move. No matter what happened to him, he simply couldn't bring himself to put his friends in danger. And if he said nothing, there was no way these pokémon could find out where the others were.

The corners of Solus's mouth twisted into a grin. "No one being tortured ever remains heroic and noble for long," the espeon smirked, and Stormblade felt a strange sensation, and realized that he was being slowly lifted into the air by some sort of strange blue glow originating from Solus's psychic attack.

Stormblade was completely unable to move, save for his eyes which darted from side to side in horror. He noticed that he was being moved through the air toward a large boulder nearby.

Solus tilted his head toward the side a bit, and Stormblade was suddenly slammed against the side of the boulder. Solus moved his head again and Stormblade moved away from it in the air, only to be sent crashing against it again. This time the espeon lowered his head slightly, watching as Stormblade, who had his back against the rock, was slowly dragged down its rough surface through the air. The scyther could make no sound, but Solus was sure that if he could, he might find that having his burn wounds ripped open by jagged rock enough of an incentive to give him the information he wanted. Solus released Stormblade from the psychic attack, allowing him to fall roughly to the ground. The rock beside him was flecked with scyther blood.

Some of the watching pokémon either looked away or looked down at the grass as Solus walked over to the cringing bug type. Stormblade could feel some blood running down his back, and he lay gritting his teeth together, trying not to make any sound.

"Are you ready to give us the answer?" Solus asked him.

"Yes…" Stormblade gasped. "They escaped back through the tunnel they entered the cave through…got past the guards…they're headed-"

"YOU'RE _LYING!_ " Solus snarled.

Stormblade felt himself lifting back up into the air only to be slammed back into the ground, but this time he was so dazed from the pain of the Shadowflare wounds that he hardly felt it. Solus's psychic energy lifted him upright again, so that Stormblade was forced to stare into the espeon's glowing eyes. Solus inclined his head slightly to the right, and Stormblade heard a snapping, tearing sound as one of his wings was bent backwards and then twisted by the psychic energy holding him in the air. A moment later he was sent crashing against the rock, and the psychic glow around him faded. Painfully the scyther tried to get to his feet, only to be knocked down by an iron tail attack from Solus.

"Where is he?" the espeon hissed, his glowing eyes narrowing to brightly blazing slits.

Stormblade didn't respond, but closed his eyes and curled up on the ground, much to Solus's annoyance.

The espeon's eyes glowed brighter, almost white, but this time Stormblade felt no pain. Instead, images of his friends, his current traveling companions as well as friends in his past, flashed through his mind, each of them maimed horribly and dying in their own blood.

"You want this to happen to your friends when we find them?" Solus asked him, fixing his fierce stare on the scyther. "Because we can arrange that!"

The images in his mind vanished to give way to searing agony once again. It was at this point that Stormblade realized he had reached his limit. He found it nearly impossible to talk and endure the pain at the same time, but he finally managed to force the words out. "They…they whe-were at lake-"

The pain stopped, and Solus's glowing eyes returned to their usual violet color. "Yes…?" he asked, in a mockingly sweet voice.

"An underground lake," Stormblade gasped, "the cave pokémon said…he said…water p-pokémon…can swim underneath…into a canyon…the exit…h…hidden underwater…"

Cyclone calmly approached Solus, taking care not to step on any of the patches of grass that were flecked with blood. "Of course…" he whispered. "The canyon. I'll admit I never would have thought the cave would have opened up in that area. Well, if that's where they're headed or have escaped to, that is where we'll go." He turned to some of the pokémon standing nearest to him. "Gather everyone who's waiting by the cave entrances and bring them here," Cyclone ordered them, and they nodded and walked off.

Silverbreeze, who had been standing near Cyclone the whole time, now looked shocked at the state Stormblade was in. Solus walked over to the motionless scyther, using his psychic powers to send another wave of pain shooting through his body. Stormblade cried out and then lay still. "Now I want to know something…" the espeon hissed dangerously as he approached Stormblade, knowing that most of the army would be preparing to leave now and were no longer forced to stay and watch. "How were you able to keep that secret _hidden…from…me?_ " His last three words were a dangerous snarl, and the scyther at his feet cried out again.

Silverbreeze glanced sideways at Cyclone, who sat perfectly still, almost as if he were a vaporeon made of stone, facing Solus as the eevee evolution continued to torment the helpless scyther and seeming to pay no attention to the pokémon's screams.

"Cyclone?" the female scyther asked slowly, but the vaporeon seemed lost deep in thought, his eyes fixed on the scene before him and the tortured scyther. Silverbreeze shuddered. As much as she didn't like having Stormblade around, she did not like witnessing pure torture. "Cyclone…" Silverbreeze continued. "You've got the answer you want. There's no need for this! Tell Solus to stop!"

Cyclone stood up in one fluid motion, staring at the scene once more before turning sharply around and heading in the opposite direction, Stormblade's screams echoing in his ears. The vaporeon's mouth twisted into a bitter snarl, as he replied to Silverbreeze in nothing more than a dark whisper.

" _Why should I?"_

  
**-ooo-**  


By nightfall, Snowcrystal and her friends had stopped to rest. They had not traveled far, and had stopped early so as to get a lot of rest for the journey ahead. Snowcrystal curled up against Redclaw's fluffy tail, looking at the arcanine with her blue eyes. "Do you think we'll find Articuno soon?" she asked.

"Maybe so," Redclaw told her calmly. "I'm sure that when we do find him, he will be more than willing to help you and your tribe."

Snowcrystal smiled and lay down, feeling exhausted. It was so nice to be able to relax after all that had happened. And when Stormblade caught up, it would be easier for him too.

As the others were getting ready to sleep, Wildflame snuck away from the group, following Blazefang's scent. She found the houndour easily. Blazefang was curled up beneath a clump of ferns, not noticing her presence. He looked small and afraid; he was no longer the ruthless leader he had started to become when he was in charge of the pack. "Blazefang…" Wildflame whispered, and the houndour sat up suddenly, startled.

"Uh…what is it?" he said quickly, glancing to see if the others were around.

Wildflame sighed. "What are we going to do now?" she asked. "We have no idea where-"

"Boneclaw and the rest of the pack joined Cyclone," Blazefang interrupted. "I think he must have promised them help either finding Articuno or driving the growlithe away. I'm not sure. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe Articuno will be strong enough to drive that army away," Wildflame whispered back. "After all, he is a legendary. We can still help the tribe, Blazefang. We just need to stay with this group and try to-"

"Articuno can't help us!" Blazefang growled suddenly, and Wildflame was taken aback.

"Why…why not?" she asked.

"He just can't!" Blazefang growled, and Wildflame could tell that he didn't want to say more on the matter.

"We don't know if he can stop them for sure," Wildflame went on, still very confused by Blazefang's reaction. "But for now we must stay with the others if we're going to make it through all this. If you want…I can try to convince them to…to really let you into their group."

"They'd never trust me," Blazefang muttered bitterly.

"We won't get anywhere if we don't work together," Wildflame replied. "Maybe we ought to help the growlithe. We can work something out between both the tribes! Articuno doesn't need to take sides."

Blazefang sighed. "I suppose working something out would be best…but we can't rely on Articuno…" he replied.

"I know we don't know where he is," Wildflame said quietly, thinking that she knew why he was doubting. "But we can at least try…Articuno can make it so that both tribes have enough territory and prey." She paused, but Blazefang did not respond. "Look, everyone in this group has two things in common. One, they want peace in one way or another, and two, they don't want the Forbidden Attacks to fall into Cyclone's paws. Working together is our best option. I can try to convince them to give you another chance."

Blazefang merely turned away from her, his eyes staring blankly ahead. "I don't know…" he whispered slowly.

Wildflame could tell that he wanted to be left alone. Sighing, she turned and headed back to the others. "Okay, you can decide…but I'll make sure that none of them try to bother you, especially that jolteon," she added with a smile as she padded slowly away, leaving Blazefang to his own thoughts.

  
**-ooo-**  


Morning sun shone brightly through the leafy canopy as Snowcrystal woke and stood up, stretching her forelegs and then glancing around sleepily. The sunlight shone through semi-transparent leaves, bathing everything around her in warm green light. They had certainly found themselves in a peaceful place.

Seeing that the others were not yet awake, Snowcrystal walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the river below, watching it sparkle in the sunlight. The way down looked steep in this area, much steeper than it had been before, but the natural stone pathway wound through the canyon for quite some way ahead; she couldn't see where it ended. Behind her, the cliffs reared up high into the sky, grasses and flowers swaying gently in the breeze from small ledges and niches in the rock.

After a few moments of gazing at the canyon's beauty, some footsteps sounding closer to her made her turn around. She saw that it was Nightshade.

"This place seems a lot more hospitable than those caves we wandered through, doesn't it?" the heracross asked her with a smile.

Snowcrystal nodded. "Do you think we should rest here for the rest of the day to wait for Stormblade?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Nightshade replied. "I think we should at least get to a place where we could all adequately hide if we were spotted by one of Cyclone's followers before we decide to stop in one place. But once we do, I could always go back to search for Stormblade and help him the rest of the way here. I can fly after all."

"But that's dangerous!" Snowcrystal told him. "What if they see you?"

"Regardless of any type disadvantages, I'm sure I could handle a flying pokémon or two," Nightshade said calmly. "It would be a good idea to travel until we find such a place today, then I can go back and help Stormblade."

"All right," Snowcrystal said, smiling back at him. She was glad to see that Nightshade was confident, yet at the same time knew what he was doing. And regardless of the danger Nightshade could face, Stormblade was probably struggling and needed help. And after all, a flying type from Cyclone's army might not want to focus on attacking Nightshade when they were looking for Blazefang.

"We'll leave as soon as the others wake up," Nightshade told her. "You should rest now."

"Okay," Snowcrystal replied, nodding.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was still morning by the time the group began traveling again. For a while, their path had gotten steadily rockier, and there were places where they had to clamber over rough boulders or climb a little ways up or down the cliffs to stay on the wide ledge path. Spark and Rosie had difficulty climbing some of the rocks and had to receive help from the others. Snowcrystal and Nightshade were always ahead; Snowcrystal was used to climbing rocks and Nightshade possessed wings.

"Can you slow down?" Rosie called from down below as Snowcrystal reached the top of a particularly difficult to climb rock pile. "Not all of us have four good legs you know!"

While the others continued to struggle in their climb, Thunder leaned against the rocks at the very bottom, taking deep gasping breaths as she closed her eyes and tried to fight the dizziness that was threatening to make her collapse. Her whole body was weak and she couldn't stop shaking, but she refused to stop moving for long, lest she draw attention to herself from the others. Taking another rasping breath, she stepped shakily away from the rocks for a moment and then began to climb.

Nightshade was completely aware of Thunder's situation, but he said nothing and acted as if he didn't notice. The last thing Thunder needed was more anger and stress, which she would certainly get if she knew that someone was worried about her. All the same, he allowed the group to take breaks often, claiming that everyone needed to rest, and Thunder never made any objections.

It was during one of these resting times that Snowcrystal decided to go ahead. She walked a little further and soon noticed with dismay that they would all have to climb up the rocks forming the side of the cliff face that stretched far above them for a while in order to carry on. When she came back and reported the news, the only pokémon eager to keep going were Wildflame and Nightshade.

Spark and Rosie felt discouraged, and Blazefang, who was still exhausted, muttered something angrily under his breath from where he sat a good distance away from the others. Yet despite this, they soon agreed to keep going, as everyone was looking forward to better shelter and a real chance to rest.

The climb was tougher than any of them had expected. Thick foliage often blocked their path and made the going difficult, and it was hard to see how much farther they had to go because the trees blocked their view. Wildflame, Nightshade, and Redclaw often had to help Spark or Rosie, and a few times Nightshade even risked asking Thunder if she needed help, but she rejected all of his offers.

"It can't be far now," Snowcrystal called to the others from up ahead. "I can see where the foliage thins out further on. We'll be able to see where we can climb back down to the path!"

"Let's hope so," Spark muttered irritably as he limped after Snowcrystal, who was walking further ahead, hoping to see how much farther they had to go.

The growlithe walked farther ahead, quickly reaching the area where there were no trees around her to block her view and where she could see the canyon below.

She was met by a very strange and somehow mysterious sight. Directly below her, there was a place where the smoothly flowing river formed a large round pool right beside the tall cliffs. There the water was still, yet startlingly crystal clear. What intrigued Snowcrystal most was that in the center of the pool, a large misshapen chunk of gray rock reached from the depths of the water to a short way above the surface, and placed on the rock were several small statues of pokémon.

Most of the statues couldn't have been taller than Snowcrystal's foreleg, but there were about thirty all together, spread out over the surface of the rock, looking peaceful and undisturbed. They were of various pokémon; Snowcrystal spotted a remoraid, a vaporeon, a clefable, a rapidash, a mightyena, and several others. For a moment her gaze wandered away from the rock and the small statues to the crystal clear water. Her eyes widened when she noticed a much bigger statue of a regal looking arcanine lying completely submerged at the water's depths, its mouth open in a silent snarl of defiance. The pool was not very deep, but all the same it surprised Snowcrystal how clearly she could see the statue through the water. She couldn't tell exactly, but it looked at least four times as big as she was, not quite as big as a real arcanine, but still very intricate and beautiful. The submerged statue did not look very old, but it didn't look as if it had been put there recently either.

Snowcrystal was so mystified by the strange sight, which looked so calm and peaceful, that she did not notice Redclaw standing beside her on the overhanging rock that towered above the still pool. "I guess we found what we were looking for," the arcanine spoke up, startling her. "Look over there, there's an easy way back onto that path on the cliffs we were following." He angled his head toward the easy climb as the others started to catch up.

"Redclaw…" Snowcrystal began. "How do you think those statues got there?"

"Maybe humans put them there," Redclaw began. "Who knows…maybe this was meant to be a special place to honor pokémon. It doesn't seem like any of the local pokémon here have even tried to disturb them."

Rosie, who along with the others had made it to where Snowcrystal and Redclaw were, had forgotten her exhaustion as she stared down at the pool in awe. It wasn't just the statues that intrigued her. The whole area was startlingly beautiful, and there didn't seem to be any pokémon in or around the pool at the moment.

"This must be a very special place to the pokémon here," Nightshade told the others as he looked down from the cliff. "We should probably leave it alone."

Snapping out of her trance, Snowcrystal nodded. The others seemed to have regained both a bit of strength and hope from seeing a place so peaceful after all the danger they had been through, and they needed to keep going. "Redclaw found an easy way down," the growlithe told them. "Follow me!"

Snowcrystal led the others single file over the rough stone as they slowly descended, passing around the statue rock and the clear pool. It wasn't long before they were back on another wide ledge covered in foliage where the going was much easier. Snowcrystal paused to look back at the silent statues one more time, seeing the sunlight hit the water and illuminating the beautiful arcanine statue. The fangs in its open mouth seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, and she could see the entire statue clearly now. She lifted her gaze to the small statues standing so peacefully and undisturbed, sheltered from storms by the cliffs that surrounded them, and then she turned and carried on, leaving the tranquil sight behind.

  
**-ooo-**  


They hadn't been walking for long when Nightshade realized that something was wrong. He had a strong feeling that he and the others were being watched, and not by particularly friendly pokémon either. The heracross kept his suspicions quiet, for he did not want the unseen strangers to realize that he had noticed anything before he could find out more about them.

His eyes darted from side to side as he walked, noticing almost every faint rustle of leaves or bushes. Blazefang noticed his odd behavior and watched him, confused.

"What are you doing?" the houndour sneered at Nightshade, giving the bug pokémon a glare.

"Worry about yourself and leave the rest of us alone, unless you have something important to say," Nightshade replied calmly, turning away from him.

"Blazefang has a right to be curious," Wildflame spoke up. "I've been noticing you acting strange too. What is it?"

Nightshade sighed. "We're being watched," he told her, barely above a whisper.

Snowcrystal and Redclaw heard it too, and paused to look at Nightshade in confusion. Thunder had heard as well, but unlike the others, she didn't seem shocked or surprised. Snowcrystal opened her mouth to question either her or Nightshade, but several fierce cries that seemed to come from everywhere around them at once stopped her from saying anything.

Out of the bushes and trees and up from the river area, several pokémon suddenly appeared, circling the group and hemming them in against the cliffs. There were about twelve of the strangers, and they were all of various species, types, strengths, and sizes, but they were all predator pokémon and seemed to belong to a tribe of some sort.

Thunder's eyes blazed, and she took a step forward as if about to attack, but Redclaw stood in her way, looking at her pleadingly. For a moment she looked ready to attack him, but then paused and lowered her scythes. She simply did not have the energy.

Knowing that he was making a bold move, Nightshade stepped forward to face the closest two pokémon, a zangoose and a salamence. Both of them eyed him warily.

"Look," Nightshade began, "I know we're in your territory, but we don't mean to be a threat. We're looking for a place we can rest before carrying on."

The salamence and zangoose looked unsure of how to respond, when a voice sounded from somewhere nearby. "Oh, leave them alone! They aren't any threat to us."

Nightshade and his friends turned to see a linoone jump gracefully from a tall tree growing near the top of the cliff and land beside the rest of the strangers. "I don't see what the problem is," the linoone continued, staring at her stunned tribe-mates, "it's not like there's any food shortage or anything. And they've been traveling for a while from the looks of it."

The zangoose stepped past Nightshade to face the linoone. "Our leader wants us to make sure any strangers are harmless before they go on through our canyon," he growled.

"Oh sure," the linoone replied. "Clearly a bunch of injured and tired pokémon are a real threat to our _great leader_. Just look at them! If anything, they need help. And at least the heracross knows how to be polite, unlike you."

Taken aback, the zangoose faced the travelers again. He looked uncertain. "But-"

"Our leader has allowed us to help others in the past," the linoone continued. "And I thought that was one of the duties of our tribe, to help those in need."

"That was one of the _old_ duties!" the zangoose growled, but seeing that some of his companions were agreeing with the linoone, he relented. "Fine," he muttered. "We'll take them to the tribe. But don't get mad at me if our leader rejects them."

"If he wants to stay leader, he won't," the linoone replied sharply. "It is a leader's duty to allow the tribe to help others and to help as well!"

"Maybe so," the zangoose replied, "but the leader only helps when he sees fit. And I don't see what this little group of travelers could do for us. And as for him staying leader, well…he certainly won't be giving up the position anytime soon. And there are many who support his ways, as I do."

The linoone's eyes narrowed. "Maybe not, but if he wants the respect of half the tribe, he'll help them." She turned to the travelers who all looked either confused, worried, or both. "Follow me," she told them. "We'll take you to a place where you can rest."

Following the linoone gratefully, Snowcrystal and her friends joined the native pokémon as they all climbed down toward the river.

  
**-ooo-**  


In the early morning light, the place where Cyclone's army had been resting earlier lay desolate after the vaporeon had gathered his pokémon together and began undertaking the journey. It was not far, but rounding up everyone had taken time, and Cyclone still needed to find the hidden entrance's specific location. However, once the army had left the area, the local pokémon lucky enough to have avoided them could breathe a sigh of relief.

But the army had left one pokémon behind. Lying half submerged in thick mud at the bottom of a shallow ditch in the ground was Stormblade. Having no further need for him, Solus had simply tossed him there using his psychic powers after the scyther had finally passed out from pain. Now Stormblade was completely alone, apart from two inquisitive poochyena who approached the ditch curiously, then left when they discovered that he was a half-starved scyther and not some plump prey pokémon. All throughout this time, Stormblade lay senseless.

It was a while before he woke up. When he finally did awaken, he was so dazed that he was hardly aware of anything around him. His wounds were covered thickly with dry or drying blood, and one of his wings lay limp and broken at his side. For a while, he could do nothing but lay there alone in the mud. But the memory of himself giving away his friends' plans of escape was burned into his mind. He had helped put them all in danger, and though his situation seemed hopeless, he had to warn them.

Stormblade's first few attempts to stand up failed, and instead he was forced to crawl slowly through the mud and up and out of the shallow ditch. Several times the pain made him stop or suddenly scream in agony, but he forced himself to keep going until he made it out and onto the grass at the edge of the ditch. Once he felt the grass beneath him he collapsed, lying still for a long time.

However, he knew that he could not just lie there. Pushing himself painfully upright, Stormblade lurched forward, nearly stumbling to the ground and stopping his fall by digging his scythes into the soft earth. Even though every instinct within him was screaming for him to lie down and not move, he forced himself to keep going, hobbling painfully and awkwardly on all fours, following the traces of Cyclone's army which would lead him to the canyon. Several times he stumbled, or became so overcome by exhaustion that he could not move, but every time he got back up again. He needed to find his friends before Cyclone did, and he knew he had to keep going, no matter how slim his chances of getting to the others were. In his confused state, he had no way of telling how far ahead Cyclone's army would be by now. He only knew one thing.

_He was going to find his friends and warn them, or die trying._

_To be continued…_


	37. The Shelter Caves

Snowcrystal and her small group walked among the canyon-native pokémon as the linoone led them down to the river and along the bank, going slowly enough to allow the injured members to keep up. Snowcrystal watched as the linoone walked up to the tall rock face of the cliff nearest to them, pushing aside a large mass of bushes and tangled vines to reveal a big stone passageway.

"Oh no…not more caves…" Spark groaned.

"It's perfectly safe," the linoone reassured him. "There's been some food brought in here today, and there's a small stream running through part of the cave if you want fresh water. You won't have to go outside to get it."

"Food?" Spark repeated, suddenly seeming perfectly fine with the idea of venturing into the cave.

"Yes," the linoone repeated. "Come with me."

As all the pokémon followed, Redclaw caught up with the linoone. "I may not be the best hunter," he told her, "but if you want…I could also go and collect some food while the others rest."

The linoone shook her head. "Not now you won't," she told him. "Now, you _all_ need to rest. There will be time for you to hunt later. You can bring food for us then."

The further they walked from the sunlit entrance, the darker the cave became. However, the linoone walked swiftly and confidently, as if she was so used to traveling through the tunnel that she didn't even need the light to see by. Snowcrystal glanced at the well-worn floor, seeing by the light of her crystal the shallow claw marks made from countless years of pokémon passing through the cave.

Suddenly, it began to get lighter. The linoone emerged into a huge cavern, followed closely by the travelers and the native pokémon. Snowcrystal looked around in awe; unlike the cave they had wandered through before reaching the canyon, there were few stalactites. In the ceiling were several small holes through which sunlight flickered through, illuminating the cavern. Whenever small clouds drifted above the cave, some of the lights would dim and then become suddenly bright again, giving Snowcrystal the impression of sparkling stars. All around the cavern were small tunnels and hollows, and standing, sitting, or resting in them were many pokémon of various species.

As the group of pokémon who had confronted them on the cliffs separated and walked into the tunnels, some of the ones who had been resting in the cave turned to look curiously at the travelers. The linoone paid them no heed and led the group to the far end of the vast room, where a short tunnel leading to a medium sized cavern was visible.

"This is our healer's room," she told the others. "Anyone who has injuries should follow me. The rest of you, stay here."

Rosie, followed more reluctantly by Spark and then Redclaw, who still had a half-healed gash on his leg, followed the linoone inside. Snowcrystal glanced at Thunder, wondering if she was going to follow too.

"What are you looking at?" the scyther growled, but Snowcrystal noticed that her voice sounded faint and weak. The growlithe decided not to say anything.

The linoone emerged from the healer's cavern, along with a tall gardevoir. Most of the pokémon in Snowcrystal's group seemed surprised that such a pokémon would live in a cave, but it made sense for a gardevoir to want to stay in such a beautiful canyon. "This is Streamrose," the linoone told them. "And, well, I realize that I haven't introduced myself. My name is Rockclaw."

Upon seeing Thunder, Streamrose looked shocked. "Don't you think you should-" the gardevoir began, but Thunder didn't let her finish.

"I'm not going in there if that's what you're asking," the scyther replied. "I know better than to trust strangers."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Streamrose replied, making Thunder narrow her eyes and growl at the healer. "It's my duty to help those who are injured and ill. You don't want those wounds to become infected do you? And…you also shouldn't be traveling or walking around the cave while you're sick."

Thunder looked at her, surprised. "I'm not sick," she told the gardevoir.

"Oh, sure you're not!" Spark shouted from the entrance to the healer's cavern.

Streamrose ignored him. "Er…I'm afraid you are. It's not that hard to tell," she told the scyther, trying not to let her eyes wander to Thunder's scars or collar too much.

"You're wrong," Thunder growled. "I'm not sick."

"Oh, really?" Wildflame muttered, giving Thunder an annoyed look. "Then what was that I heard about you getting dizzy spells and fainting in the middle of that big cave? And you've been getting a lot weaker lately, and I see you shivering all the time. If that doesn't fit your definition of sick, what does?"

"I'm just tired," Thunder insisted, "not sick."

"You're a bad liar," Blazefang pointed out, rolling his eyes at the scyther.

Rockclaw prevented further argument by stepping between Thunder and Streamrose. "Look," she told Thunder. "There are plenty of smaller caverns leading off from the healer's den if you want to rest there. You'll be alone except for when Streamrose treats your wounds."

Thunder thought about it for a moment and turned to look at Streamrose. "No," she muttered. "I'll go with the others. I don't trust you. And I don't need to rest now."

"Rude, aren't you?" Spark muttered. He looked at the healer. "So…uh, do we get food brought to us here?"

"Later," Rockclaw told him. "First I must talk to our leader. The others can come with me. We can bring you some food when we get back."

"Are you sure you want to do all this for us?" Nightshade asked, seeming surprised that Rockclaw and Streamrose seemed willing to do so much for them. Thunder didn't seem impressed, and walked off to explore the cave while waiting for the others.

The linoone nodded. "We do not struggle to survive here," she told him. "There is more than enough to go around and finding food is easy. There are many berry bushes here, so plenty of prey, and a river full of fish of course. And we also have these cave tunnels for shelter in case of bad storms. And if any creature that could be a threat to us comes here, such as humans, the entrances are well hidden."

"Well, that's nice of you and all," Blazefang began, earning several glares from the others, "but I find it a bit odd that you let that 'Thunder' scyther in here. I'm sure you don't want your entire tribe getting her sickness, do you?"

"I don't think we have to worry," Streamrose replied, giving the houndour a small smile. "We have plenty of herbs to treat illnesses, and that scyther's body is weak; she is more prone to sickness than the rest of us are."

Blazefang said nothing and merely looked away. In his tribe, bringing in a foreign pokémon who was ill would be completely unacceptable. It meant danger to the tribe. "So…where's this…leader of yours?" he asked Rockclaw as Streamrose walked into the smaller cavern.

"I'm going to take you to him," Rockclaw replied. "Just be aware that he doesn't like strangers. Don't say anything that might offend him, or he might send you away…or worse," she added in a quiet whisper. She turned and led them across the large cavern, passing Thunder, who rejoined the group reluctantly. The others said nothing as they followed her into a large tunnel veering away from the main room into darkness.

  
**-ooo-**  


Cyclone had found the underwater entrance to the cavern. Being a vaporeon, it hadn't been difficult. But the question was whether or not the fleeing pokémon had left the cave yet. It seemed plausible that they would have, considering that they had found the scyther as he was leaving. But Cyclone wasn't sure after several of his flying pokémon had searched the canyon from the skies, but hadn't spotted them. The ragtag group couldn't have gotten too far. They had to still be in the cave…

Unless they were hiding, of course.

There was always that possibility, but despite the recent trouble they'd had with tracking the houndour, Cyclone didn't let himself grow worried yet. He would have the army wait near the canyon, watching the entrance at all times. If they didn't appear within a day's time, Cyclone would leave some of his pokémon to watch the underwater tunnel just in case, and the rest of the army would storm the canyon. But he preferred that it didn't come to that.

From what he'd seen, the tunnel seemed to go for a long ways underwater, and he did not know how a group mainly consisting of fire types was planning to get through it, but he also knew from interrogating the scyther that they had no other choice.

The vaporeon's gaze passed over the serene canyon, but the beauty was lost on him. He only saw it as one thing, the possible hiding place of the fire type Forbidden Attack. If it wasn't there now, it soon would be.

  
**-ooo-**  


"So this leader of yours… _doesn't_ like helping strangers?" Wildflame asked as they walked through the dark tunnel.

"Well, not really," Rockclaw replied quietly. "But…he doesn't like a lot of things."

"Is he a bad leader?" Snowcrystal asked, giving the linoone a curious glance.

"Well, in the opinion of some pokémon, he is," she muttered, and then fell silent.

"Then why is he the leader?" Snowcrystal asked Rockclaw, who sighed.

"It's because of the way leaders here are chosen," the linoone replied. "The previous leader chose him, out of all the potential leaders, to take his place after he grew too old to lead. So Scytheclaw was chosen, and he has quite a lot of followers."

"Scytheclaw…" Snowcrystal repeated. "Is he a scyther?"

"He was once," Rockclaw answered. "Now he's a scizor…well, he came here as a scizor. He was a trainer's pokémon before, you see. Ever since he became leader, a lot of the old ways have changed, and we aren't encouraged to help other pokémon anymore…in fact, we're often discouraged, since Scytheclaw is so focused on making the tribe better for us. Digging new tunnels, disguising our homes, broadening our territory…all good things, but we simply don't need them much right now. Maybe in the future, but right now there is plenty for us. We should be sharing with others. However, a lot of pokémon here think the change is good."

"I don't understand…" Snowcrystal told Rockclaw. "Scytheclaw may be focused on getting more for the tribe, but that hardly makes him a bad leader. He-"

"That's not all of it," Rockclaw replied grimly. "He wants to take over the territory of other tribes, make the entire canyon our own…by driving them out or getting them to join us. The other tribes want to keep to their own ways, but Scytheclaw thinks it will be better for all the pokémon in the canyon to be ruled by one tribe. I don't think forcing other tribes to change their ways is right. And neither are his…punishments…for those who openly challenge him or don't follow our new rules."

"Sounds a bit like Firedash on her bad days," Blazefang muttered, following the group through the chilling tunnel. "You know, I find it rather stupid that this leader of yours, Scytheclaw, kept that name after evolving. It doesn't exactly fit anymore, does it?"

Rockclaw smiled grimly at the houndour. "There's a reason he kept his name after evolving," she told him. "Scytheclaw's not your ordinary scizor. The insides of his pincers are as sharp as blades…so when he clamps them shut on a pokémon…well, you get the picture. Scytheclaw spends a lot of time practicing his techniques in duels, and after having been trained by a human, he's an excellent battler, I'll give him that much."

Rockclaw suddenly halted in front of a cavern entrance covered partially by many dry vines hanging from above the entranceway. Pushing past them, the linoone, followed by Snowcrystal and then the others, stepped into a large circular cavern.

Snowcrystal noticed that there was a light source here as well, from a single large hole near the ceiling on one side of the room. The room itself was decorated with colorful river rocks placed in niches in the cave wall, and several berries and herbs whose purposes were unknown were resting on small stone ledges near the ceiling. She could smell the remains of some sort of prey pokémon and could see patches of fur and feathers scattered on one side of the room.

At first, Snowcrystal couldn't see anyone there, but after the group had only walked a few feet into the cavern, a large pokémon leaped down at them from the dark. He stood in front of them with a confused and possibly angry expression on his face.

Snowcrystal had never seen a scizor before, but some of the others, like Spark, Redclaw, and Nightshade, had. Scytheclaw looked more formidable than any scizor the three had ever come across. He was a darker red than other scizor, and the spikes on his head looked both longer and sharper. His pincers looked normal at first, but there seemed to be an unnatural-looking sharp edge along the insides, though in the dimly lit cavern, it was hard to see it properly. While Snowcrystal felt intimidated by the scizor's appearance, it was his eyes that unnerved her most. There was something about the look of his calm gaze that gave her the impression that he could be very dangerous if he wanted to be.

"Scytheclaw, these are some travelers we found near the river," Rockclaw told him. "Some of them are injured and sick. I thought it would be best to bring them here. There are three more in Streamrose's den."

Scytheclaw gave each of the visitors a curious and somewhat disapproving glare. He stopped when he noticed Thunder, who was licking an infected cut on her arm and not paying any attention to him. He regarded her curiously; it had been a long time since he had seen another scyther or scizor. "Well…" he began, turning to look back at Rockclaw, "at least this time there isn't a lot of them. They may stay for a few days, but only if those who are healthy will hunt for us."

"I'm sure they will," Rockclaw told him gratefully, relieved that she had caught him in a good mood.

Snowcrystal suddenly noticed that Nightshade seemed uneasy. "What is it?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he whispered back. "I just have this feeling…I think maybe I should go back and try to find Stormblade soon. He'll probably need to rest for a while after walking for so long."

"He knows not to tire himself out too much," Snowcrystal replied. "Don't worry. If you can go out to look for him once we all get a chance to rest, it'll be fine."

Nightshade paused for a moment and sighed. "I guess you're right," he replied.

"Are you paying attention?" Scytheclaw snapped, and both Snowcrystal and Nightshade turned toward him.

"Uh…sorry," Snowcrystal hastily apologized, hoping she hadn't missed anything. "What did you say?"

"I said that you are to stay in one of the empty caves near the main cavern," Scytheclaw repeated in an annoyed tone. "Rockclaw will show you which ones they are. As soon as you've rested a bit, make sure you hunt. You aren't here so we can be your slaves." With that, he turned away, walking slowly to the other side of the room. Rockclaw beckoned for them to leave.

"This way," she told them, heading back into the dark tunnel.

All the way back through the narrow passage to the large cavern, Snowcrystal kept glancing at Nightshade, who still looked to be at unease. She could tell something was bothering him, but she didn't know what.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

Nightshade looked at her in sudden surprise, as if he had just been jolted out of deep thought. "What? Oh…I don't know…I'm just wondering how Stormblade's going to get into the canyon. It would be very difficult for him to climb down the rocks. I'm going to go back for him soon and help him the rest of the way."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Snowcrystal replied, realizing that Nightshade was right. "I'm sure he's had enough of doing things himself by now. He'll probably welcome the help."

Nightshade smiled at her. "I'm sure he will," he replied.

  
**-ooo-**  


The group met up with Rosie and Spark in the medium sized cavern Scytheclaw had told them they could sleep in. It wasn't the best place, as there was very little light and the floor wasn't smooth, but after gathering some moss and leaves and coating the floor with them, it was much more comfortable.

Spark was in a good mood. "See guys?" the jolteon told them excitedly. "I can walk without limping now. It barely even hurts at all too! I wish you would have known about those herbs, Nightshade."

Nightshade didn't reply, and was starting to look deep in thought again.

"Oh sure, ignore me!" Spark muttered. "You're still not much of a healer."

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal asked. "Are you going to look for Stormblade soon?"

"Yes," Nightshade replied. "I'll go at night, when the army is less likely to see me if I run across any of them. I doubt they'd make much of an effort to stop me if they did, since they're so busy searching for Blazefang, but I'd rather be safe."

"Okay," Snowcrystal replied. "Let's just hope Stormblade's all right…"

  
**-ooo-**  


By sunset, the members of Snowcrystal's group who were able to hunt had brought back prey. During this time, Nightshade decided to venture out of the cave and search for Stormblade. While the others were eating, he stepped out into the cool evening air of the canyon before spreading his wings and flying back toward the hills and the large cave.

As he flew on in silence, he could soon see the wall of rock at the end of the canyon, underneath which was the secret tunnel leading into the cave. However, at the top of this rock, there were pokémon moving. Curious, Nightshade flew closer, still keeping enough distance between himself and the strange pokémon. It didn't take him long to realize that there were more than just a few, a lot more. With a jolt of shock, he realized that _this_ was the army. He quickly veered away from the large group, flying in a wide circle around them and trying to keep panicked thoughts from his mind. After all, the army wasn't traveling now; first he had to find Stormblade, then he could warn the others.

It was getting darker as Nightshade flew onward, looking for any sign of Stormblade. After a while of searching fruitlessly through the ever-growing darkness, Nightshade was contemplating heading back. He thought he might have a better chance of finding Stormblade when it was daylight, and the scyther had probably taken shelter somewhere; it would be near impossible to find him now. He also knew it would probably be best to warn the others of the army right away and not waste any more time. Reluctantly, he headed back.

As he was flying back over the grassy hills, something caught his eye. Near a small group of thin trees was a pokémon. Uncertain of whether or not it was Stormblade or some stranger, Nightshade flew closer.

It didn't take him long to realize that the pokémon was, indeed, a scyther.

Alarm took hold of Nightshade. Stormblade was lying down unmoving, and it didn't look like he was asleep. He was lying in the open, not even beneath the trees, on ground that was rocky and hardly suitable for resting on. Nightshade landed at Stormblade's side quickly, looking over his friend in concern.

To say that Stormblade was worse off than before would be an understatement. He was coated from head to claw in mud and in some places, drying blood. Due to this, Nightshade could not see exactly how severe his injuries had become, but it was obvious that he had gained some new ones, and the heracross had a strong feeling that this was no accident. "Stormblade…" Nightshade whispered urgently, nudging his friend's shoulder. As he waited for a response, Nightshade realized that Stormblade was lying down in such a way that his shoulder was being pressed against the sharp edge of one of his blades. He obviously hadn't tried to lay down this way; he must have fallen. Nightshade quickly moved the blade away from Stormblade's shoulder, walking closer to him. "Stormblade, wake up," he whispered, nudging him again.

This time, Stormblade started to stir. All of a sudden he opened his eyes, staring straight in Nightshade's direction. However, it seemed as if he was looking through the heracross as if he didn't exist. Nightshade didn't think that Stormblade was aware that he was standing there.

Stormblade moved his head so that he was no longer staring past Nightshade. He made odd movements like he was trying to lift his arms in an attempt to stand, but after a moment he lay still. Nightshade tried speaking to him again.

"Stormblade, can you hear me?" the heracross asked quietly, nudging Stormblade's shoulder again.

Stormblade gave no indication that he had heard or felt Nightshade nudging his shoulder. He lifted his head, staring straight ahead as if gazing at something Nightshade couldn't see. Nightshade quickly moved in front of him so that he was in Stormblade's line of sight.

"Stormblade…it's me, Nightshade." the heracross whispered, looking more alarmed.

Stormblade gazed blankly through him, leaving Nightshade unsure as to whether he was fully conscious or not, before the scyther opened his mouth slowly to talk. "I…I an…I ne…to t…" He got no further than that, for a moment later he began coughing, and a bit of blood dripped from his mouth. Nightshade froze in shock.

"Don't try to talk…I'm going to bring you back to the others," he told Stormblade, carefully lifting him, knowing that now was not the time to worry about touching his wounds. As soon as he picked him up, Stormblade went limp in his arms. The heracross quickly made sure that he was only unconscious, before turning and flying back in the direction he had come, hoping no one from Cyclone's army would see him.

_To be continued..._


	38. Plans for Battle

Snowcrystal wasn't feeling tired. Worried about Nightshade and Stormblade, she had stayed up by the cave's entrance, waiting for the heracross's return.

The growlithe was still pacing back and forth anxiously when the sound of rapidly beating wings reached her ears. Excited, she ran out of the cave and skidded to a halt on the grass outside at the same time Nightshade landed. Snowcrystal could barely see through the darkness, but the silhouette of Nightshade carrying what had to be Stormblade could be clearly seen. The heracross staggered forward, seeming very exhausted.

"Nightshade!" Snowcrystal called, making the heracross look up at her with his gleaming yellow eyes, which were wide with alarm. "You…you found Stormblade," the growlithe began hesitantly, suddenly wondering why the scyther was so still and unmoving while being carried. "Is he all r-"

"Get…help!" Nightshade gasped as he staggered forward, his whole body shaking. He looked as if he was about to collapse. Snowcrystal realized that he had to have flown very far and very fast to be in this sort of state. "Go!" Nightshade cried, pausing to catch his breath.

Snowcrystal turned and ran, confusion preventing her from knowing whether to be worried or relieved that Stormblade was now here. She knew she should be going to find Streamrose, but she found her paws taking her to her friend's resting cavern first instead.

"Everyone!" she yelled once reaching it, waking the sleeping pokémon up. "Nightshade found Stormblade!"

Spark yawned and stretched his front paws. "See?" he muttered. "I told you Stormblade would need help to get here."

Rosie flicked the jolteon with one of her tails. "Stormblade is tired, and it's better for him not to aggravate his wounds further."

"Well…I couldn't see through the dark but…Nightshade told me to get help, so I'm going to find Streamrose," Snowcrystal replied. She turned around and the group followed her, curious and excited, out of the cavern.

"I'll get Streamrose, Snowcrystal," Redclaw volunteered. "The rest of you go see what Nightshade needs help with. Stormblade might have worsened his wounds with all that traveling."

The pokémon left the cavern together, and even Blazefang followed out of sheer curiosity. Redclaw headed off toward the healer's cavern as soon as they reached the main chamber of the cave. Snowcrystal paused to look around and noticed Thunder standing uncertainly at the entrance to the cavern they'd been resting in. The scyther looked very unsteady on her feet.

Wildflame noticed her as well. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," the houndoom told her. Thunder just looked at her with a blank expression. "Get some rest," Wildflame told her in a calm tone. "We might not be back in a while since we all want to talk to Nightshade and Stormblade, so you'll be alone in the quiet."

Thunder didn't bother to reply, but she silently agreed and walked back into the cavern. Wildflame caught up with the others quickly as they headed briskly through the large cavern.

"I think Thunder is getting worse," the houndoom sighed as she walked. "I kept trying to help her earlier, but she just wouldn't respond to me, not even to growl or anything. She's been getting thinner too…"

"Is that even possible?" Spark asked, rolling his eyes.

"Good question," Blazefang muttered. Spark shot him a seething glare and the houndour withered under his gaze.

Snowcrystal barely heard the others' conversations as they made their way to the cave entrance. Snowcrystal darted ahead of everyone else as she saw that Nightshade had made it into the big cavern from the tunnel leading outside.

The others quieted and followed, gathering around the tunnel entrance as Wildflame used her ember attack to light up the area around her. Luckily, most of the cave pokémon were asleep in other tunnels, so they were not bothered by the sudden bright light. Nightshade looked up at her gratefully as he staggered into view, carrying the limp form of Stormblade with him.

Snowcrystal gasped when she saw him clearly. Stormblade's entire body was coated in sticky mud, and many of his wounds – both new and old – were bleeding after the frantic flight he had endured. Blood was also dripping from his half-open mouth. The scyther looked like a mess, and one of his wings was bent at an awkward angle. Nightshade carefully set Stormblade down before half-collapsing himself in exhaustion.

Everyone seemed alarmed; Wildflame looked as if she couldn't tell if Stormblade was alive or dead, and the look on her face made Snowcrystal believe that she thought he could die any second if something wasn't done. Blazefang looked absolutely disgusted by the sight, Spark seemed frozen in complete shock, and Rosie had suddenly gone very pale, looking as if she was about to pass out.

Blazefang was the first to overcome the shock and break the silence. "So…is he dead, or…going to be?" he asked.

"Neither!" Wildflame told him, and Blazefang looked at her in surprise. Wildflame quickly looked away and turned back to Stormblade. Blazefang's expression had read, ' _Do you actually care about this scyther?_ '

Suddenly Snowcrystal felt Redclaw's thick fur brush against hers as he and Streamrose arrived. They approached Stormblade and Nightshade. The heracross was still too exhausted to stand. Streamrose stifled a gasp as she looked at the bloodied scyther lying on the cave floor.

"What happened?" the gardevoir asked, looking around at the group.

"I don't know," Nightshade said weakly, getting shakily to his feet. "He was hurt very bad before…but not this bad. Something happened to him recently. I don't know what."

Streamrose bent down to examine the wounds quickly. Nightshade looked at them too, and though he couldn't tell for sure, the newer injuries looked at least a day old. An alarmed thought entered his mind. _How long had Stormblade tried to drag himself across those hills and fields in this condition?_

"Help me get him in the healer's cavern," Streamrose said to Nightshade, and despite his exhaustion, the heracross nodded. The two of them carefully lifted Stormblade and headed toward the rocky opening. By this time, a few curious pokémon had entered the large cavern to see what was going on, whispering quietly to each other as they got a glimpse of Stormblade. Streamrose and Nightshade paid them no heed. Snowcrystal saw Stormblade's scythe dragging limply across the ground as Nightshade and Streamrose brought him inside the cavern.

Snowcrystal tried to follow, but Wildflame stopped her. "Better let Streamrose handle this," she told the growlithe. "We'd probably just get in the way."

A few moments later, Nightshade emerged and rejoined the group. "I think we may have to wait a while…" he told them tiredly. "I don't know when Stormblade will wake up. And there's something I need to tell the leader here. For now though, those who want to can go back to our cavern and rest."

The others didn't say anything, though it was easy to tell that none of them felt like resting. Wildflame sighed. "Guess we're all staying here then," she whispered. "At least it'll give Thunder a bit of peace."

Blazefang, who had been debating on whether or not to go back and sleep, despite how unnerved he was, immediately dismissed the idea at the thought of being alone in a room with the scyther who had tried to kill him before. Unfortunately, he realized, he was stuck here for now.

Nightshade looked worriedly at the group. "I need to speak to Scytheclaw," he told them. "If any of you want to come, follow me. It's…it's about Cyclone's army. They've reached the canyon."

The entire group of pokémon looked alarmed, Blazefang in particular, but no one said anything. It was as if the shock of seeing Stormblade in such horrible condition hadn't yet worn off enough for them to be very surprised about anything else.

"I'll go," Snowcrystal told the heracross, and Wildflame, Rosie, and Redclaw agreed to go with Nightshade as well.

"Oh great, I have to stay here alone with _him?_ " Spark growled, looking at Blazefang.

"Believe me, I'm not happy about it either," the houndour retorted.

Snowcrystal ignored the two and followed Nightshade as the heracross rushed into the tunnel leading to Scytheclaw's cavern. The growlithe leapt back in shock as Nightshade was suddenly pushed roughly aside by Scytheclaw when the scizor strode into the large cavern, obviously annoyed by the commotion.

"What's going on?" the leader shouted, and Nightshade quickly moved in front of him.

"I've just brought our friend back here," the heracross explained quickly, "but there is something important I need to tell you…"

Scytheclaw stiffened, staring at Nightshade in shock. "Is that… _blood?_ What is going on?"

Nightshade simply stared back at Scytheclaw in confusion, until he realized that his arms and chest were stained with blood. "It's…it's Stormblade's blood," he explained. "He was the friend I brought back. He's hurt and-"

"I don't care!" Scytheclaw hissed, walking past him and toward the group of pokémon who had been watching.

Stubbornly, Nightshade ran in front of him. "I have to warn you," he told him. "An army of pokémon has found this canyon and they're getting ready to travel through it! You have to stay here and hide." He didn't mention that the reason the army would be traveling was because they were after Blazefang; he didn't want the pokémon in the canyon to turn against them. And even though Blazefang was Cyclone's main target, these native pokémon would likely be forced to join the vaporeon's army if they got in its way.

Scytheclaw could hear the worried murmurs among the steadily growing crowd of pokémon in the cavern. "Well…" the scizor said slowly, "then I will send someone to see for themselves in the morning." Nightshade's eyes blazed as he realized that Scytheclaw didn't trust him, but the leader went on without giving him so much as a glance. "But if there is such a threat, we will not hide. We are not cowards, and our tribe is not small in numbers. We-"

"You can't _fight!_ " Nightshade cried, knowing that a battle would be catastrophic even if the army did not have another one of the Forbidden Attacks. He stood right up to Scytheclaw, staring into the tall scizor's eyes. "You have no idea what you'd be going up against. You don't know anything about them. You can't just-"

In a burst of furious hostility, Scytheclaw lashed out at Nightshade with one of his open pincers with such force that it not only cut a small gash above his right eye, but it knocked him to the ground completely. "You don't give the orders around here!" the scizor snarled, standing threateningly over the heracross.

Looking dazed, Nightshade got to his feet. He briefly held his claws up to the cut, looking shocked when he pulled them away and saw blood. A heracross's armored shell wasn't supposed to be cut so easily. Looking up at Scytheclaw, he said, "Believe me, it would be better to hide and let them pass. Cyclone's army is far stronger-"

He stopped abruptly as the scizor knocked him down again. "What would you know about strength?" Scytheclaw sneered. "My tribe is powerful and strong, and just because you consider us weak does not mean we should hide like cowards." The leader strode past him again, moving toward the members of his tribe who were grouped together.

"I'm telling you…" Nightshade said quietly, standing up again. "You're making a mistake."

Scytheclaw responded without even looking at him. "I would _not_ be making a mistake by protecting our home from something as destructive as an army of pokémon," he said icily.

"Wait!" a pokémon in the growing crowd called out. "Are you sure this is a good idea? What if-"

Scytheclaw rounded on him. The speaker, a leafeon, took a few steps back.

"No, Scytheclaw is right," a silver-furred mightyena replied. "That army could destroy...or at least greatly damage our home."

"Not to mention steal our prey," a pidgeot cried. "I'd be willing to fight to keep that scum off our land!"

A few other pokémon murmured in agreement, but the rest looked uncertain. Then, another speaker stepped forward. It was a sleek, black-furred, almost cat-like pokémon with yellow ring markings on its legs, tail, ears, and forehead. Nightshade recognized it as an umbreon. The umbreon looked around the cave at all the pokémon gathered there. "Are you mad?" he cried. "We don't know anything about this army, and already you're willing to try and fight it? And even if our tribe _could_ defeat them, a group of pokémon that large would kill and injure many, and then what would we do? There wouldn't be enough of us to find food or defend ourselves from other intruders!"

"Moonlight is right," a glameow called. "Even if we end up having to search outside the canyon for food, it's better than risking injury and death."

Several of the pokémon bristled and glared at the two, and most of the hostility was directed at the umbreon. The majority, however, moved toward Moonlight and the glameow and looked back at Scytheclaw almost fearfully.

"We don't want to fight," a flareon told the leader timidly.

Scytheclaw's pincers clenched together tightly as he gave the group facing him a seething glare. Snowcrystal wondered what would happen and if Scytheclaw would order them to fight anyway.

Scytheclaw looked ready to do just that, when the zangoose Snowcrystal had seen earlier whispered to him. "Scytheclaw…" he told the leader, "outright ordering them to do this could cause problems. Problems we don't want to deal with. We-"

Scytheclaw silenced him, understanding what he meant. If most of his tribe was siding with Moonlight and the heracross, presenting it as an order could lead to a refusal to fight. But there was another way, a part of the tribe's ancient laws and traditions the pokémon would have to respect and obey.

Snowcrystal watched as Scytheclaw approached Moonlight. She hadn't heard what the zangoose had whispered to him, but she sensed that something in the leader's attitude had changed.

The scizor reached the group of pokémon, who all nervously turned their eyes on him. "It seems as if most of you here don't want to try defending our territory," Scytheclaw announced in a deceptively calm voice. "But there are several of us who do." He paused to look at those who had moved to the other side of the cave, showing their support for him as leader. "It seems as if the best way to make this decision…would be the traditional way."

Snowcrystal looked around nervously, spotting Rockclaw nearby and moving over toward her. "Rockclaw…what's the…traditional way?"

Before the linoone could answer, Scytheclaw himself explained to the pokémon in the cave, glaring at Nightshade in particular. "The traditional way," he began, "as you all know, apart for you…newcomers…is that when a large number among the tribe supports one decision, and another large number the other, a battle decides the outcome."

"And a pokémon from the side opposing the leader's choice…must fight the leader," the zangoose added.

"And the winner makes the decision," Moonlight finished. "We know. That method hasn't been used in years. But if it's what you want, then I accept. Let's see what _they_ think."

Moonlight turned to the group of pokémon who had supported him, who all looked uncertain for a moment. However, each of them knew that they had little choice. It was either accept Scytheclaw's terms and send someone to fight for a chance at avoiding a large-scale battle, or be forced to fight by the scizor and his many followers. One by one, they all reluctantly murmured their agreement.

"We should hold the battle now," Moonlight growled, staring into Scytheclaw's eyes without a hint of fear. "If no one else is willing, I will volunteer to be-"

"No!" Scytheclaw said quickly, leaving Moonlight looking confused. "One of _them_ must do it." He waved his claw toward Snowcrystal and her companions. "It was one of them that started this. The battle will be held tomorrow morning."

"What?" Moonlight cried. "They're not part of the tribe. This has nothing to do with them!"

"If they don't have anything to do with us, then why don't we throw them out?" Scytheclaw snapped. "Leave them to fend for themselves and perhaps slow down that army-"

"No!" Snowcrystal shouted, and everyone turned to look at her. She backed up a little, wishing she could disappear, but knowing she had to continue. "We'll do it…" she said quietly. "If we can stay here, one of us will battle." She immediately turned her gaze to the cave floor as the pokémon continued to stare. She could not tell if her decision had been a good one or not. Yet, even if one of her friends was injured in the fight, it would be better than all of them having to face Cyclone's army without anywhere to hide, and leaving Stormblade without care. None of her friends said anything, but Snowcrystal was sure that they had realized the same thing. They didn't have much of a choice.

"Very well…" Scytheclaw told her, and turned swiftly back to the tunnel leading to his cavern. "It's settled then. The battle tomorrow will determine what we shall do. Any tribe members who can fly, find out what you can about the army when daylight comes. One of you can inform the newcomers of where the battle will take place, because I expect the one who will fight to be there by sunrise."

Scytheclaw disappeared into the tunnel, leaving the pokémon who had supported Nightshade worried and Moonlight fuming. Angrily, the umbreon turned away and stalked into another tunnel. The large group of pokémon gradually dispersed, whispering anxiously among themselves. Rockclaw approached Snowcrystal and the small group clustered around her, and quietly led them into another small empty cavern.

Once they were there, Nightshade faced Rockclaw with a serious look on his face. "I'll be the one to fight," he told her. "I was the one to speak out against him. This is more between me and him than any of you."

"Don't be silly, Nightshade," Wildflame told him. "Let one of us fire types do it!"

"That's not a good idea," Rockclaw told them quietly, and everyone looked at her in surprise. She sighed and explained to them, "The battle arena is outside this cavern. It's protected by a wall of rock on all sides, and the rocks and trees overhead make it difficult to spot from above, so you don't have to worry too much if that army decides to attack then. But…there's foliage everywhere, and fire attacks would not only burn it, but the flames would spread all throughout the canyon…which is why no pokémon is allowed to use fire attacks in the arena."

"Who else thinks he planned it that way?" Spark muttered darkly.

"Well, what else hurts bug or steel types?" Wildflame asked.

"Fire's his only real weakness…" Rockclaw told her.

Blazefang, who wanted the fight to be won so that they could hide in safety as much as everyone else did, decided to speak up. "I think I have an idea-" he began.

"If you're thinking of using Shadowflare, forget it!" Rosie snarled.

"No! I wasn't thinking that!" Blazefang growled, casting an anxious glance at the confused Rockclaw. "I had another idea. Why not set Thunder loose in the arena and let her rip that scizor to shreds like she tries to do with everything else!"

"Thunder is ill," Nightshade told him. "She could probably still put up a good fight if she was provoked, but she would be injured severely."

"And is that a problem?" Blazefang asked.

Nightshade ignored him. "Like I said, I'm willing to do it," he told the small group again. "I've had experience in battles and I have not been traveling as long as the rest of you, so I'm not nearly as tired."

"I don't know," Blazefang replied. "You don't look like you could take down a scizor. I'm still going with the Thunder idea. I mean, come on, she'd get some exercise and get to kill someone at the same time. She'd love it!"

"Forget it," Redclaw told him. "Thunder is wounded enough. And I suppose Nightshade is right. He is the healthiest and will stand the best chance in a fight if none of us fire types can use our best attacks."

Everyone finally agreed, and wearily they headed back to the cavern they had been resting in. Thunder glanced up at them as they approached, but said nothing. Before trying to rest, Snowcrystal walked over to Nightshade. "Nightshade…" she whispered. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes," he replied. "Now get some rest. And try not to worry about me."

Snowcrystal walked back to where she had been resting, knowing that she would get no sleep that night. She was far too worried about the army, about Stormblade, and about Nightshade to have any hope of falling asleep.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Scytheclaw wasn't sure what to think about the reactions of Moonlight and many of his tribe members. Yet at least they had agreed to let a battle see who would decide whether the tribe should fight the army. In his chamber, he waited until the zangoose from before had brought him prey. Afterwards, the two had talked about the approaching army, and then, the upcoming fight.

"Which one of them do you think is going to fight?" the zangoose asked, looking at Scytheclaw. "It'll probably be one of the fire types if no one's told them about the arena's rules."

"It doesn't matter," Scytheclaw told him simply. "All that matters is that they are defeated quickly. That umbreon worried me…I know there are several pokémon who would leave the tribe if it weren't for the shelter we have, and would fight against us if they weren't so against taking part in large battles."

"Maybe…after the battle, you can get them to see it your way," The zangoose suggested.

"Some of them simply won't listen," Scytheclaw replied. "A better idea would be to remind them what they are up against if they ever decide to rebel."

"You mean the battle?" the zangoose replied. "I don't really think that'll do much. These pokémon have seen the battles before."

"This battle will be a little different…" Scytheclaw said quietly.

"Different?" the zangoose repeated. "What do you mean? What sort of battle is it going to be?"

Scytheclaw smiled. "A battle to the death."

_To be continued..._


	39. The Battle

Snowcrystal left her friends' cavern in the early morning. She was tired of waiting for sunrise. She thought of going to check on Stormblade, and quickly made her way back to the cavern her friends were still resting in to see if any of them wanted to come with her.

Upon entering the cavern, she wasn't surprised to find everyone still awake; no one had slept the entire night. Nightshade, however, wasn't there. Unsure of where he had gone, she asked the others if any of them wanted to see Stormblade, but to her surprise, all but Rosie refused. Snowcrystal wasn't sure she could blame them, and it surprised her that Rosie had been willing to come; the ninetales had looked the most shocked and horrified upon seeing Stormblade's condition the previous night.

They headed toward the healer's cavern together, and when they reached it, they were surprised to find that the healer was gone. Snowcrystal supposed that Streamrose must be caring for some other pokémon somewhere else, but she found herself feeling a bit angry that she had left Stormblade alone.

As she walked inside, it didn't take the growlithe long to find Stormblade in one of the small caverns further back, near a small pool where water had collected from somewhere else in the cave. He was lying on a large patch of moss next to the water, and though Snowcrystal could see that he was no longer covered in mud, that actually made looking at him worse. Now that the mud was gone, she could see how badly hurt he was. On his back were long vertical cuts that made Snowcrystal wonder what on earth could have torn wounds so deeply in an armored pokémon. There were other cuts as well, but luckily they were not as severe. As she approached Stormblade, the scyther didn't give any indication that he was awake.

She walked closer, nudging Stormblade's head with her muzzle. This time, the scyther's eyes slowly flickered open and turned to look at her. His blue eyes seemed dull and lifeless, in a way that she had never seen them before. It startled her.

"Snowcrystal?" he asked in a barely audible voice, and as he opened his mouth, Snowcrystal could see that there was blood covering most of his white teeth. "I thought you were dead."

"Dead?" Snowcrystal repeated. "But why would I-"

"Where are the others?" Stormblade asked. "Are they dead?"

Snowcrystal rapidly shook her head, and Rosie stepped forward, to show Stormblade that she was there as well. She wondered why the scyther hadn't smelled her. "We're all fine," Snowcrystal told him. "Well, Thunder's sick, but…" Her voice trailed off as she realized that she probably shouldn't have told him that.

"You're all here?" Stormblade whispered, sounding more hopeful than she had heard him sound so far. Looking at him, she nodded. Stormblade seemed both relieved and confused. His eyes moved away from Snowcrystal and to the wall of the cave. After a moment he continued. "I think I understand now," he continued in his wavering voice. "That night…when I was traveling alone, I saw Solus kill all of you. I realize now it must have been a dream, or I was hallucinating…but when I was with Cyclone's army, Solus told me he would do it…showed me he could with his psychic powers, so I thought that what I saw was real, and I gave up after that."

Snowcrystal was at a loss for what to say, but before she could open her mouth to say anything, Rosie spoke instead. "Well, we're not dead!" she cried. "That pokémon was lying to you!"

Stormblade didn't reply. He lay still for a moment, his eyes flickering closed. Then he spoke to Snowcrystal. "Is Thunder all right?"

"Thunder!?" Rosie shouted, interrupting Snowcrystal before she could reply. "Thunder's the last pokémon you should be concerned about! She's just fine, now stop worrying about her!"

Snowcrystal was startled by Rosie's outburst, but she said nothing, not wanting to spark an argument while they were around Stormblade. Instead, she glanced around the cavern and saw a dead taillow near where Stormblade was lying down. Realizing that someone must have brought it in for Stormblade earlier, she walked over to it, seeing how thin Stormblade looked. When she reached it, she could see that it was completely untouched, and when she brought it over to Stormblade, he made no move to even acknowledge it. He looked for all the world like he had just given up.

She was trying to think of something she could do to help when Streamrose returned. Snowcrystal and Rosie both looked up in surprise as the healer entered, and they could tell she didn't look pleased.

"Who let you in here?" she asked crossly. "Get out and leave him alone until I say you can come here!"

Startled, Snowcrystal and Rosie hastily left without a reply. "Why did she sound so angry?" Rosie asked, looking back at the tunnel entrance in confusion.

"I don't know…" Snowcrystal replied. "Maybe she's overwhelmed by having to take care of a lot of pokémon…" Her voice trailed off. Truthfully, she wasn't worried about why the healer had yelled at them. She was worried about Stormblade.

Both fire types looked up as Nightshade approached. "She didn't let you see Stormblade?" he asked, and Snowcrystal shook her head, though she didn't tell him that she _had_ gone to see him anyway. Nightshade was silent, and for a moment he looked away from them and toward the pokémon who were gathering in the large cavern nervously.

Nightshade knew that he had to find Rockclaw, who would show him where the battle arena was so he could be there in time for his battle with Scytheclaw. Turning to Rosie and Snowcrystal, he told them, "I'm going to find Rockclaw soon. I'm not sure if other pokémon are allowed to watch, but…if you want, you can come with me."

Snowcrystal looked up at the heracross, and somehow she felt that Nightshade wanted one of them to be there when he battled. Slowly, she nodded.

"I'd…rather not," Rosie admitted. "Not after just seeing Stormblade…like that…" she shuddered.

"I understand," Nightshade replied, a bit disappointed. "You can go back to the others if you want. Come on, Snowcrystal."

Snowcrystal watched as Rosie limped away and then she followed Nightshade as he looked around for the linoone. It didn't take him long to find her, and she quickly led them into yet another tunnel.

"Will Snowcrystal be able to watch?" Nightshade asked her.

Rockclaw nodded. "There are often large numbers of pokémon watching," she told Nightshade. "She and her friends may come."

"Should I ask if any of them want to?" Snowcrystal asked.

Rockclaw and Nightshade nodded, and Snowcrystal ran off. She soon returned with Wildflame, Redclaw, and Spark. The rest had chosen to stay in the cavern. Wordlessly, they all followed Rockclaw as the tunnel they were walking through opened up into a large circular space surrounded by tall rocks and foliage on all sides, and lit by the pale light of the early morning sun.

There weren't many pokémon in the area, but those that were there were gathered on the ground or on rock ledges, waiting. Snowcrystal recognized Moonlight the umbreon watching from the top of a tall boulder. "I suppose we just wait?" she asked Rockclaw.

"Yes," the linoone replied with a nod. "I'm not staying here. I don't see the point of watching such a gruesome… _'sport_.'" She stood up and walked carefully back through the cavern, leaving Snowcrystal feeling confused.

"Gruesome?" she repeated. "I thought it was just a battle to decide who would-"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it did get gruesome," Redclaw replied. "But if Nightshade can win fast, he can end the battle before Scytheclaw has a chance to fight dirty."

"That's what I plan to do," Nightshade replied.

Gradually, more and more pokémon gathered together in the small area, until the edges of it were rather crowded. All of the pokémon kept well away from the center of the clearing, and Snowcrystal wondered if there were usually this many, or if everyone was simply too anxious to see the outcome of the fight.

It wasn't long before Snowcrystal was led away from Nightshade's side by some of the canyon pokémon and told to sit on one of the ledges. She looked worriedly at her friend, but to her surprise, Nightshade still looked calm and confident. _'Maybe,'_ she thought, _'Nightshade really is a great battler. He must know what he's doing…'_

Snowcrystal found herself anxiously glancing up at the sky, as if expecting one of Cyclone's army pokémon to fly over the arena and notice them. Thankfully, she found that Rockclaw was right; there was so much dense foliage up above them that a flying type could easily soar right over the clearing without noticing anyone.

A sudden silence fell over the arena and Snowcrystal turned to see Scytheclaw striding into the clearing, while Nightshade watched him carefully. The scizor gave the heracross a cold glare, and Nightshade returned it. The pokémon who had accompanied their leader into the clearing quickly scurried to the rock ledges as everyone waited to see what Scytheclaw would say.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Scytheclaw didn't stop to say anything. Instead, he darted toward Nightshade with a speed that shocked Snowcrystal completely. _'What!?'_ she thought. _'I thought only scyther could move that fast!'_

Nightshade was also unprepared for the sudden onslaught, and though he tried to dodge, he was far too slow. Scytheclaw's razor sharp pincer slashed him across the chest. Nightshade stumbled backward, but Snowcrystal could see that he had moved back enough that it had not done any serious damage. However, Snowcrystal didn't feel any less worried. She could see a few drops of blood dripping from the wound. If Scytheclaw could cut through the heracross's thick armor that easily, Nightshade was in trouble.

Nightshade, however, didn't seem worried or bothered by the injury, though he looked at Scytheclaw with more wariness as he anticipated another attack. A red blur moved across the clearing and came to a halt at the other side, revealing Scytheclaw.

"Surprised?" the scizor hissed at the other bug type. "I never wanted to evolve, so after I was forced into it, I trained myself to be able to move nearly as fast as my previous form…and to fly as well."

"I thought we were here to battle, not talk," Nightshade said coldly, but Snowcrystal could see that he was beginning to look worried, as if he wasn't sure what Scytheclaw was planning.

"Of course," Scytheclaw replied with a smile, and without any further warning, he darted straight across the clearing toward Nightshade.

This time, Nightshade saw him coming, and with a shock he realized that the scizor was aiming right for his eyes. The heracross dodged – though not quickly enough – and instead of getting his eyes gouged out by the blade-like pincer, he found it clamped around his arm. Nightshade swung around, attempting to strike Scytheclaw with his horn, but the scizor moved too quickly. However, this motion allowed Nightshade to dislodge Scytheclaw's pincer before it could cut deeply. The heracross then charged toward the scizor, who retaliated by darting to the left and cutting deeply into Nightshade's side with his pincers.

Snowcrystal watched as small flecks of blood littered the trampled grass, shocked that an attack so vicious would be allowed in this sort of battle. She began to wonder if this really wasn't a sparring match, but instead deadly combat. Snowcrystal remembered that she had been the one to agree with Scytheclaw that someone from her group would fight, and she wondered with frightening horror if she had unknowingly sent Nightshade to his death.

In the middle of the clearing, Nightshade lurched forward, his eyes half closed as he gripped a tree with his claws to keep from falling over. Snowcrystal could see that Scytheclaw had wounded him badly. The scizor bolted toward the heracross again and, gritting his teeth, Nightshade spun around, ramming into Scytheclaw with his horn.

Snowcrystal's eyes lit up with hope as Scytheclaw was thrown backwards, landing roughly on the rocky ground. However to her dismay, he quickly stood up, looking unharmed. The scizor rammed into Nightshade, ripping at him savagely with both claws. For a series of seconds the battle went on, Scytheclaw attacking and Nightshade trying to defend, and then the two pokémon stopped to catch their breath.

As she watched the two pokémon, Snowcrystal became even more afraid. Nightshade had many wounds, but Scytheclaw was completely unscathed. _He was just too tough…too fast…_

Once again, Scytheclaw was the first to attack. This time, however, Nightshade succeeded in blocking the attack with his horn…well, _almost_ succeeded. The scizor quickly locked his claws around the heracross' horn, before slamming the weakened pokémon into the ground. Scytheclaw aimed to slash at his eyes again, and in a frantic attempt to shield himself, Nightshade blocked the attack with his arm, and the pincer clamped around it, crushing down with surprising force.

With a cry of rage and pain, Nightshade leaped to his feet and slammed into Scytheclaw in one fluid motion, knocking the scizor forcefully into the ground. This time, Scytheclaw actually looked winded. "What are you trying to do, kill me?" Nightshade shouted, glaring at Scytheclaw through eyes narrowed to slits. Blood was dripping slowly from his wounds, mostly from his arm and the wound in his side.

"I thought we were here to _battle_ instead of talk…" Scytheclaw hissed as he stood up.

Snowcrystal's eyes then widened in horror as, faster than her eyes could track, Scytheclaw dashed toward Nightshade and slashed him with one of his pincers along his injured side, and blood welled out from the further opened wound. The growlithe found herself unable to watch any longer. Turning from the battle, she bounded along the side of the rocks, looking for a familiar face. With a sickening jolt, she remembered that Rockclaw had left the arena, and the path to where her friends were huddled was blocked by the group of pokémon sitting between them. However, no sooner had she started to panic than she noticed Moonlight the umbreon watching from a boulder nearby. As quickly as she could, she made her way over to the dark type.

"Moonlight!" she cried. "What's going on? I thought the battles weren't supposed to be-"

The umbreon regarded her with a hint of surprise, but quickly answered before Snowcrystal could finish. "These battles usually last until one of the pokémon gives up," he told her, and she could easily sense the nervousness in his voice.

"Usually?" Snowcrystal replied, but was cut short by another cry from Nightshade.

Snowcrystal frantically turned around, and she quickly realized that Nightshade was trying to block a metal claw attack from Scytheclaw. Startled, she wondered why the heracross seemed barely able to hold the scizor's pincer back. Was his arm injured that badly? It looked for a moment like Nightshade was going to collapse; Scytheclaw clearly had the upper claw, and Snowcrystal had no idea what sort of damage those blade-sharp pincers were truly capable of.

Then suddenly, everything changed at once.

With a cry of both effort and pain, Nightshade gripped tighter around Scytheclaw's arm, lifting him up so quickly that the scizor's foot claws were ripped from the earth before he could even register what was happening. Using all his remaining strength, Nightshade slammed Scytheclaw bodily to the ground, knocking the wind from him.

Snowcrystal expected Nightshade to continue the attack while his enemy was weak, but the heracross seemed to need the moment to recover as well. It was Scytheclaw who got up first. With a bellow of rage, he raced toward the heracross, aiming to slice through his armor and into his flesh with his razor sharp claws. The heracross dodged, and instead Scytheclaw found his pincers once again locked around Nightshade's horn. Not wasting his chance, Nightshade flicked his horn upward in one violent movement, tossing Scytheclaw into the air and sending him crashing to the ground again. The heracross then ran toward him, thrusting his horn against the scizor's side and slamming him against a rock. Snowcrystal felt a flicker of hope. _Nightshade was winning…_

Almost as soon as she thought it, the tide of the battle changed again, this time for the worse. Getting up and pushing off from the rock in a huge leap, Scytheclaw spread his wings and moved toward Nightshade like lightning, opening his pincer wide and slashing Nightshade again in his wounded side. Another small spray of blood littered the grass, and this time Nightshade sank to his knees. Scytheclaw paused, catching his breath as he waited to see if the heracross would make a move.

Shaking from head to foot, Nightshade sank to all fours, looking at Scytheclaw through eyes half closed with pain. Scytheclaw grinned, watching his own pincer begin to glow with bright light, a metal claw attack. Rushing forward with a speed that nearly matched a scyther's, Scytheclaw swung the glowing pincer down at the heracross.

In the same moment, Nightshade's eyes opened fully. With his horn still pointing at an angle toward his foe as he stood on all fours, he lunged toward Scytheclaw, exerting every bit of strength left in his body. It wouldn't have been much, but he was a heracross, one of the strongest pokémon alive. A sickening crack was heard as Nightshade's horn rammed into Scytheclaw's stomach, sending the scizor flying backward against the rock wall with a force that stunned all watching, even Nightshade himself. Scytheclaw slammed into the rock and fell limply to the ground, where he lay still.

Snowcrystal watched, still stunned by the surprising attack, as a pokémon ran to Scytheclaw's side, confirming that he was only unconscious. The zangoose who had supported Scytheclaw jumped to the ground from a rock ledge, a look of worry on his face. "Get the healer!" he cried, kneeling next to Scytheclaw's limp form. A sneasel ran off to do his bidding.

Snowcrystal ran over to Nightshade, who was now lying face-forward on the grass. She examined the wound in his side, which looked like the worst one. It looked deep, but thanks to the heracross's thick armor, the attack had not caused any lethal damage. Nightshade let the growlithe nudge him to his feet, and slowly he made his way toward the cave, stopping for breath every few paces. Snowcrystal looked toward the cave entrance, and just as Scytheclaw was being carried inside, a small persian darted out, looking worried.

"They're here…" the cat like pokémon called. "That huge group of pokémon...the army! It's coming this way."

"Get inside, everyone!" Moonlight cried, leaping down from his perch on the boulder and running into the cave, followed by the other onlookers.

As they rushed past, Nightshade lost his balance and fell sprawling to the ground. As Snowcrystal leaned down toward him, she saw a shadow flicker over the ground. Looking up, she saw a huge bird fly by, possibly a pidgeot or staraptor. Alarm gripped her as she remembered the threat of Cyclone's flying pokémon. Luckily, though, it hadn't seemed to have seen the pokémon through the foliage above. Looking back at Nightshade again, Snowcrystal tried to nudge the weakening pokémon to his feet.

"Snowcrystal!" a voice shouted, and the growlithe quickly recognized it as Spark's. The jolteon reached her side before she could even look up, helping Nightshade to his feet. Redclaw and Wildflame stood by the cave entrance, looking startled by the blood and Nightshade's condition, but as they walked inside, Wildflame led them carefully back to Streamrose's small cavern.

  
**-ooo-**  


Within the cave, there was silence. Nearly every pokémon was straining to listen for sounds of the approaching army, too scared to leave the main chamber. The silence was almost frightening. Snowcrystal and some of the others sat near Nightshade in the healer's cavern, and although the heracross insisted that he would start feeling better after a while of rest, she had sensed worry in his voice. And by the way he had worded it, she believed that he expected to ignore the wounds and travel as soon as he got some of his strength back. She wasn't sure that was a good idea.

Snowcrystal was near the entrance to the small cavern, and as she glanced at the other tunnels, she wished she could see where Stormblade was. According to the healer, he was not doing well. It worried her, because at the moment she was busy treating Scytheclaw's injuries in the leader's room. She had told Snowcrystal and her friends once again to leave Stormblade alone.

After a while of waiting, Snowcrystal heard a commotion from the big cavern. Nightshade sat up, staring in the direction of the healer cave's exit. "Go and see what's happening," he said to Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal padded out of the small cavern and into the large one, where several pokémon had also gathered. It looked much more crowded now that no one was outside, and even though Snowcrystal was used to being in a large tribe, the amount of pokémon in the cave made her uncomfortable.

It was Moonlight who had entered the cavern in a rush from outside, and he looked wide-eyed and scared, his black fur sticking up all over his body. "I saw them a little ways down the canyon," he was saying. "There were at least twice as many pokémon as there are living here now. They were coming fast, and I blocked up the entrance we use to get inside, but they could still find our scent."

"Why not put strong-smelling herbs near the entrances?" a furret suggested. "That would disguise the scent."

Everyone quickly rushed to get herbs from the battlefield outside, taking great care not to cause too much movement which might be spotted from above. Snowcrystal helped them and placed her herbs by the main entranceway. Just as she was turning to leave, she heard the sound of footsteps outside. Quietly, and taking great care, she backed away, the others watching her falling quickly into silence. Once out of the tunnel and into the main cavern, she, Moonlight, and several others watched the hidden entrance with bated breath. The footsteps quickly faded away, but there was no time to be relieved. That was only the first pokémon.

The army had arrived.

_To be continued..._


	40. To the Forest

Snowcrystal watched the entrance to the cave, knowing that at any moment another pokémon from Cyclone's army could be walking by. A mightyena brushed past her, carefully laying more strong herbs by the entrance. Snowcrystal wanted to tell him that too much might make the area seem suspicious, but at that very moment she heard the sound of more pokémon approaching, and quieted down, waiting and watching.

  
**-ooo-**  


Silverbreeze and a luxray named Skyfang had both paused near the hidden entrance. The rest of the army was either moving quickly or scouring the rocks for signs of Blazefang, the houndour who possessed Shadowflare's power. The scyther and the electric type had been chosen to search this area of the canyon, and neither of them were pleased, knowing that the houndour could be anywhere.

Skyfang wrinkled his nose in disgust, glaring at the scenery around him. "Somethin' stinks over here," he growled. "It smells like some of those nasty plants we found!"

"Shut up and keep searching!" Silverbreeze snapped. "I can smell it myself and I don't need you complaining."

Skyfang shot the scyther a glare when her back was turned, and lumbered off to search somewhere that smelled less pungent. He was getting tired of Silverbreeze ordering him around, but because she was one of Cyclone's elite pokémon, there was nothing the luxray could do about it.

Now alone, Silverbreeze focused her attention on what she had noticed before Skyfang's interruption. There had been scyther blood spilled here recently. The thick smell of the strongly scented plants made it hard to notice, but Silverbreeze could still detect it. And beneath that, very faintly, was Stormblade's scent.

Silverbreeze had no idea how Stormblade would have gotten this far, unless he had died and some powerful scavenger had dragged him into the canyon. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about this realization. She did not like Stormblade, but after seeing him tortured, she was beginning to think that maybe Cyclone was the one she should be disliking. His intentions were good but he had made her witness something she would never forget, as much as she wanted to. Of course, she kept all these thoughts to herself. There was no point in trying to persuade Cyclone and risk losing her high rank in the army. And that was in the past now. At least the leader who overthrew her mate was dead now.

The scyther began to realize that the strong scents seemed to be coming from the same place. Curious, she walked toward it, noticing that the scent of the plants made it difficult for her to smell anything else the closer she got.

"Silverbreeze!" Skyfang shouted from somewhere further along the rocky ridge. "I see canine footprints here! They look a bit big to be a houndour's…but I dunno, why don't you come and see?"

The scyther sighed and walked over to him, leaving the area where the air was filled with strong-smelling herbs behind.

  
**-ooo-**  


Knowing that the army was now swarming through the canyon, the pokémon inside the cave still kept very quiet. Most were speaking to one another in hushed whispers or hiding in their caverns. Snowcrystal had finally been allowed to go into the place where Stormblade was resting, and, not wanting to bother him much, she lay down beside him.

She knew that Redclaw was helping some of the cave pokémon guard the entrance in case of any intrusion, and some of the smaller, stealthier pokémon were venturing outside by a different way to hide in the grass and alert the others to any danger, or to see when the army left.

Blazefang had seemed more frightened than any of the other pokémon, and hid himself deep within the cave tunnels. Wildflame was waiting with him, and everyone else in the cave was also longing for the moment when the army would leave.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how long she waited in the dim cave, listening to the worried sounds of the pokémon moving through the main cavern. She knew that a long time had passed, but she had no way of knowing just how long.

She was still in the healer's cavern when she heard one of the pokémon scurry by the entrance. Curious, she stepped out into the main cave, where a poochyena was addressing the group loudly.

"Most of the army pokémon have moved on," he explained. "I think it will be safe soon."

"Are you sure?" someone asked. "They left so soon?"

Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling a bit annoyed; the time she had spent waiting had seemed anything but short. The poochyena went on to tell them that it seemed as if the army had just been passing through.

Rosie turned to Redclaw, looking worried. "If they don't find Blazefang," she whispered to him, "will they come back?"

"I don't know," Redclaw replied. "For now, let's just stay here where it's safe."

Rosie sighed and turned away, and Snowcrystal couldn't blame her for being worried. She too was wondering just how safe the cave really was.

  
**-ooo-**  


Cyclone was in a bad mood. The vaporeon did not show it, but the rest of his followers could feel it ebbing from him as the water type walked past them. The army leader couldn't understand how a simple houndour could seemingly vanish. His pokémon had searched through the entire canyon, and the flying types had scanned the area around it. He wondered if Blazefang was still in the giant, maze-like caves after all. If so, it wouldn't be worth losing a large number of pokémon in there to go searching for him. The army was still small, and Cyclone knew he did not have nearly enough strong pokémon for a bigger search; the majority of the army pokémon were weak and untrained. For now, although he hated to admit it, the fire type Forbidden Attack Shadowflare had slipped from his paws.

Calling two of his most trusted pokémon aside, the vaporeon led them away from the main army. He turned toward Silverbreeze, the first of the two. "Take thirty pokémon and watch this area for any sign of him," he ordered. "You'll be in charge of them. If there's no sign of Blazefang in one week, follow our tracks and find us." He turned to look at the other pokémon, a charmeleon. "And you," he began in his same calm tone, "tell the rest of the army that we will be moving on. There are more Forbidden Attacks in the world."

The two pokémon nodded and went off to do his bidding, leaving Cyclone alone with his thoughts.

  
**-ooo-**  


A young eevee hidden among the grass at the top of a cliff watched the army move off into the distance. He stayed still as the last of Cyclone's pokémon climbed out of the canyon and headed toward the plains that bordered the edge of a forest. The army kept well away from the forest, heading past it and traveling further across the plains. It made sense that such a large group of pokémon would not want to travel through a forest, but the small eevee wondered where it was that they _were_ going. Quietly he slipped back to pass the news to the others in the cave, Silverbreeze's group escaping his notice.

  
**-ooo-**  


As the news that the army had left the canyon spread through the caves, pokémon gradually dared to venture out and bring back food. They did not go too far, and the remainder of the day passed without any trouble from strange pokémon.

Even after several more days, most of the pokémon stayed close to the cave, worried that the massive group of pokémon would return. Every time Snowcrystal saw one of the canyon dwellers fearfully darting back into the cave, she couldn't help but think she and her friends were responsible for leading the army there. After all, they had agreed to let Blazefang come with them in order to keep Cyclone away from the fire Forbidden Attack.

Though Nightshade's wounds had started to heal, Stormblade didn't seem much better off. Streamrose's herbs had stopped his infection from spreading…for now…but the scyther looked just as weak as ever, and would barely eat. Snowcrystal wasn't sure about Thunder's condition; she never saw the scyther except for when she ventured out of her small cavern to nibble at the food the others had left for her and then leave again. Snowcrystal wondered if this was a good time to try and get her to trust them more, since she seemed more willing to accept help. Yet she had been told by the others that it was probably best to leave her alone; no one wanted to make her angry when she was so weak.

Her thoughts kept drifting back to her friends no matter where she went, but as she walked by the healer's cavern for the sixth time that morning, Snowcrystal wanted to try and distract herself. Spotting Wildflame and Redclaw nearby, she walked over to them nervously.

"Do you think we should go bring back some food for the others?" she asked. "I…I could use some practice hunting in the grass and trees," she added in embarrassment.

"All right," Redclaw replied, seeming to sense why she wanted to be out of the cave. "Let's just be careful and not go too far."

Wildflame stood up as well, nodding to Snowcrystal to show her that she was willing to go. Snowcrystal smiled back at the two and led the way out of the cave.

  
**-ooo-**  


That afternoon, when Snowcrystal was coming back with Redclaw and Wildflame, something unexpected occurred. The young growlithe had not caught any prey; her white fur was still too noticeable in a grassy landscape. Redclaw and Wildflame, however, had both caught something and were bringing it back to the others when the zangoose they had seen at Nightshade's battle confronted them.

"What are you doing here?" Wildflame growled, dropping her prey. During their stay, the houndoom's dislike for the zangoose had grown.

"I'm here on Scytheclaw's orders," he replied hastily, ignoring Wildflame's hostility. "He has told me to tell you that you must be gone from this place, from this cave and from this canyon, by tomorrow morning. You have brought nothing but trouble upon us."

' _WHAT?'_ Snowcrystal wanted to yell, but she kept her mouth shut. She exchanged glances with Wildflame, wondering if Scytheclaw had found out about why Cyclone had entered the valley. She decided to speak. "Three of our friends aren't ready to travel," she told him, though she already knew that the zangoose was well aware of Stormblade, Nightshade, and Thunder's condition.

"Doesn't matter," the zangoose snapped. "If you're still here by morning, we have Scytheclaw's orders to attack you." His eyes gleamed threateningly as he turned around and stalked away. "And that includes your scyther friend! Not like he isn't half dead already," he called over his shoulder. Several of the other cave pokémon glanced at Snowcrystal apologetically as the zangoose walked away, as if they weren't pleased with the order either.

Wildflame growled, the fur on her neck and shoulders rising. "That lowlife scizor just wants to get rid of us because of the battle!" she spat.

"I know," Redclaw replied, seeming strangely calm. "But we can't stay here and pick a fight with them…I think we should talk to Streamrose and Moonlight. They might know somewhere safe we can go."

"How are we supposed to get there?" Snowcrystal asked. "With Stormblade-" She stopped mid-sentence, for the other two had already gone off angrily in search of Moonlight. Sighing, Snowcrystal began dragging their prey back to the others.

  
**-ooo-**  


Night had fallen, and all but Stormblade now knew of Scytheclaw's hasty decision to force them to leave. Streamrose had given them some of her herbs to take with them, but no one was sure how long they would last. Moonlight had told them that the safest resting place had to be the forest, which Cyclone's army had avoided. At least, Snowcrystal thought, there would probably be an abundance of prey there. She was still so shocked about leaving so suddenly that she had hardly thought about where they were going.

"I don't see what you're all so worried about," Rosie muttered, breaking the silence that hung over the small cavern where most of her friends were resting. "I'll be glad to get away from all these strange pokémon and their awful leader. Resting in a forest sounds nice after waiting in these caves for so long."

"It hasn't been long at all," Wildflame muttered. "And the problem with the forest is _getting_ there."

"Moonlight showed us an easy way to climb out of the canyon," Rosie responded. "Maybe Redclaw can carry Stormblade. Carefully, of course."

Spark, who had been licking the half-healed wounds on his leg from the poacher trap, paused and looked up. "I agree with Rosie," he stated. "It's pretty obvious we aren't welcome here."

"But this place was safe," Wildflame growled.

"What's the point in fighting?" Nightshade said calmly, limping between them. "It's not like we have a choice, and the forest will be safe from Cyclone's pokémon. At least we would no longer have to hide."

Snowcrystal nodded in silent agreement, though she could sense unease in all the pokémon around her, even from Blazefang. She wondered what the houndour would do now that Cyclone and his army had given up chasing him.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was still dark when the group silently made their way out of the cave, shivering miserably in the early morning cold. Redclaw carried the herbs that Streamrose had given them in his mouth. For the second time, he had to carry Stormblade on his back, but this time the scyther was too weak to protest. Most of the pokémon looked much better rested than when they had arrived, but the same wasn't true for Nightshade, Stormblade, and Thunder.

Rosie and Spark, however, now seemed much healthier despite their injuries, thanks to the healer's help. Though Snowcrystal knew that Nightshade wasn't ready to travel, most of his wounds weren't serious enough to be much of a problem as long as they had the herbs. However, the one in his side still worried her. And Stormblade…well, she knew that there was no way Stormblade should be traveling. The sooner they got to the forest and rested, the better.

Thunder stumbled and nearly fell as she walked out of the cave, and immediately stood up again and started licking one of her wounds, trying to act as if nothing had happened, though Snowcrystal could see her shaking. Over the past few days, it seemed that the infection in some of her wounds had gotten worse, the cuts in her back in particular. During her stay at the caves, Thunder had mostly kept away from the healer and Snowcrystal's group, and Snowcrystal suspected that she simply didn't trust Streamrose and had wanted to be left alone. At some point during that time, however, she had grown weak enough to finally accept medicine from Nightshade, but it hadn't seemed to do much to help the oozing, bleeding wounds.

Snowcrystal glanced at her group of friends, feeling worried for what lay in store for them. In a way, she felt partially responsible for their hardships; after all, her search for Articuno had taken them to these far-off places.

"Snowcrystal?" a voice whispered.

The white growlithe looked up to see Rosie staring at her worriedly. "Er…what is it?" Snowcrystal asked, trying not to sound too distracted.

"You know," Rosie began, trying to sound optimistic, "I'm sure things will be better in the forest. Those places are full of prey pokémon!"

"But what about the pokémon who are injured?" Snowcrystal asked the ninetales.

"We can only do our best," Wildflame whispered to her as she passed by, walking on ahead into the bushes. "Moonlight told us that the easy way to get out of the canyon was along here."

Snowcrystal glanced up at Stormblade, wondering how the scyther was even conscious. One thing was for sure, she couldn't let the power that had caused his wounds fall into Cyclone's paws. With any luck, the vaporeon's followers would eventually desert him. What did he have to threaten them all with anyway? He was just one pokémon.

Snowcrystal looked up sadly as Wildflame took the lead, letting the others follow slowly after her. Spark nudged her shoulder, and she followed Wildflame reluctantly, glancing worriedly at Stormblade.

"It's not far," Wildflame told the group quietly. "I know how to get there…follow me."

Sadly, Snowcrystal trailed after her, wondering just how much longer Stormblade would be able to last.

  
**-ooo-**  


Silverbreeze and the thirty pokémon under her command had waited in the canyon for days. It hadn't been an entirely unpleasant experience, as there was plenty of prey there, but Silverbreeze knew that an exhausting journey trying to catch up with Cyclone was waiting for her after two more days. The scyther had not expected to see any sign of Blazefang anywhere, but she was surprised when, in the dark of night, she was roused by one of the nocturnal army pokémon. He was telling her that he'd spotted an arcanine and some other pokémon from a distance.

Instantly alert, Silverbreeze leapt up and crept through the bushes in the darkness, following the noctowl who had spoken to her. Emerging from the foliage at the top of a rugged cliff, the scyther could see a large arcanine's flame-colored pelt moving through the trees a little ways away. There were other pokémon with him, and they were slowly making their way up a shallow slope. Silverbreeze could not see all of them in the dark, but she could see the white fur of a snow colored growlithe, standing out in the black of night.

"That's them," Silverbreeze told the noctowl. "I wonder if the houndour's still with them." She hoped that the bird pokémon wouldn't notice the unease in her voice. Truthfully, she hoped they wouldn't find him. As much as she supported Cyclone's plans to keep the humans away from the pokémon habitats, the idea of using Forbidden Attacks to do so unnerved her greatly.

"I didn't get close enough to see if he was," the noctowl replied, turning his head to preen his feathers. "Go get the others."

  
**-ooo-**  


"It's not far now," Rosie whispered from up ahead, peering at the top of the canyon. The ninetales had begun using her injured leg again, but was still limping. Nevertheless, she had been determined to prove herself and climbed ahead of the others to examine the path they would take. "It looks easy to climb up this way," she added, pointing with one of her tails.

Blazefang scrabbled up beside her, his black fur prickling with unease. Even though he felt strong and awake in the moonlight, every flickering shadow unnerved him. _What if there were still enemy pokémon from Cyclone's army lurking about?_

Rosie growled as Blazefang shoved her aside and moved further up the slope. Snowcrystal and Spark appeared beside her, both looking worried. "What is it?" she whispered to the two pokémon.

"Nightshade thinks we're being watched," Snowcrystal replied.

"He thought that right before the canyon pokémon found us, too," Spark added.

"Then it's probably one of them, making sure we leave," Rosie replied. She turned to see Blazefang darting down the slope past her, coming to a halt in between Wildflame and Redclaw.

"I'm staying in the middle of the group!" he muttered determinedly, digging his claws in the pebbly soil.

"Fine," Rosie muttered. "Be a coward. I-"

"Look…" Spark whispered, and Rosie could feel his fur beginning to sharpen into spines where his side was brushing against her. She darted a few steps away quickly.

Lifting her head, Rosie could now see dark shapes slinking through the trees and rocks on the slope opposite to them. Glancing down into the canyon, her heart sank when she realized that the river was calm there; these pokémon would have no trouble at all crossing it. Looking closely at the nearest pokémon, Rosie could make out the sleek shape of the scyther she had seen before, the one from Cyclone's army. Growling, she pawed at the ground, longing to give her a taste of her strongest ember attack.

"Keep going!" Redclaw whispered. "Don't let them know we've spotted them."

Rosie turned and plodded up the slope, worry filling her mind. She didn't like turning her back on a dangerous enemy.

"What do we do about them?" she heard Wildflame whisper from behind.

"If we make it out of the canyon," Redclaw replied quietly, "it'll be easier to fight them off."

"We can't attack that many!" Wildflame gasped.

"We can launch our attacks and run for it once we're on high ground," Redclaw whispered back. "It's better than trying to fight here, and it's probably the best chance we've got."

"Run for it with _Stormblade?_ " Snowcrystal sounded disbelieving.

Rosie felt a wave of anger rush over her. _Why had that selfish leader driven them out? What harm were they causing the canyon pokémon?_ She remembered with a twinge of guilt that they had been the ones to unknowingly lead Cyclone to the canyon pokémon's home, yet at least no one had gotten hurt. _But a lot of their prey would be gone after the army passed through…_

Rosie heard a growl of annoyance from behind and turned to see that Nightshade had stopped. Spark was glaring at him; the heracross was staring right at their enemies.

"What are you doing?" the jolteon hissed. "Come on, keep going!"

"I'll be back," Nightshade replied simply before flying off into the night.

Rosie's eyes widened in shock; he was heading toward the other side of the canyon, where that scyther and her followers were. "Come back here, you idiot!" she growled after him, but Nightshade had already vanished.

  
**-ooo-**  


Nightshade took great care to make sure that he would not be noticed by the pokémon who were making their way down the slope, closing the gap between themselves and his friends. He carefully landed at the top of the cliff directly above the scyther. He could see that she only had about thirty pokémon with her, though he knew that was a number far too great for the others to fight. He had to hope that his plan would work.

There were several large boulders along the cliff side, and Nightshade scanned the area until his gaze rested on a single one. It was larger than most, and rested on a wide ledge a little ways down the cliff. Nightshade quietly flew down behind it, peering around to watch Cyclone's pokémon slipping quietly toward the river.

Looking at the large stone, Nightshade was fairly certain he could move it. Knowing he didn't have much time, the heracross ignored the pain lancing across his side and began pushing against the boulder.

  
**-ooo-**  


Silverbreeze glanced worriedly at the group of pokémon on the slope across from them. She had half-hoped they'd noticed her and the others and run off. She just wanted to get back to the army and leave the Forbidden Attack behind. Yet the group still climbed at the same pace. Irritated, she continued the march down to the river. It was much more likely they'd be spotted once they entered the water.

A deafening crash sounded from the cliffs above, making Silverbreeze whirl around in surprise. In the darkness, she could see the massive shape of a boulder hurtling down the side of the canyon, bringing several other rocks with it. She watched in awe as the cascading mass of boulders brought more and more stones hurtling down toward them.

Without wasting any more time, Silverbreeze spread her wings and launched herself into the air. She wasn't alone; the noctowl and the other flying type in the group – a swellow – did the same. Silverbreeze could only watch as her followers scattered in panic, filling the air with cries of fear and pain as the rocks and dirt struck them, launching them into the river or sending them rolling down the slope. A few lucky pokémon managed to scramble out of the way of the danger and flee into the night. Silverbreeze didn't expect to see them again. They were probably taking this opportunity to free themselves from Cyclone's army, as many had joined unwillingly.

The shower of rocks went on for several more terrifying seconds, and then all was still, save for a few last rocks rolling down toward the river. Silverbreeze watched as many terrified pokémon broke the surface of the water, paddling toward shore in a panic and rushing away. A few unlucky members of the army lay floating in the river, half crushed and obviously dead. Silverbreeze quickly flew to the highest point of the nearby cliff, hearing the startled cries of pokémon as they fled into the darkness.

"Silverbreeze, should we bring them back?" the noctowl asked her, getting no response. "Silverbreeze?"

"They'll have scattered," the scyther responded, her voice as cold as ice. "Bring back those you can, but leave them if they try to run. We don't want a fight." She knew that the pokémon, most of them at least, would want to get away and not have to be sent into danger again by Cyclone. She couldn't blame them. Even though Cyclone trusted her, seeing him let Solus torture a pokémon for amusement had drastically changed her opinions of the vaporeon. ' _At least he's fighting to teach humans a lesson,'_ she thought to herself, ' _that's something to fight for after they cut down our territory.'_

"What should we do about the houndour?" the swellow asked her.

"Nothing," Silverbreeze snapped. "We go back to Cyclone and tell him there's no sign of him."

"You mean… _lie?_ " the bird pokémon responded. "But what if Solus-"

"Cyclone trusts me!" Silverbreeze growled. "As long as you keep quiet about it, he won't question me. There are too many pokémon in the houndour's group. They'd overpower us if we tried to capture him now…but we can't exactly tell Cyclone we saw him but didn't manage to bring him back, can we?"

The swellow looked uncertain. "But…but what about the others in our group who-"

"Accidents happen," Silverbreeze replied, turning away from the cliff edge. "We can start following Cyclone now. We'll be able to travel less and rest more, since he won't be expecting us to catch up until a little later."

The swellow muttered his agreement, but Silverbreeze paid him no attention. She was thinking about the army. Though she didn't agree with Cyclone's methods, the vaporeon _was_ right. It was all for the greater good.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal watched as a panic-stricken mightyena pulled itself out of the river and dashed away through the foliage. ' _They just separated…like they're running away from something…something other than the rockslide…'_ Snowcrystal remembered what Blazefang had said about Cyclone forcing pokémon to join him, and wondered what they were afraid of. _Surely they were free now, and they didn't have to worry?_

Her thoughts were interrupted as Nightshade landed beside the group, looking dazed. Snowcrystal wondered if pushing the big rock down had made any of his wounds worse.

"You'd better thank him," Rosie growled at Blazefang. "It was _you_ they were after!"

Nightshade wasn't paying attention. His eyes were on the bodies of the two dead pokémon as they floated down the river. "I…I didn't want to kill them…" he whispered sadly.

"But it was necessary!" Rosie cried. "And they deserved it for joining Cyclone."

' _They didn't have a choice!'_ Snowcrystal thought fiercely, digging her claws into the dirt.

"It was either them or Stormblade…" Wildflame told Nightshade, "and the rest of us forced to serve that lunatic."

"I know," Nightshade replied quietly, but Snowcrystal could sense the sadness in his voice. She knew he was trying to hide what he really felt. "Come on," he told the others, "let's keep going. The forest isn't far."

Snowcrystal followed after him, not saying a word as she climbed until they reached the top of the canyon. Seeing the leafy trees of the forest not far away, she tried to feel a bit more hopeful. There they could rest some more…but what would they do after that?

"I hope there's someone in that forest who can help us," she whispered, seeing Spark walk up beside her.

"With any luck, there will be," he replied. "At least it's free from Cyclone's pokémon."

Snowcrystal nodded in agreement, but she didn't feel any better. What would they do about Stormblade? And Articuno? And would Cyclone cause even more damage elsewhere? The young growlithe sighed, knowing that none of these questions could be answered.

  
**-ooo-**  


Blazefang found the trek over to the forest to be easier than he expected. He felt light and almost happy, knowing that one of his biggest problems had vanished; Cyclone really had left, and those whom he'd sent to track him down had all scattered. Of course, several problems still remained. His pack was still with Cyclone, his tribe still waiting for him, and of course…Shadowflare. Yet even those problems seemed small now that he no longer had to fear for his life. He wasn't quite sure what he would do now; he figured that the best thing to do would be to return to the mountain, back to Firedash and the tribe.

' _Maybe…'_ he thought, ' _maybe with Shadowflare I can overthrow her… NO!'_ He fiercely shook the thought from his mind. He didn't need to be a leader, and he didn't need Shadowflare!

Sighing, he walked after the others, knowing that he was still too exhausted to make such a long journey back to the mountain now. He would rest with this group of pokémon in the forest, then he and Wildflame would leave.

As the group reached the outer fringes of the forest, Blazefang paused to give the air a quick sniff. It smelled damp and full of the scents of many pokémon, some he didn't recognize. It seemed like there would be plenty of prey, although Blazefang wasn't used to hunting in a forest.

He followed the other pokémon a little ways further until they came to a wide clearing. Redclaw helped Stormblade get on the ground and set about making nests out of moss and ferns.

"I'll go hunt!" Spark volunteered, his eyes bright with anticipation. Blazefang casually remembered overhearing someone say that the scyther, Stormblade, had first taught Spark to hunt in a forest.

"I'll go with you," Snowcrystal said quickly, following Spark out into the trees.

"Idiot…" Blazefang mumbled under his breath. "You won't catch anything with white fur like that!"

The houndour jumped up as Thunder stumbled into the clearing. Growling, he backed away, well out of range of the scyther in case she attacked. She had been the last one to arrive, as the others had wisely let her trail behind them at her own pace. He was disappointed that she hadn't collapsed.

Thunder didn't seem to have noticed him at all, and simply lay down near a clump of berry bushes without bothering to make a nest or even clear away any sticks or dry leaves. He could scent a very strong, sickly smell coming from her, and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Walking away from Thunder, Blazefang cleared a place on the forest floor next to a tall oak tree. He was glad that none of the other pokémon had tried to chase him off yet; they knew as well as he did that he could be on his own now, but he wanted rest and protection first.

"Any sign of dangerous pokémon around here?" Redclaw was whispering to Rosie, who had been exploring a bit of the forest nearby. "I know there aren't any near this clearing, but I want to find more of these herbs that Streamrose gave me. Did you smell anything that could be dangerous?"

"No," Rosie replied, shaking her head. "Just prey and forest."

Blazefang sighed, letting their conversation fade into the background. He had more important things to think of; he didn't need to listen to a pair of silly pokémon who'd dragged themselves into the growlithe's search for Articuno for no reason at all. He failed to see why they would be interested in helping a tribe they would never see, let alone know.

It wasn't long, however, before another one of the pokémon distracted him. Nightshade, still looking shocked, headed into the forest alone without attracting the attention of the others. Blazefang knew he'd be back, but he couldn't help wondering if he was still thinking about the dead pokémon in the river. ' _They had to die because we had no other choice,'_ he thought to himself in annoyance. ' _Why can't the stupid heracross accept that?'_

Blazefang rolled his eyes at the worried whispers still being exchanged between Rosie and Redclaw. With all these pokémon around, he wondered how he'd get any rest at all. At least they'd been quieter in the _cave!_

The houndour looked up as Snowcrystal appeared from the bushes with Spark, who had a taillow in his mouth. The jolteon passed the dead bird pokémon to Snowcrystal, who walked with it over to Stormblade.

Blazefang let out a low growl. "Why don't you eat that yourself?" he asked the white fire type.

Snowcrystal looked at him with wide eyes and set the taillow down. "I want to give it to Stormblade," she explained. Her tone sounded firm, but he could tell that she was uneasy with the way he was staring at her.

"He doesn't need it!" Blazefang snarled. "Give it to those who can use the energy!"

"Relax, Blazefang," Redclaw told him from where he was sitting beside Rosie. "We're only trying to help Stormblade."

Blazefang flattened his ears against his head. "I just don't find killing a perfectly healthy pokémon to feed a dying scyther morally right!" he growled, stalking away from the main group.

"They're _prey_ pokémon!" Spark called after him. "They'd kill _us_ if they could! Survival of the fittest!"

"Then why is Stormblade still alive?" Blazefang yelled over his shoulder. Grumbling to himself, he turned his back on the others another time and loped away into the trees.

Once out of sight, he slowed down and let the scents of the forest wash over him. Even though he was alone in a strange place, he didn't feel like he wanted to go back to the group that night.

However, now that he was by himself, he couldn't help but remember that his problems really were far from over. He would never see Boneclaw again, and he had journeyed so far for nothing. _Or was it for nothing?_ Blazefang still felt half tempted to use Shadowflare to overthrow Firedash, but he quickly drove the thought from his mind. He would _never_ use Shadowflare again. Not after what he'd seen it do.

Shaking, Blazefang lay down and closed his eyes, hoping for sleep to overcome him. Would the urge to use Shadowflare ever leave him? ' _No…'_ he thought, ' _not unless the Forbidden Attack is passed on to someone else.'_ With a jolt of horror, it dawned on him fully what a horrible mistake his journey had been. He should never have taken the stone, never found it in the first place, but now that he had, he would never be rid of the Forbidden Attack's dark power.

He was cursed until the day he died.

_To be continued..._


	41. A Place of Rest or a Place of Danger?

Sometime in the late morning, Blazefang woke. Glancing around in confusion for a moment, the houndour stood up shakily, leaves crunching beneath his paws. Suddenly remembering where he was, he clawed the ground in annoyance. He wasn't quite ready to go back to the white growlithe and her friends, but he wanted to see if any of them had brought back prey.

He had started to head back to the group when he stopped himself. "What do I need them for?" he growled aloud, turning and walking deeper into the forest. "I can catch some for myself!" He was feeling rather irritated that he had even considered asking them for help.

The houndour paused for any sound or smell of prey, but all the strange forest scents confused him, making the task of focusing on just one very difficult. Blazefang shuddered; he wasn't used to hunting among all these trees. "There are other houndour who live in forests that can do it," he whispered to himself. "It shouldn't be too hard."

Blazefang moved forward as silently as he could, scanning the area ahead for prey. He soon spotted a starly, but as he edged closer, the grass around him swished, sending the pokémon flying upward with a frightened squawk.

Growling to himself, the houndour walked further into the trees, knowing that the bird would probably have scared off any other prey nearby. After a while, he slowed down, moving forward silently again and searching for sight or smell of a meal.

As he crept further, a familiar scent filled his nostrils, one that he was used to by now, and that he didn't like. _Scyther_. Blazefang tensed, looking around through the screen of leaves and foliage, remembering the way Thunder had darted at him so quickly when he had first found Snowcrystal's group after running from Cyclone. She had been _injured_ , and he didn't want to think about what a healthy scyther could do. Fearfully, he began backing away, staring around at the green scenery as if he expected a scyther to jump out at him from anywhere.

As he was backing up, something cannoned into him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Blazefang turned over quickly, but instead of a scyther, he only saw Spark, the growlithe's jolteon friend.

"Scared you!" the electric type said with a grin. "Not so tough without your pack are you?"

"You idiot!" Blazefang growled, leaping up indignantly. "You've just scared off all the prey, you know that?"

Spark seemed only mildly concerned. "Oh, so what! There's plenty more deeper in the woods. I'm an experienced forest hunter, you know," he added proudly.

Blazefang bared his teeth in a snarl as Spark pushed past him. With any luck, he thought, the scyther who'd left the scent behind would make a tasty snack of the jolteon. Chuckling to himself, the houndour lay his head on his paws as he watched Spark, further up ahead, blunder after a zigzagoon who'd run across his path. The frightened pokémon was pelting away toward a thick clump of bushes, but just before it reached it, Spark caught up to it and leapt upon it, pressing it down onto the forest floor and biting down swiftly on its neck. Blazefang's eyes widened in surprise. "You caught that?" he cried in disbelief, running over to the jolteon.

"I told you I was a perfect forest hunter!" Spark replied, beaming. "And I bet you thought I couldn't do it. You know what? I might just give this to Stormblade; I know it makes you mad!"

Blazefang was about to retort that Stormblade hadn't been able to eat much of what anyone had been bringing him for the past few days, but stopped himself when he noticed the bushes behind Spark rustling. He began backing away, and Spark, still looking smug, didn't even bother to ask why.

It was only when the sound of something emerging from the bushes right behind him met Spark's ears that the jolteon whirled around in fright, just as a forest scyther stopped right in front of him.

Blazefang could see that Spark was frozen in surprise. Ignoring him, the houndour turned to run, only to be confronted by a second scyther that reminded him a bit of Thunder. This one had several deep scars covering its face, and one of the pointed spikes on its head had been broken off. Blazefang wished he could fire a flamethrower in its face, but he knew that would be a bad idea for several reasons, as would attempting to run away. He decided that being submissive was the only other option. He just hoped that the scyther didn't want to eat him. He was used to being afraid of Thunder, but these scyther weren't just strong…they were also uninjured.

"What are you doing here?" growled the one in front of Spark, and though Blazefang was staring at the ground and not looking in that direction, he guessed from its voice that the first scyther was female. He didn't dare glance up at the one staring down at him; he was too afraid it would attack, though he did realize that if it had wanted to eat him, it would have killed him already.

"We're just trying to hunt!" Spark blurted out. "You see, I-"

"This is our forest," the scyther stated firmly. "You can't hunt here."

"What are you talking about?" Spark replied. "No one group of pokémon owns the forest!"

"I beg to differ," the scyther replied icily. "Get out."

The scyther nearest to Blazefang moved forward threateningly, and Blazefang backed away. He wondered if it was safe to leave yet, or whether the scyther would attack them once they turned their backs.

"Spark?" a voice from behind them called. Blazefang turned to see Redclaw pushing his way through the bushes, followed by Wildflame and Snowcrystal. Seeing the scyther, Redclaw growled, the long tan fur of his mane rising along his neck. "Leave him alone," he snarled at the bug types, walking toward Spark with the other two canines at his side.

To Blazefang's surprise, neither scyther looked intimidated by the fire types, and watched calmly as the three approached.

"Redclaw," Snowcrystal whispered, "do you think those scyther could help Stormblade?"

Blazefang felt like rolling his eyes. These scyther were threatening them! And what could a scyther do to help heal wounds? They were only good at hurting things!

Without waiting for the arcanine's answer, the white growlithe padded forward and stood in front of the scyther next to Spark. Blazefang looked up and watched carefully, not sure how they would react.

Snowcrystal stared up at the much taller pokémon, feeling suddenly vulnerable despite her type advantage over the scyther. This pokémon was much bigger and stronger than she was. Quivering, Snowcrystal tried to look her in the eyes. "Listen," she began hesitantly, "we have a scyther friend who's hurt, and we-"

"Why should we care?" the scyther replied. "That scyther is not a part of our swarm." Snowcrystal could see the scyther's body tense, as if the only thing keeping the pokémon from leaping at her was the fact that she and her companion were outnumbered.

Snowcrystal glanced at Redclaw, who looked back at her helplessly. She knew that he wanted to leave, but if these scyther wanted to chase them out of the forest, where else could they go? She glanced at the other scyther, the mean-looking one who seemed seconds away from attacking Blazefang, wondering if she should even attempt to talk to him. Before she had a chance to make a decision, however, she heard the bushes in front of them rustle, and a third scyther stepped out.

Alarmed, Snowcrystal was about to run back to Redclaw, thinking that the other scyther in the swarm had heard the commotion and come to help their companions. However, she quickly realized that not only was this third scyther alone, but that there was something odd about him. As he came out of the bushes into plain sight, it was easy to see what it was. This scyther was missing an arm. She stared in surprise, but that didn't last long as she was distracted by the reaction of the other two scyther, who had turned to glare at him.

"What do you want?" the one closest to Snowcrystal growled.

"I think we should help the other scyther," the newcomer replied calmly, though Snowcrystal could see that he was looking at the other two with an air of fear.

"Why should we help a loner?" the scarred scyther asked him calmly, as if waiting to see if the new scyther had any sort of logical reason.

"They may not be from our swarm, but they're still a scyther," the third scyther replied. "I say we should help. These pokémon are weak," he added, gesturing to Snowcrystal and the others with a nod of his head. "They couldn't do much harm to our swarm anyway, but they do outnumber you two, and with type advantages at that. I wouldn't try chasing them away."

The scarred scyther rounded on him. Looking at them both facing each other, Snowcrystal noticed that the scyther with the scarred face was taller than the other, though not quite as tall as Stormblade. "Don't tell me what to do," the scarred scyther growled, "unless you think you can win a battle with only one blade."

The smaller scyther seemed to get the message, and immediately backed off, a scared look in his eyes.

"Get out of here!" the female shouted, and the newcomer slinked away into the bushes and disappeared.

Snowcrystal backed up as the two remaining scyther faced them, knowing that she and her friends could not afford a fight, especially when there were four members of the group already injured. She was wondering whether or not to try and run when a fourth scyther emerged from the trees near where the other two were standing.

Snowcrystal could see that this scyther was old, but he was not alone. There were a few young scyther who followed him into the clearing, all looking agitated at the sight of the strange pokémon.

"What's going on here?" the old scyther demanded, staring straight at Redclaw as if he assumed that the arcanine was the leader of the band of travelers.

It was the scyther that Snowcrystal had tried to speak to who answered first. "They were trespassing," she explained. "They hunted in our territory and killed a zigzagoon." The scyther bent down toward the carcass and picked it up, tossing it toward where her companion, or mate, was standing.

"They haven't crossed into our territory yet," the old scyther pointed out.

"So, you 'own the forest,' huh?" Spark scoffed, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Redclaw.

The scyther ignored him. "They were close enough, Skyscythe," she retorted. "Let's just get rid of them now."

"We're just passing through…" Wildflame told the scyther. "That is, after we've rested for a bit."

"But there are two scyther with us," Snowcrystal added. "You might be able to help them…somehow…we just want a safe place to stay, and this forest is the safest place we've found. But…can you at least try-"

"Yes, I think those scyther must _really_ know how to heal Forbidden Attack wounds," Blazefang muttered sarcastically as he backed up close to Wildflame. "Let's get out of here."

"Go on, then," the scarred scyther scoffed.

"They won't be safe out in the forest," one of the young scyther whispered loud enough for the travelers to hear. "All the pokémon who've moved here since the old forest burned down...and well, some of them are dangerous. And we keep having to remind them that we were here first."

Snowcrystal felt a wave of fear rush over her; they had left the four injured pokémon all alone! Before she could say anything, Redclaw decided to speak.

"I suppose things must be hard for you then," he told the group of scyther carefully, knowing very well that it was now his group that was outnumbered. "We only want a safe place to stay until our friends recover or we find another suitable resting place. If you let us stay in your territory, those of us who can will catch prey for you. Lots of it," he added quickly, and Snowcrystal saw him stiffen as he waited for the scyther's answer.

"Why should we trust you?" one of the scyther asked warily.

"Our injured friends would be where you can see them," Redclaw replied carefully. "At your mercy. I can assure you that we wouldn't do anything that could put them in danger. We have no interest in harming any of you…we've seen enough of senseless fighting."

Most of the scyther looked uncertain, and the two that Snowcrystal had first seen looked ready to slice Redclaw apart. Yet the old one, Skyscythe, who Snowcrystal thought might be the leader of the swarm, looked back up at the arcanine with calmness in his eyes. "Show us the scyther you were talking about," he said quietly. "Then we will see."

Redclaw promptly led the way back to where the others were resting, while Snowcrystal trailed behind, trying not to let her fear of these strangers show. The group of scyther were walking around them without fear, most of them seeming curious about the odd band of strangers. She heard Blazefang's pawsteps as he crept up beside her and whispered in her ear, "You do realize that Redclaw's just being foolish, right? If Thunder goes berserk, he basically just sentenced those four to their deaths!"

Snowcrystal shivered. As much as she hated to admit it, Blazefang had a point.

  
**-ooo-**  


Upon reaching the clearing where the others were resting, Snowcrystal realized with some surprise that Thunder wasn't there. She couldn't quite identify which way the scyther had gone, but at the moment she was mainly focused on wondering _why_ she had left. Not knowing whether to be relieved or worried, she walked beside Redclaw, who headed to where Stormblade lay.

Stormblade was lying on his side, looking almost as still as a dead pokémon. Snowcrystal was about to move closer when Rosie growled and backed away, watching one of the strange scyther come into view.

"Don't worry," Redclaw told her, though the uncertainty in his voice was not quite hidden, "they're going to take us to a safer place."

"Where's Thunder?" Snowcrystal whispered to Rosie as two of the scyther, one of them Skyscythe, followed Redclaw.

"She wandered off somewhere, I don't know!" Rosie whispered back, sounding agitated.

Wildflame approached the two of them, looking worriedly at the scyther group. "We can find Thunder later," she whispered quickly.

Snowcrystal turned to see that a few of the other scyther had started staring at Stormblade in either horror or morbid curiosity.

"He's definitely not a scyther from anywhere around here," one of them muttered. "And I don't think he's from the old forest either."

"Should we try and help somehow?" one of them asked, sounding in shock.

"No, he's as good as dead," another replied casually.

Snowcrystal peered at Stormblade, seeing no response from him. She doubted that he was even aware of the other scyther next to him.

"We just want to be taken to a safe place," Redclaw told the forest pokémon. "And remember, we are willing to hunt for you. We can take care of Stormblade ourselves."

Snowcrystal waited to see what Skyscythe would say, hoping with all her might that he wouldn't refuse. She didn't want to wander around in the wilderness in search of shelter anymore.

The old scyther looked at Stormblade, then at Redclaw. "We have to ask our leader," he said simply, walking ahead. "Follow us."

' _So he's not the leader…'_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, trailing after the others as they hesitantly began following the scyther. Redclaw looked at Stormblade and then carefully picked him up. Snowcrystal hoped he was unconscious, otherwise that would certainly be painful. Looking at Rosie, who was beside her, Snowcrystal knew that the ninetales felt the same way she did about walking into a scyther swarm's territory. This was certainly _not_ the sort of 'safety' she had expected to find in the forest.

  
**-ooo-**  


As they moved through the trees, Snowcrystal found it harder and harder to see the scyther they were supposed to be following. For one, they were much faster than anyone in their group, and further on the foliage got thicker, hiding the green colored pokémon from view.

Snowcrystal was following Wildflame and Spark, who were ahead of the others, and seemed to be having just as hard a time at following the scyther as she was. She knew that Blazefang, Rosie, and Nightshade were just behind her, though she didn't know how far behind Redclaw, who had to carry Stormblade, was.

As she followed Spark, her thoughts kept drifting back to Thunder, and whether it was really wise to leave without her knowing. ' _We can go back and get her once we find a safe place…'_ she told herself silently.

After a while of running through thick underbrush, which made Snowcrystal feel rather uncomfortable and claustrophobic, the scyther pack ahead of them stopped.

"Stay right here," one of them warned the group, and darted off into the trees.

"This doesn't look like the home of a scyther swarm to me," Rosie whispered to Snowcrystal, knowing that the other scyther were waiting around them somewhere, watching. "It just looks like any other part of the forest."

"I don't think this is where their caves…or…I mean, whatever scyther live in…are, Rosie," Snowcrystal whispered back. "I don't think they'd want us that close-"

She broke off immediately as the scyther who had left returned, followed by another, much taller and stronger looking scyther. This, Snowcrystal guessed, was the leader.

"That must be the one in charge," Rosie whispered to her, echoing her thoughts.

"Yep," Spark whispered to the two of them. "In a scyther swarm, the biggest and meanest bosses everyone else around-OW! Hey!" The jolteon turned and growled at Rosie, who had swatted him in the face with a paw.

The leader scyther looked over the newcomers warily, as if analyzing whether or not they were a possible threat to the swarm. Snowcrystal crouched closer down to the ground, trying not to seem threatening, although some part of her told her that she was far too small and slow to be any threat to the scyther. She glanced around, realizing that Redclaw still hadn't caught up with them.

"Where are the injured scyther?" the leader asked, sounding suspicious.

Snowcrystal froze, wondering what this scyther would do if she thought that her friends had been lying. "They-" Snowcrystal began worriedly, but she didn't get any further as, thankfully, Redclaw pushed his way through the bushes at that moment and set Stormblade's limp form down behind the others.

The leader made her way past the others toward Stormblade, the old scyther, Skyscythe, following.

"I think we should try to give him some sort of protection," Skyscythe told his leader. "But I really don't like the idea of bringing strangers so close."

"Protect him?" another scyther replied, walking closer to Stormblade. "The best thing we could do is to kill him and get it over with. Then these pokémon can leave."

"Look, _we_ want shelter too!" Blazefang growled. The scyther glared at him, but to Snowcrystal's surprise, the houndour didn't back down and returned the glare.

The lead scyther was leaning over Stormblade, peering at his injuries with an air of curiosity. Finally she straightened up and looked at the group of travelers, seeming completely unafraid of the fire types clustered around her. "He's a strong scyther to have lasted this long," she said after a moment. "I don't know if there is any hope for him, but I will let him stay with the rest of us if you bring us prey. But you fire types…and you, jolteon and heracross, must stay away, and go no further than here."

Snowcrystal opened her mouth to speak when one of the other scyther interrupted.

"Let him in? And let those strangers stay on our territory?" he shouted. "But most of them are fire types!"

"They're far too weak from traveling to do much harm," the leader replied. "And they aren't from the old forest, I can tell. We can use the extra prey they bring. I can send some scyther to make sure they aren't taking too much for themselves."

"But we need someone to watch over Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried. She didn't trust the scyther to do anything other than find him a place to stay and leave him there. "And Nightshade is injured as well…" She didn't know whether or not to mention Thunder, but she decided to keep quiet about it for now.

"All right then," the leader replied. "Heracross are not our enemies. He may come, as well as you and the ninetales. But no others."

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, who looked somewhat nervous. The scyther leader had purposely picked out the two weakest fire types in the group, and Snowcrystal could understand Rosie's worry. ' _They're only trying to protect themselves…'_ Snowcrystal tried to assure herself.

"I'll have to carry him," Redclaw told the leader, pointing his muzzle to the barely conscious – or possibly unconscious – Stormblade. Snowcrystal felt worried. Stormblade had never been this bad for so long… "And there is another scyther in our group as well," the arcanine added, distracting Snowcrystal from her thoughts. "I can go get her…after-"

"Then follow us," the lead scyther replied icily, obviously a bit wary of Redclaw, who was probably the most powerful fire type in the group. She turned away and headed deeper into the forest with the other scyther.

"Come on," Nightshade whispered, nudging Rosie, who looked as if she were in a trance.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Rosie whispered as she walked beside Nightshade and Snowcrystal as they followed Redclaw.

"Yes," Snowcrystal told her. "They don't want to hurt us…they just don't want their families and friends to get hurt."

Nervously, Rosie just nodded and followed Redclaw through the trees. Snowcrystal couldn't even see the scyther anymore; she was just following Redclaw. After a few moments they emerged into a large clearing with a pond in the center. Snowcrystal could see several scyther standing in the water or gathered around it. All of them stared at the newcomers curiously as they emerged through the trees. Snowcrystal ignored them and watched Redclaw set the unmoving Stormblade down near some bushes at the edge of the clearing.

"Leave," the leader scyther firmly told Redclaw, who, quickly but regretfully, turned and headed back through the bushes.

Snowcrystal and the others watched as a strange scyther wandered nearer, a female with unusually dark green armor and a pointier snout. She was smaller than most of the swarm's members, and Snowcrystal realized that this scyther must be even younger than she was.

"So you let them stay?" the youngster asked the group who had brought the travelers back. Unlike most of the other scyther, she didn't seem wary or afraid, just curious.

"What does it look like?" the scarred scyther who had been displeased with the idea from the start growled at her.

Ignoring the two, the lead scyther looked up as another swarm member from somewhere Snowcrystal couldn't see called for her. "This is the place you will rest. Stay here," she warned the newcomers. "Go to the pond only for water, and then come back. You aren't allowed any further. And remember, there will always be someone watching you to make sure you do as I say." She ran off, leaving them with the small group of scyther who had led them there.

Then that group split up, going their separate ways and giving the travelers wary glances. "Remember…" the scarred scyther hissed as he walked past them. "If you harm any of the scyther here, your friend will die." Then he, too, ran off, leaving only the small scyther who was still staring curiously at them.

"Hey Bladewing, who are they?" another voice called, and an even smaller male scyther darted up to them faster than Snowcrystal would have thought possible, making her step back in surprise. "They aren't scyther," he continued, "so why are they here?"

"The Leader said they could stay," Bladewing answered. "They're going to get more food for us."

"They don't look like they can," her friend growled. "And that's a heracross. Heracross don't even eat meat!"

"We're not the ones who will be hunting," Nightshade told him calmly, making the young scyther glare. Nightshade backed away, not because of the scyther's reaction, but because he seemed nervous about something else. "I'm going to head into the forest…" he told Snowcrystal. "I won't be far, and I'll be back to see Stormblade-"

"Is this the scyther they were talking about?" the smallest scyther cried. Snowcrystal turned to see him standing over Stormblade. "I…I don't think shelter is going to do him much good…" As if horrified by the sight, he darted away.

Nightshade moved toward Stormblade as Bladewing, the other small one, inched closer, when another, fully grown scyther stood in front of Stormblade, facing her. "Stay away from them!" he ordered, leading her away.

Nightshade sighed as the two walked away. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" he muttered, trying to ignore the looks he got from scyther who were passing through the clearing.

"Well, it's better than being out in the forest if there are dangerous pokémon around…" Snowcrystal replied, realizing how lucky they had been to have rested so near a scyther territory; the scents had probably scared off some of the aggressive pokémon.

"Yeah, but what about Thunder?" Rosie asked. "I don't think things will go well if they decide to bring _her_ here."

Secretly, Snowcrystal agreed, though she was worried about Thunder being all alone. Where had she run off to, and why? She paused, letting Nightshade and Rosie talk quietly as she heard a few other scyther moving out into the forest somewhere behind her. They were talking, and she caught a few of their words.

"There's still not much prey," one of them was saying. "Too many other predators here now…"

"This forest is still much better than the last one...there were too many humans nearby," the other replied. "And did you see that fire when it burned? I saw the smoke...it's a good thing we were able to move long before that happened."

Before Snowcrystal could hear the other's reply, their voices faded into the distance. "The forest that burned down…that was where they lived before?" she whispered. She thought of all the pokémon who had lost their homes due to Blazefang's Shadowflare attack and shuddered. She didn't want to remind herself that the pokémon who had caused all that was traveling with them.

She briefly heard Nightshade get up and leave to go back into the forest, and Rosie lay down quietly before yet another scyther approached them. Snowcrystal tensed, not liking the idea of being stared at by strange pokémon, but relaxed a bit when she realized that she had seen this scyther before. It was the one that was missing an arm, the one who had stood up for them before.

The scyther was holding a spearow, which he dropped down in front of Rosie. The ninetales sniffed it cautiously.

"Aren't we supposed to be hunting for you?" Rosie asked him, looking puzzled.

"Yes, but I thought you would be tired and I…" the scyther trailed off as he noticed some of the others approaching them rapidly. From the way he acted, Snowcrystal could tell that he was afraid.

The growlithe backed into the bushes as one of the scyther ran up to Rosie and snatched the spearow away from her, making the ninetales jump away in startled surprise.

"You didn't catch that on our territory, did you, Darkfang?" one of the scyther asked, and Darkfang, who Snowcrystal realized was the scyther who had brought them the prey, stepped back a pace.

"I…"

"You did?" a second scyther growled. "You can't waste our prey on them! They're supposed to catch it themselves."

Darkfang was silent and didn't reply.

"I don't understand why you'd care so much about these pokémon when they could be a threat…" the other scyther mumbled, but Snowcrystal could see that a few of the scyther with him didn't seem hostile or threatened by her or her friends.

"Sorry…" Darkfang mumbled at last, staring at the ground.

The other scyther paused for a moment, and then added, "Oh, and I wanted to remind you...the next time you're on guard, pay attention! A luxray strayed into the territory near where you were supposed to be watching last night." Darkfang flinched, and the other scyther gave him a stern glare. "Make sure you don't fall asleep again or start watching for ice birds in the sky anymore."

"You still don't believe me?" Darkfang replied. "Look, I did see it that day! I-"

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in shock, but the scyther in the small group just gave Darkfang a disapproving look and then turned and left.

Snowcrystal turned to Darkfang, a look of surprise plastered over her face. Rosie, right next to her, looked a lot like how Snowcrystal felt, awed and disbelieving. After all this time, they could have just found a clue to finding Articuno. "You mean…what did you see? Did it look like…" she began, but Darkfang was heading away, probably without even hearing her. Forgetting the rules the scyther swarm had set for them, Snowcrystal ran after him. "Wait up!" she cried. "I need to talk."

"Leave me alone," Darkfang remarked, before changing direction and darting into the trees, away from the other scyther.

Snowcrystal paused for a moment and then chased after him, her heart pounding. _'I have to find him…I have to find him and ask him about Articuno!'_

  
**-ooo-**  


Under the warm light of the sun and beneath the clouds that drifted slowly across the sky, Scytheclaw stood peering into the round pool that was formed by the river right beside the tall cliffs. The scizor had flown down beside it, staring into its clear depths and at the small statues of pokémon that adorned the rock which reached above the water at its center.

Scytheclaw had always found this to be a peaceful place, and at the moment he wanted peace more than anything. It seemed that after the army had passed through the canyon and his pokémon had seen them, more and more of the tribe were talking about it…and were beginning to realize that he had been wrong. Very wrong.

Aside from his most loyal members, the pokémon were doubting in him. And a great many wanted a new leader…Moonlight the umbreon seemed to be the one most wanted to take his place. Scytheclaw felt worried and afraid. He was injured. He couldn't fight if they tried to overthrow him, and he wondered if inflicting harsh punishments on rule breakers had really been wise; now that he was in a state of weakness it was likely they could take out bottled-up anger on him. If only he had managed to kill Nightshade and instill some more respect in them…but would that have been the best way to go about it? Scytheclaw had no idea what the best way to be a leader was, and it was this thought that scared him most of all. This leadership was all he had. If he lost it, everything would be over.

Worriedly, the scizor turned his gaze to look deeper into the pool at the arcanine statue that lay beneath the waters. As he did so, he thought he saw a peculiar glint off of the arcanine's fangs. Curious, he peered closer, moving around until he saw the sparkle of some strange object again.

After a moment's hesitation, Scytheclaw waded into the water. He shuddered; the water had always felt strange to him as a scizor. He had loved it as a scyther, but since his evolution he had always felt as if his body was too heavy and he was likely to drown. He hated that feeling.

He hesitated as he neared the deeper part of the water, where the arcanine statue lay. As he peered into the depths, he thought he saw the shimmer of something blue near the arcanine's mouth.

"Scytheclaw?" a curious voice sounded from behind him, making him turn his head.

The scizor spotted a zangoose, one of his now few truly loyal followers, standing on a rock near the pool. Scytheclaw immediately got out of the water, pointing to the arcanine statue. "Go under the water!" he ordered. "There's something strange about that statue."

Puzzled, but unwilling to disobey in case he angered his leader, the zangoose slid into the water cautiously and vanished underneath the surface. It wasn't long before he reappeared, looking puzzled. "There doesn't seem to be anything odd about it…" he began. "But there's some sort of gem stuck in its mouth…it looks shiny…I wonder if it's some sort of rare-"

"Well, get it out," Scytheclaw muttered impatiently. The zangoose nodded and vanished again.

He reappeared a second time, panting and out of breath. "It's stuck, Scytheclaw," he reported, and before he could hear any angry responses, he added, "I'll try again!" before diving under.

Scytheclaw waited a little longer before the zangoose's head broke the surface again. In his mouth he held an oddly shaped blue gem. Swimming over, he set it at Scytheclaw's feet.

The scizor bent down to peer at the stone, noticing how strange it looked. It was smooth, like a river rock, but clear, with odd little patterns interlacing the inside. He reached out to feel its surface with the tip of his pincer.

Still treading water near the edge of the pool, the zangoose watched as his leader collapsed.

  
**-ooo-**  


"You know, I really don't think we're going to find it, not after all this time. And you still only have five pokémon with you…why is it so important to save that last place for the growlithe?"

Katie sighed and glanced up from her pidgeot's wing, which had been injured in a battle with a wild pokémon the day before. "I want to try training the growlithe right after I catch it," she explained. "And with Pidgeot's wing hurt, it could be a long time before we can get back…"

"Why don't we head back now?" Justin replied, sounding angry. "I don't like not having a flying pokémon to-"

"Pidgeot's wing is taken care of. The injury wasn't bad, it just needs time to heal," Katie replied, now grateful that she had been given lessons on how to treat her pokémon if they got injured in the wild. "We've still got plenty of supplies, and the pokémon don't have much of a problem finding more food for themselves. I still think there's a lot to be discovered out here. I don't want to head back yet."

"You know, there's probably a reason why trainers rarely ever venture this far…" Justin replied coldly, his voice trailing off.

"I don't see what your problem is," Katie replied crossly. "I thought you liked adventure."

Justin said nothing and merely stared at the landscape ahead.

Katie sighed and returned Pidgeot, picking up her backpack and starting to walk forward. "Come on, then," she called to Justin, still sounding annoyed.

Justin fingered the poké ball he still had in his pocket before following.

_To be continued..._


	42. Moving On

Snowcrystal darted through bushes and over tree roots, following Darkfang's scent to the best of her ability. The problem was that she was moving so fast, it was hard to focus on the scent as she fought to keep up with him. Growling as she stepped on a thorn, Snowcrystal stumbled, but steadied herself without looking at her paw and ran on. The sounds of moving leaves and branches coming from up ahead were less frequent, meaning that Darkfang had probably slowed down. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to run faster.

She emerged into a small clearing covered in bushes, and it didn't take her long to spot the scyther nearby. He had stopped, and looked out of breath. She hurried to catch up to him.

"Uh…Darkfang?"

"What do you want?" he growled, whirling around to look at her. She was surprised by the look of ferocity in his previously calm eyes.

Snowcrystal flinched, fighting the urge to back off. "I…I just want to know where you saw Articuno…the ice bird…flying to. You see-"

"Why would you want to know that?" Darkfang replied, no longer seeming hostile, only genuinely puzzled. "It left long ago. I don't think you'll be able to see it again."

' _I might…'_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, but didn't say it out loud. "Can you just…tell me where you saw it? Where it was going?"

"The mountain," Darkfang replied.

Snowcrystal was caught off guard; she hadn't expected such a quick and direct answer. Before she could ask what mountain Darkfang was talking about, the scyther pointed the tip of his one blade through the trees.

"It lies in that direction," he explained. "The mountain's easy to see once you emerge on the other side of the forest. The bird was heading toward it…or past it, I'm not sure. But that's all I know."

"A mountain…" she mused, staring off into the trees. "But why would…" She broke off, turning to look at Darkfang again. "Thank you," she told him. "I think you've really helped me…"

Darkfang looked puzzled, but he had no chance to respond as a sudden array of battle cries and a shriek of pain sliced through the air. Both pokémon paused for a moment and then turned and ran toward the noise, Darkfang because the voice crying out in pain was a scyther voice, and Snowcrystal out of a strange curiosity to find out what was happening. The two emerged near a shallow stream, where two of the swarm scyther – Snowcrystal assumed they were guards – were fighting another one that she recognized. Thunder.

It was easy to see that two swarm scyther had the upper claw. Thunder, although looking better now than she had the day before, was much weaker and it seemed as if she was having a hard time staying on her feet.

"Wait, stop!" Snowcrystal cried as she ran toward them.

The fighting scyther didn't seem to have heard her, because the moment after she called out, Thunder tried to slice into the bigger scyther's shoulder, but was blocked by one of his blades and knocked backwards off her feet and into the dirt.

"That's enough!" Darkfang shouted, and both guard scyther looked at him in surprise.

Snowcrystal thought that they would want an explanation. "She's one of us," she said quietly, not sure whether these scyther were for or against her group staying here in the first place. "She didn't know we were staying with the swarm…she…"

The two guard scyther looked at each other, then glanced down at Thunder. Snowcrystal did as well, and was shocked to see that Thunder hadn't tried to get up; she was half lifting herself with her scythes, but was still on the ground. Glaring and snarling, but still on the ground.

Not sure what the other scyther would do to Thunder if she didn't leave or if she attacked, Snowcrystal dared to take a few steps closer to the scarred pokémon. "Thunder…follow me. I'll show you where the others are."

Thunder turned and glared at her. "I'm not going to listen to you! You're not on my side!" she snarled.

"I….what?"

Thunder didn't answer, instead lunging at the closest guard scyther from where she was on the ground. He moved out of her range effortlessly.

Snowcrystal had no idea what Thunder had meant by her reply, but she had sounded rather strange…even for her. Snowcrystal decided to assume that it was just Thunder being tired and sick so she could put the thought out of her mind. She noticed Darkfang staring at Thunder and waited for her to try to attack him, but luckily, before another fight could break out, Nightshade appeared by the stream and put himself in front of the two guard scyther.

"She's with us," he explained. "I-"

"She's not allowed on our territory," one of the scyther told him.

"Why?" Nightshade asked calmly. "Your leader told us we could stay on your territory if we hunted for you."

"She's an enemy to our swarm," the scyther replied.

"Enemy?" Nightshade replied. "No, she's just-"

"She told us so."

At this, even Nightshade looked surprised. "She…told you?" He turned to Thunder, who gave the guard scyther another hateful stare and nodded. Looking thoroughly confused about how to handle the situation now, he turned to the three scyther standing nearby. "I'm sure she has no reason to be an enemy to you…I'll take her to where the others are…with your permission of course, and not near the swarm. I'll make sure she doesn't attack any of the scyther here again."

To Snowcrystal's surprise, the scyther guard nodded. "Fine," he replied. "It's not like she's an 'enemy' we should be scared of." Snowcrystal noticed that he had been the one Thunder had injured. His leg was cut, though not very deeply, and she assumed that wild scyther must be used to these sorts of injuries from practice fights with one another.

"All right…follow me," Nightshade told Thunder, who, to Snowcrystal's surprise, had gotten to her feet. Without a word, she limped into the bushes ahead of Nightshade, who hesitated a moment before following.

Snowcrystal watched Darkfang run into the bushes again and turned to follow Nightshade. There was something she needed to tell him. As she ran after the heracross, she noticed that he had caught up with Thunder, who didn't look particularly annoyed to have him around, at least not more than usual. Snowcrystal was glad to know that they weren't far from the rest of the group; Thunder didn't look like she should be traveling right now at all.

They reached the others faster than Snowcrystal would have thought, and all of them seemed surprised – and in Blazefang's case, disgusted – to see that Thunder had returned.

"Where were you?" Wildflame asked, and Snowcrystal didn't think the houndoom was surprised when she didn't get an answer.

Thunder merely just gave the group an odd look and then walked away, further into the bushes.

"Where are you going?" Redclaw asked, making his way toward her. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"I'm not leaving," Thunder replied in a dull voice. "I just don't want to be around you."

As Redclaw went to check that she did not go too far, Snowcrystal wondered if she should tell the group what Darkfang had said about Articuno. Yet something stopped her, some strange feeling in the back of her mind told her that she should talk to Nightshade first, and Nightshade alone. Turning to him, she whispered quietly that she wanted to speak with him. He nodded and they headed deeper into the forest together.

Once they reached a nice, peaceful spot where another section of the stream flowed past them lazily and the scyther scent was stronger and more recent – therefore there were no prey pokémon around – the two of them sat down at the water's edge. Nightshade looked down at Snowcrystal. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"It's about Articuno," she said quickly. "Darkfang…one of the scyther…said he saw him heading toward a mountain that's just beyond this forest…I…I think maybe he might have stopped there. And if not, at least it's some sort of a clue about which way he went."

"Are you sure about what Darkfang said?" he asked, sounding surprised. Snowcrystal nodded, and he gave her a half-smile. "I'm glad you have finally found a clue. At least now, we have an idea of where to look."

Snowcrystal realized that he was trying to hide the fact that he wasn't very optimistic about getting to Articuno, and to tell the truth, she wasn't either. "I have to try, though," she whispered. "The others…back at my own mountain…need me. I wonder how they're doing now…" Glancing at her crystal amulet, which was now scratched and filthy, she thought about the growlithe who had given it to her, and why. She couldn't turn back now, not when she had finally found a glimmer of hope. "We'll have to talk to the others and decide what to do," she said at last.

Snowcrystal realized that what would probably happen was that she and a few others would have to continue the journey, and the rest would be left behind. She hated the idea of the group splitting up, and she wanted to drive that thought from her mind for the time being. Turning to Nightshade, she decided to ask him a question. "How did you get Thunder to listen to you?" she asked. "I mean, she never listens to anyone…and you got her to give up that fight…"

Nightshade seemed surprised by the question, but didn't seem to mind answering. "She trusts me…a bit…or at least gives me as much trust as she'll allow."

"Why?" Snowcrystal asked, genuinely puzzled.

"I'm not sure," Nightshade admitted. "Most of the time she doesn't even want to be around me, except when she wants to talk about something."

"She talks to you?" Snowcrystal blurted out in surprise. Thunder had never struck her as a pokémon who would want to talk her problems out with someone, or even one who would actually see any benefit in doing so. She couldn't picture Thunder sitting next to someone and telling them about her feelings. That just wasn't her.

"Yes," Nightshade replied. "She told me about the things her master did…and she apparently told Stormblade some of it too, though she regretted it."

"Was she…sad?" Snowcrystal asked, still finding the idea incredibly alien.

"Yes," Nightshade sighed. "She didn't show it…it's not easy at all to tell with her, but she was."

Snowcrystal was still confused over the whole thing, but at least now she could drive the image of Thunder huddled near another pokémon and talking about her past while crying from her head; that had just simply seemed too bizarre to be able to happen. "What exactly did she tell you?" she asked curiously.

"A lot of things," Nightshade replied. "About some of the things her master did. I really don't think I should repeat them to you, to be honest."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure she minded; she didn't think she wanted to know. "Why did she tell you all that?" she asked, still thoroughly confused. She could hardly believe this was Thunder they were talking about.

Nightshade looked thoughtful. "Well, I told her…a while ago…that she could always talk to me if she wanted to. I never expected her to actually want to do it, but I was wrong. She wanted to, so whenever we were alone I would let her talk to me. She talks a lot about how she wants to kill her master. She seems to like it, though...or at least…it makes her less angry, if only a little. I don't think she ever realized that talking to me might be helping her…I think she just wanted someone to listen. She tells me that she hates everyone in our traveling group, but I don't know if she means it. I don't think she thinks of me as a friend, but she told me she didn't hate me."

Maybe that, Snowcrystal thought, was Thunder's version of a compliment. She had no idea what would lead Thunder to hate the first pokémon who had shown kindness to her…in probably a long time…after all that had happened to her, but at the same time it didn't surprise her. Thunder typically acted like she didn't enjoy their company, even if most of the others were nice to her. It also didn't surprise her that killing her master would be a common conversation topic if Thunder were the one doing the talking. "I still don't get it though…why does she trust you?"

"I really don't know…" Nightshade replied. "I have to be careful what I say around her…it's hard to tell what makes her mad, and I don't want her to stop trusting me. I don't try to force her to do anything, or get mad when she doesn't do what she should, like rest or stop trying to hunt. I also don't usually comment on the things she tells me about her master…I don't think she'd want me to most of the time."

Snowcrystal was still genuinely puzzled by this, but she started to think back to Thunder's most recent actions, which weren't quite as puzzling, but still odd. "I don't get it…" she whispered. "Why did she fight those scyther? And why did she tell them she was their enemy? Did she know them before she got captured or something?"

"No," Nightshade replied, shaking his head. "She didn't. She got amnesia when she was very young, and never got the memories back, so she couldn't have remembered them. I don't think they were her swarm anyway, and I don't know why she told them she was their enemy…but I have an idea. I don't think she likes being around other scyther."

"She doesn't like much, does she?" Snowcrystal muttered.

"I don't think she ever got a chance to find out what she does like," Nightshade added thoughtfully.

"Maybe…" Snowcrystal replied. She wondered why Thunder had never really had much of a problem around Stormblade, or at least, why the problems had only stemmed from Stormblade trying to help her when she didn't want it. Then again, she _had_ attacked him the moment he stepped near the place where she was chained back at the abandoned human town. Was this why she had run off in the morning? She didn't like other scyther? Maybe she had noticed that there were scyther living there, but why did she come to fight those guards? Knowing that she wasn't going to find answers to those questions, Snowcrystal let them slide out of her mind for the time being. Looking at Nightshade, she asked, "Did Thunder ever ask you to tell her anything?"

Nightshade looked surprised at the question. He then turned away from Snowcrystal and looked at the stream. "No," he answered. "I told her things sometimes, but I don't know if she cared. It seemed to make her more willing to trust me, though."

Nightshade's voice faded into silence and Snowcrystal sighed, closing her eyes and letting the sound of the bubbling stream fill her mind. Somehow, the conversation was only making her feel more sad about the journey that lay ahead of them, though she wasn't quite sure why. "Maybe we should talk to the others…" she whispered. "I'm going to have to go look for Articuno as soon as I can, and I don't have long to rest."

"I'm coming with you. You know that, right?"

"You? But you're injured! I don't think you should travel while…"

"It won't be the first time," Nightshade replied with a small smile. "And you don't need to worry. The wounds are already starting to heal."

"What about Thunder?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Thunder needs someone to teach her how to hunt when she is well enough," Nightshade answered. "I can't help her with that. Redclaw can, and I have a strong feeling that he'd want to stay behind with Stormblade."

"Oh…" Snowcrystal replied, still not liking the thought of the group splitting up. She hated the idea that she would be too far away to know what was happening to Stormblade…and to all of the friends she would leave behind. "Do you think we should tell the others now?"

Nightshade nodded. "Yes…" He stood up. "I'll get Rosie and bring her to where everyone else is. We…we can talk to Stormblade later."

Snowcrystal nodded, and watched as Nightshade headed in the direction of their resting place by the swarm before turning to look at the lake and then following him slowly.

  
**-ooo-**  


Gathered together under the trees, the entire group of travelers, minus Stormblade, listened as Snowcrystal told them everything Darkfang had said. Rosie, Wildflame and Spark had seemed shocked and excited, Redclaw had looked happy for her, and Blazefang had seemed, oddly, horrified. Snowcrystal didn't dwell on it; after all, his pack had abandoned him, so any hopes he had of winning Articuno over to the houndour side were over. Thunder, not surprisingly, seemed completely indifferent to the news.

"So…are you going to go look for him now?" Rosie asked, a hint of sadness and worry in her voice. Snowcrystal knew why.

"Of course," she replied. "I…I have to. And I'm going to have to leave very soon. That's why…I wanted to ask you…which of you wanted to come with me." There. She had said it. And now it was time to see the group split up at last.

Silence met her statement, as everyone seemed to be thinking her words over. If they hadn't realized what it all had been building up to, they did now. After a moment longer, Spark was the first one to speak up. "Snowcrystal," he began, "we pretty much started this journey together, and we're going to finish it…together. I'm going with you."

Snowcrystal looked at him in surprise. She would have thought that he'd have been one of the ones who wanted to stay. After all, he was Stormblade's friend, and it was obvious that Stormblade wouldn't be traveling.

"I…I'm going too," Rosie said quietly. "You helped rescue me from that cage…and though I didn't realize it at the time, you…you probably saved my life, seeing as how that was a poacher's trap. I know I might slow you down, but my leg's getting better. It doesn't hurt as much. I can keep going."

Snowcrystal looked at Rosie gratefully, but her eyes wandered to the ninetales's leg. It wasn't hard to see that the leg wasn't healing properly; Rosie would probably have a limp the rest of her life. However, Rosie was right; the state of the injury was improving, and the ninetales hadn't had much of a hard time keeping up lately. And if Rosie thought she could do it, Snowcrystal didn't doubt her. "Thanks…you two," she told them gratefully, both stunned and touched by their willingness to follow her.

"And I am going, as I've already mentioned," Nightshade added, giving Spark and Rosie a thankful glance.

"I am going too," said another pokémon, and Snowcrystal was shocked to see that it was Thunder. "I still need a good place to live. I will not find that here."

"I really think you should stay, honestly," Snowcrystal told her, deciding that now was no time to lie or tell a half-truth. "You shouldn't be traveling at all. You're injured, you're sick, you have infected wounds, and you're far too thin to be-"

Thunder gave her a murderous glare. "I…will not…stay here!" she growled.

"It's all right, Thunder," Spark told her with a smile. "We know you'd miss us."

Thunder gave Spark a look that made Snowcrystal feel uncomfortably like the scyther really _wouldn't_ have missed them; it was a look of annoyance rather than one of angry denial.

"If Thunder is going, I want to go as well," Redclaw told the group. "I'm the one best able to show her how to hunt, and well…" He looked nervously at Thunder, who showed no reaction or even any indication that she had heard him.

"I'll go with you as well," Wildflame announced, an unreadable expression in her eyes. Was it excitement? Hope? Longing?

Snowcrystal glanced at Nightshade. "Who's going to stay with Stormblade?" she asked.

"I think he should stay with the swarm…" Redclaw began. "They're his own kind…and maybe we can convince them to accept him…"

"Could Nightshade teach them the healing herbs?" Rosie asked.

Snowcrystal thought all this over in her head. She hadn't expected everyone to want to keep going, and now that they all did, she wasn't sure how she could leave Stormblade behind. Yet…they needed to keep going…and he couldn't make such a long and fast-paced journey. "We need to talk to him later," she told the others. "Then…then we can decide what he should do." She didn't want to think about having to leave him, but if she talked to one of the other scyther…maybe Darkfang…

Snowcrystal was jolted from her thoughts by the sound of Blazefang and Wildflame's bickering. Puzzled, she looked over in their direction, at about the same time that the other pokémon did.

"Blazefang…you've got to come with us," Wildflame was saying, not even making an effort to keep her voice down. "You don't have anywhere else to go."

"They don't want me around, and I don't want to be around _them!_ " Blazefang shouted, giving the group around him a petrifying glare.

"I'm sure they're willing to work with you if you just give them a chance," Wildflame replied, although the look on Rosie's face as she glared at Blazefang said otherwise. "I want to help them find Articuno…" she added, sounding to Snowcrystal as if she felt awkward admitting that to Blazefang.

Blazefang's eyes widened in understanding, and he turned away. "Go ahead," he muttered. "Find him! I don't care…"

Wildflame simply sighed, and Rosie grinned and muttered, "We won't miss you."

"Please, Blazefang…" Wildflame begged, "we could help Snowcrystal work it out with Articuno…for the pa-I mean…your pack…"

Snowcrystal felt confused. Did Wildflame really still care so deeply about a former pack mate who had driven her away after she evolved? Deciding that whatever had gone on in the houndour pack was none of her business, she didn't mention it out loud.

"Fine…" Blazefang muttered after a moment. "But…I won't be going as far as Articuno. If you find him and can help the pack, then good. But as soon as we know whether or not he can help, I'm going back to my home."

Snowcrystal was glad that, for whatever reason, Wildflame seemed much happier, though she couldn't help wondering if letting Blazefang keep tagging along was a good idea at all, even if he was technically no longer their enemy. And from the looks of the others around her, she could tell that those thoughts were not hers alone.

  
**-ooo-  
**

Snowcrystal was very careful as she walked through the forest trees, following Darkfang's scent. Before everyone talked to Stormblade, she wanted to talk to him; out of all the scyther, he seemed the most likely to understand. Maybe he could even gather herbs for Stormblade while they were gone...if the scyther let him stay, that is.

It surprisingly wasn't hard to track Darkfang, and she found him in a clearing, where he had killed and was nearly done eating some sort of prey pokémon that Snowcrystal could no longer identify.

"Darkfang?" she asked quietly.

"What?" he replied, looking up at her. From the look on his face, Snowcrystal realized that he hadn't noticed her until she'd spoken up, probably because of the scent of the prey. "I already told you all I knew…"

"It's not that," Snowcrystal said quickly. "It's just…we're leaving soon…"

"You are?" he responded, only seeming mildly interested. "Well, make sure you catch some prey before you leave or else the other scyther will think you were just here to take food from us and leave."

"Oh…okay," Snowcrystal replied, realizing that the promise they had made had entirely slipped her mind. She hoped that the others had at least caught something for the scyther swarm so far. "Well, what I wanted to ask you," she continued after a moment's hesitation, "...well…you see, we can't take Stormblade with us…he's the scyther we brought here who was injured. I was wondering if you could ask the other scyther to let him stay here." She waited for him to respond, suddenly realizing that he might not like the idea of asking his swarm to take in an injured outsider who would not only be completely dependent upon them, but would also be unable to hunt or serve the other scyther in any way.

Darkfang looked thoughtful before replying. "I…I wouldn't mind him staying here," he began slowly, "but…the rest of the swarm…they would. Or at least…most of them would. I don't know if they'd want an extra scyther to take care of." He paused and glanced thoughtfully in the direction of the swarm. "Did he say that he wanted to stay here and not come with you?"

"Uh…no," Snowcrystal replied. Even though she thought that Stormblade really didn't have a choice, she hadn't even asked him yet. She had gone to Darkfang first so that she could at least know that Stormblade joining the swarm could be a possibility before she talked to him about it.

"Then you might as well talk to him first before I try asking them," Darkfang replied, sounding annoyed. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a scyther others look up to. It'll be a lot of work trying to convince them."

Snowcrystal took a deep breath and sighed. "All right. Look, Darkfang…do you know what we might face on the way to that mountain? How far is it?"

"From the edge of the forest? A couple days' journey, I would think. There are mostly plains and rocky fields, and there's a big lake you'll pass on the way. I don't know what you'll find after passing the mountain, however. I've never been that far."

"Okay, thanks," Snowcrystal told him. Then she thought about something. "How come you left the old forest?" she asked. "The one that…that burned down…"

Darkfang seemed surprised by the odd question, but he merely shrugged. "It was close to a human city and the leader was worried," he explained. "Though I really didn't understand what they were afraid of. It was a human who found me after the fight where I lost my arm. If it weren't for him, I would have died. I had no idea what they wanted with me at the time, but after being taken to one of their buildings I soon realized that they just wanted to help. I didn't like being out of the forest, but it wasn't too bad. The humans did something to make it not hurt so much, and they gave me meat that tasted nice."

Snowcrystal felt puzzled that he was telling her this, and puzzled at simply _what_ he was telling her. She didn't exactly have the best outlook on humans, though she knew from what Spark had told her that some of them were nice. Maybe there were more humans out there who were nice than she had thought there was. "Didn't you try to tell them…how they helped you?" she asked Darkfang.

A sad look appeared in Darkfang's eyes and he shook his head. "No," he replied slowly. "I pretty much lost the respect of a lot of the other scyther after the humans set me free. With only one blade, I couldn't duel as well anymore…and most of the swarm scyther can outmatch me fairly easily…"

A sudden thought struck Snowcrystal. "If you don't like it here…" she began, "why don't you come with us? You saw Articuno, so we could use your help, and-"

Darkfang shook his head. "No," he told her firmly. "I do like it here. I…don't think I could ever leave the swarm. There are still a lot of scyther who care about me. Of course I'm going to stay with them."

"All right," Snowcrystal sighed. Really, she shouldn't have expected that Darkfang would want to leave with them, after all. "But could you…" She paused. This was the other reason she had needed to come to Darkfang before talking to Stormblade. "Could you ask the other scyther if we could all come to where Stormblade is…just to talk to him? We promise…we won't stay long."

Darkfang looked hesitant, but then he slowly nodded. "Okay," he replied. "I don't think they would have too much of a problem with that."

  
**-ooo-**  


It seemed a surprisingly short time before Snowcrystal and her friends had all gathered together, being led by Darkfang and a few other scyther to where Stormblade was. No one seemed to mind as much that the travelers were entering the swarm's home now that they knew they would soon be leaving, and there wasn't much of a threat the ragtag group could pose in the midst of such a great number of scyther anyway. The only one they had left behind was Thunder, who had seemed like she wanted to be alone anyway, and there was no way it would be a good idea to bring her in the midst of all those strangers.

None of the scyther seemed surprised when they entered the big clearing, or at least Snowcrystal didn't notice any of them acting surprised. She was mainly thinking about what they were going to tell Stormblade, and she felt that she wanted to be the one to speak for the group. Once they reached the place where Stormblade was resting, the scyther leading them ran off, and Darkfang hesitated a moment before following them.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal asked, walking up to him as the others sat down, waiting to hear Snowcrystal explain. The growlithe walked up to Stormblade's still form, and wondered for a moment if he was asleep. A moment later, however, and his eyes opened. He looked up at her.

"What…is it?" he asked, his voice scarcely more than a whisper. Snowcrystal thought he looked too exhausted to talk. She was surprised he had spoken at all.

Blazefang, who had come along only because being left alone in the forest with Thunder hadn't appealed to him in the least, snorted with impatience and gave Snowcrystal an annoyed look. "Just get on with it," he mumbled.

Rosie glared daggers at him, reminding him that he was the reason Stormblade was in this state. Blazefang didn't respond and stared at his paws in sullen silence.

Snowcrystal just sighed and looked at Stormblade again. Stormblade, who seemed too weak to even lift his head, looked back at her. "Stormblade…" she began, "we've all decided…well, you see…we've finally found a clue to where Articuno is, so…" She waited for some kind of response from Stormblade, but his expression, aside from pain, just remained blank. "We're going to leave, very soon…and we know you can't travel anymore. We want to ask the scyther if you can stay with them here…" Her voice trailed off as she heard loud voices drifting toward them, and leaped back as two small scyther – one of them the dark green one she recognized from before – darted close to them in the middle of what looked like a play-battle.

Redclaw growled as he stood up to avoid them, looking as if he would have batted them lightly with his paw if he weren't afraid of the other scyther getting angry with him for it. The scyther didn't even notice him and when they came to a stop, they were very close to Snowcrystal.

She turned to face them. "Look, could you please leave? We're trying to…"

"See? That's that scyther," the dark green female told her friend, who looked about the same age as she was. Obviously, she hadn't heard Snowcrystal or didn't care. "I wonder what happened to make him like that." Her friend nodded, staring wide-eyed at Stormblade.

Snowcrystal felt angry that not only were they talking right in front of Stormblade, who was watching them, but they seemed to act as if he couldn't hear them at all. Snowcrystal could tell that some of her friends were annoyed as well, but they all knew that showing aggression to very young scyther wasn't a good idea with all the adults around.

"Do you think he got in a fight?" the small female was asking.

"Maybe," the other one replied. "He must have been strong if he hasn't died yet. He's really big too…if he didn't have those wounds and wasn't so thin, he could probably be a leader."

Snowcrystal noticed that at this statement, not only did Stormblade visibly flinch, but he looked genuinely hurt by the statement. Snowcrystal narrowed her eyes. "Get away from him!" she shouted at the two scyther, who looked at her in surprise, along with the rest of her friends.

"What?" one of the scyther muttered, surprised. "This is our territory! You can't-"

"I said to leave him alone!" Snowcrystal growled. The two scyther glared at her and walked away. Now that she realized it, she wondered just how many scyther had tried to bother Stormblade, or talk about him while he could hear. It made her wonder if she really should have left him for so long after all.

"Be careful, Snowcrystal," Redclaw whispered, watching the two scyther who were now staring at them angrily from a little ways away. "We don't want to seem hostile."

"I know, but I couldn't just let them talk about Stormblade like that when he obviously didn't want to hear it…" she muttered angrily.

"Snowcrystal?"

Snowcrystal turned, surprised at hearing Stormblade's voice, a bit stronger than it had been before. He was giving her a more determined look, one that made him look less frail. But why did it feel so…wrong?

"I...I want to leave," he stated. "Take me out of the forest and away from here."

"What?" she gasped. "Why? Is it because of what those scyther said? I really, really don't think you should listen-"

"No...it's not about that," Stormblade replied, his voice beginning to sound weak again. "Please, I don't want to be here. Take me away from here. Find some sort of resting place for me and leave me there."

Snowcrystal stared at him in shock. _"What?"_

Stormblade held his gaze, his blue eyes locked onto hers. "I can't travel with you anymore," he began again. "I'm holding you back. I just want to be somewhere alone...when I...when I…well…"

Snowcrystal shook her head. "We're not going to _leave_ you!"

Rosie stepped forward to stand by Snowcrystal. "Listen to her, Stormblade," she said firmly. "We're not going to just leave you in some random place. Don't you get it? We leave you, and you will DIE. You can't survive alone."

"I know that," Stormblade replied.

"Do you _want_ to die?" Rosie growled.

"I just want you to take me somewhere where I can be alone," Stormblade said in response. "And leave me there. That's all I want…please do it."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure if Stormblade was even talking sense. She would have liked to tell him to stop it, tell him that he shouldn't talk that way and that he was just being selfish…if she didn't know that everything he was saying and everything he meant behind those words wasn't completely, and painfully, true. She held Stormblade's gaze, and the pleading look in his eyes made her feel torn about what to do. If this was what he wanted, she should help, but how could she ever leave him behind alone?

"We're not going to leave you, Stormblade," Redclaw told him, stepping forward. "Nightshade can teach some of the scyther here the herbs…I'm sure they could…"

"No…" Stormblade said weakly. "I don't want to be here."

Snowcrystal heard another pokémon walk forward, and to her surprise, it was Blazefang. "Not that my opinion means anything to you pokémon," the houndour began, "but...I think you should do what he says. If he wants to be alone, I don't see why you shouldn't grant him that wish. It's the least you could do." He shrugged, glancing around at the others.

"I…I think Blazefang's right," Spark began slowly, looking down at Stormblade. The shock that the jolteon was actually agreeing with Blazefang barely even registered to Snowcrystal. "Either way…" he continued, looking sadly at the friend he had traveled with for so long, "he still can't come with us…and if it'll bring him peace…it's probably for the better…"

Stormblade lifted his head a little, trying his best to look at all of them better. "Do it...please?"

Snowcrystal glanced back at the others. Wildflame just nodded in silence, Spark and Nightshade looked sadly at Stormblade, Redclaw looked unsure, Rosie seemed devastated, and Blazefang simply looked on nonchalantly.

"We don't have to leave right away," Nightshade reminded him. "We can find him a safe place near water, and I can find some of those herbs. Maybe Darkfang could come to make sure he was all right…"

Stormblade said nothing, but Snowcrystal could tell that he knew he would probably not need any of those things for long, and though she hated to admit it, he was right, and leaving Stormblade wasn't exactly a choice. Looking at him sadly, she nodded her head. "All right, Stormblade."

  
**-ooo-**  


By the time night fell, the group had traveled through the rest of the forest. They had faced a few hostile pokémon, but Redclaw and Wildflame had managed to intimidate them enough so that the forest pokémon allowed them to go by unharmed. Now at the forest's edge, Snowcrystal could see the gigantic mountain looming ahead of them in the distance. Its topmost peak was covered in white snow, which gave Snowcrystal a fleeting feeling of hope. _'Or it could just be snow left there from winter…'_ she reminded herself bitterly.

They had found a stream surrounded by tall trees which provided shelter from the wind. This, Stormblade had told them, was the place he wanted to stay.

Snowcrystal, however, felt a bit calmer now, though that wasn't saying much, as she knew that there was no way they were going to leave Stormblade without some sort of help, no matter what he said. Nightshade had managed to convince Darkfang, one of the only scyther who seemed to care enough about helping other members of his species, even if they were outsiders, to bring Stormblade food. If Articuno really was on that mountain, then after they found him, they could come back and help Stormblade. That is…if he was still alive when they got there.

For the rest of the night, Snowcrystal, as well as many of the others, lay awake thinking, and when morning finally came, Snowcrystal briefly wondered if it would be better to wait longer until they started the journey. Almost instantly, she knew they could not; she had been gone for too long already, and who knew what was going on back at her home. And if they stayed, it would make no difference to Stormblade's health. It was time to leave.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Snowcrystal asked Rosie, who was sitting nearby. "This isn't your journey, and you still need the rest…"

"Of course!" Rosie replied, sounding rather offended. "I wouldn't have said I was going to go if I didn't want to."

"Sorry," Snowcrystal replied, taken aback. "It's just…"

"Look, I know you're worried about everyone, Snowcrystal," Redclaw began as he walked up to her. "Stormblade especially, but Stormblade's better off here than he is coming with us, or being back at the swarm if he really didn't want to be there. I don't know if we'll see him again, but…you're doing the best thing. If we're going to start following Articuno, we need to start now."

Snowcrystal nodded slowly and glanced over at Stormblade, who lay still beneath one of the trees closest to the stream. Honestly, she did not think he would last until they found Articuno and came back. This was probably the last she'd ever see of him.

All around her, the other pokémon were getting ready for the journey, all looking as if they each felt differently about it. Most of them, or at least those who wanted to, had already spoken to Stormblade, and although she had as well, she wanted to give him one last good bye.

"Stormblade?" she whispered, slowly approaching him.

He turned his gaze to her in response. "I thought you were leaving already," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"We're…we're going to…" she began.

"Then don't waste time for me," he replied, his gaze flicking away from her.

Despite all that had happened, Snowcrystal felt stunned. She wasn't used to seeing Stormblade look like this, and even though she knew that he just wanted her to get started on what was bound to be a hard journey, she hated to hear him say something like that. "I…I really don't think…I mean, I really don't want to leave you here…"

Stormblade sighed. "Didn't you promise me that you would do this one thing for me? It's best for both of us that I stay here. It's all I want, and it's all I'm asking you to do."

"Yes, but…" she paused, seeing the pleading expression on Stormblade's face. "I know…"

"Snowcrystal?" she heard Wildflame call from up ahead. The others were ready to go, and it seemed to Snowcrystal like it was far too soon.

"Good bye, Stormblade…" Snowcrystal whispered, looking at him one last time before heading after the others, barely hearing his voice as she walked away.

" _Good bye…"_

  
**-ooo-**  


Even with the mountain ahead of them, Snowcrystal still felt as if her journey was leading her nowhere. Wasn't it her quest, she realized, that had made Blazefang's pack come after them? Wasn't it her journey that had gotten Stormblade injured in the first place? She couldn't help feeling that somehow, it had all been her fault.

As they walked, Snowcrystal kept glancing behind her at the place where they had left Stormblade. Redclaw quickly noticed this.

"We may see him again," he told her, though he didn't sound like he was sure he believed it.

"But we might not…" Snowcrystal added bitterly, and then looked up at the arcanine standing beside her. "Redclaw, can I go back? Just to see Stormblade again? I won't be long, and it won't be hard for me to catch up, I just…please?"

Redclaw looked surprised, and Blazefang snorted. "You just saw him!" the houndour growled. "What, do you think his wounds were that pretty to look at?"

Surprisingly, no one replied to his comment, and Redclaw thought a moment before nodding. "All right…but be quick." Then he turned to Spark, who everyone knew had been Stormblade's friend for longer than the rest of them. "Do you want to go as well?"

Spark merely shook his head numbly.

Snowcrystal turned and began walking back in the direction of Stormblade. "I'll be back," she told the others sadly before darting off back toward the stream.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Can we stop now?" Justin growled. They had been traveling since the previous night, after Katie had found what she thought were growlithe paw prints on the outskirts of the forest. The past day had been spent exploring said forest, but the amount of wild pokémon had quickly tired out Katie's four healthy battling pokémon, and they'd had to resort to going around it.

"Those paw prints were fresh, Justin," Katie responded, sounding annoyed. "And I thought you were the one who wanted me to find that growlithe in the first place."

"It could have been a normal growlithe who made those paw prints," Justin muttered, sitting down on the grass.

"Fine," Katie muttered, "stay here without any of my pokémon to protect you." She turned and walked away. Justin just shrugged and stayed where he was. Rolling her eyes, Katie kept walking. She only wanted to go a little further, anyway.

She felt confused. Over the past little while during their exploration, Justin seemed to be losing hope, and not just about the growlithe either. Still, Katie felt that she was close, and maybe catching it could make Justin a lot happier.

Hearing the trickle of a stream nearby, Katie was reminded that they were low on water. Walking toward it, she approached a group of trees, stepping over a few fallen branches as the edge of the stream came into sight. And at the same time, so did something else. For a second, Katie thought it must have been a hallucination or something of the sort, but a scyther was lying nearby…the same one who had supposedly died in the pokémon center explosion…for surely Team Rocket would never have taken such an injured pokémon?

Katie stood completely still, as if frozen. How on earth had Justin's scyther managed to get _here?_ Or even anywhere close to where they were? Was it someone else's pokémon now, tracking down the growlithe as well? No, she thought, that was absurd. It was injured. There was no way that could be it. Still, seeing that same scyther lying before her was simply too eerie.

Cautiously, she approached it, noticing that not only had its wounds failed to heal, but that it had new ones as well. Despite knowing the horrible thing it had done in the past, she still felt sorry for it.

Carefully, she knelt down beside it, noting that its eyes were closed and it made no indication that it even knew she was there. "You're still alive…" she whispered in disbelief, knowing that it couldn't hear her; it looked to her as if it had recently slipped into unconsciousness. Maybe, she thought to herself, she could do something to help. She had brought plenty of supplies before leaving Stonedust City, and although she only knew basic healing techniques, she still had the medicine that could really help an injured pokémon. And no pokémon, no matter what they did, deserved something like this…

Katie thought for a moment, and then took out a poké ball from her backpack. She had been saving the last spot on her team for the growlithe, but… Suddenly she stopped herself. Was catching this scyther now really wise, when if she had caught another pokémon first, the scyther would be sent back to the pokémon ranch? Looking around her, Katie couldn't see any other pokémon nearby, and hers were already worn out from the battling the previous day. She looked at the poké ball in her hand and then back at the scyther. Catching it, she knew, would mean that it would not get to a pokémon center for a long time. Yet, while her pokémon were so weak, she didn't want to battle unless she had to, and the pokémon around here were far from weak. But if she caught it now, at least she'd be able to help it…

Looking at the poké ball she was holding, she sighed and placed it back in her backpack, and then took out another. This one was a luxury ball, a type of poké ball she only had a few of and had never really used, but if there was any time to use it, it was now. She tapped it lightly against the scyther's blade, which at the moment seemed to her to be the only part of its body that didn't have some sort of injury. The pokémon dissolved in a beam of red light and vanished into the small sphere. The poké ball didn't even shake once before the red light on the button went out with a 'ping.'

Picking it up, Katie stared at the stream as she wondered if what she had just done had really been a good thing. Was it cruel to keep a pokémon away from a pokémon center when they needed it for so long? She wasn't anywhere near one, and until pidgeot recovered, there was no way of getting back. And even still…she did not think she could allow herself to go back until she had caught the growlithe, and Justin certainly wouldn't allow her…

' _Justin…'_ With a sickening feeling, Katie realized that she would have a lot of explaining to do once Justin found out what she'd done. Looking at the luxury ball, she turned around and walked back, wondering whether she had just made a horrible, horrible mistake.

And as she walked, she didn't notice the eyes of the snow white growlithe staring at her from the bushes before it turned and ran away.

_To be continued..._


	43. To the Mountain

" _All right, Snowcrystal,_ this time try to get the flames to move in a circle. Don't worry, it gets easier the more you practice."

Snowcrystal nodded to Redclaw and tried her flame wheel attack once again, sighing in frustration when she still didn't manage to get the wheel shape she wanted quite right.

"It's all right," Redclaw told her, trying to be encouraging. "Try again!"

"Maybe we should try this later…" Snowcrystal sighed. She and the others had stopped for a little while to try and practice their battle moves after they had spent the morning traveling. Snowcrystal secretly knew that Redclaw and Nightshade, who had suggested it, were trying to keep her mind off of Stormblade. It had worked for a while, but now she just didn't feel like she had the energy to keep practicing. Even though she knew that Stormblade had a chance now, she still couldn't stop thinking about how much she missed him being with the rest of them. She tried to think of what Darkfang had said and what Spark had told everyone after she informed them that Stormblade had been captured. Humans had healing techniques far beyond what wild pokémon did…maybe they could even find a way to heal Forbidden Attack wounds, if they _could_ be healed. Either way, she admitted, Stormblade had to be much better off now, wherever he was.

Redclaw simply just looked sadly at the ground.

"Maybe she's right," Spark called from over where he was practicing with Wildflame. The jolteon scampered over to where Redclaw and Snowcrystal were. "It would probably be a good idea to save our strength for the journey."

"I'm not tired…" Snowcrystal murmured. "But you do have a point. Maybe we should all take a break."

"Do you think we should stop here for the rest of the day?" Spark asked. "I mean, some of the others…meaning _Thunder,_ need to rest… _no matter what she says,_ " he added under his breath.

"I don't think the lake that Darkfang told Snowcrystal about is very far," Rosie announced, walking over to them as well. "I could see it after standing on that group of boulders over there. I think we should wait until then to stop for the night. We need a place with water and there's likely to be prey over there too."

Redclaw glanced up to where Nightshade was watching Wildflame practice a few of her fire attacks, shooting them in the air so as not to let the grass catch on fire. "Over here!" he called to them, and Nightshade and Wildflame walked over, followed reluctantly by Blazefang, who had not left Wildflame's side since their new journey had started.

"Okay, where's Thunder?" Spark growled after looking over the assembled pokémon. "She needs to be here too! Where is she?"

"Who cares," Blazefang muttered. "Just get on with it."

Snowcrystal had been scanning the area around them, a somewhat flat landscape covered in grass and scraggly bushes, with odd rocky areas here and there. A lot of the rocky places consisted of large piles of boulders that stood rather high. She assumed Thunder must have gone behind one of them to be alone or to rest or something. "Don't worry about it," she told the others.

"Okay, look," Spark explained, taking charge for the moment. "I think we should travel to the lake and rest there until tomorrow. We can go now and get there sooner…"

"The lake?" Wildflame repeated. "I think we can go further than that…and in case you don't remember, we don't have much time to waste now that we're chasing down a legendary."

"There will be prey there," Spark explained. "We can catch a lot and save our strength for the next day, and then we catch some more prey before leaving. We don't know how easy it will be to find food later."

Wildflame just shrugged, and a few of the others nodded in agreement to Spark. Snowcrystal sighed. "I guess we ought to leave now then. Someone go find Thunder…" She stopped herself, for the scyther had suddenly appeared from behind a group of rocks, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"Come on!" Spark cried, leaping up. "The sooner we get to the lake, the longer we get to rest."

He darted off, and Snowcrystal watched him, wondering how on earth the jolteon could be acting so cheerful. As she thought about it, she realized that perhaps it was because he now knew that Stormblade was with a human rather than by himself, and thus had a better chance.

Her gaze traveled to the lone, tall mountain capped with snow that loomed over them, and she felt an odd chill run through her body that certainly wasn't cold. Ignoring it, she focused her gaze on Spark and began to follow him.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal was grateful for Spark's plan by the time they reached the lake's edge. It was nearly evening and she felt both exhausted and hungry. A few of the others looked just as tired as she felt, and Thunder, who Snowcrystal knew was still sick, was probably the worst off.

Spark was standing nearby, staring out at the sparkling surface of the lake in the fading sunlight, watching tiny waves gently lapping the shore. The lake was bigger than Snowcrystal had expected, but Spark had been right, the scent of prey pokémon was everywhere.

She rested along with Rosie and Thunder – though the scyther kept her distance – while the others hunted, or in Nightshade's case, went off to find his own food from trees. Her thoughts kept wandering back to Stormblade. _'Would that human really know how to take care of him? Would she be nice to him? Would she give him enough food and water?'_

Unable to stop herself from worrying, she lay her head down on her paws, watching the sun beginning to set. Footsteps behind her told her that the hunters had arrived, and she looked up to see with pleasant surprise that they had brought back more prey than she had thought they would find.

Blazefang set down a spearow, looking proud of himself, while the others placed their catches down beside his. There was plenty for everyone, Snowcrystal thought, as long as it was divided equally. She and Rosie decided to share the pidgeotto that Redclaw had caught while Blazefang took his own prey and the others divided the rest up. Snowcrystal looked over at Thunder, who had not approached the others but sat staring at them from some distance away. Redclaw picked up the rest of his prey and walked over to the scyther, offering it to her. Thunder snatched it from his jaws and turned away from him.

Snowcrystal watched her carry it away and begin eating it alone before turning back to her own meal. Her gaze flickered across the lake, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw some sort of disturbance on its surface. Looking back, she quickly determined that she had not imagined it; something was moving through the water directly below the surface and was headed straight for them. Frightened, she backed up, startling Rosie, as the head of a large pokémon broke the surface of the water.

For Snowcrystal, it was at first hard to judge whether or not she should be afraid of the creature. It had orange and cream fur and a pointed snout, with two fangs poking out of the side of its mouth. The rest of the creature was underwater, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell what it looked like. Whatever it was, it looked big and powerful, and it was swimming strongly toward them at a quick speed. However, it didn't seem to mind that its head was in plain sight, and it didn't seem to be going fast enough for an attack, so Snowcrystal relaxed a bit. By now, the others had noticed it too and were all staring at it in either confusion or fear.

"A water type…" Rosie hissed.

Reaching the edge of the lake, the pokémon climbed out of the water. Snowcrystal could now see that it stood on two legs, had a blue fin on each of its arms, two long tails, and something long and yellow around its body that looked like it would be buoyant in water. Redclaw, Wildflame, Blazefang and Rosie were all staring at it with fangs bared in a warning, and electricity was crackling over Spark's fur. The strange pokémon didn't seem at all threatened; in fact, it seemed completely oblivious to the group's displays of aggression.

"Well, hello!" the pokémon said loudly, as if coming up to strangers in a potentially dangerous land and greeting them was the most natural thing in the world. Its voice told Snowcrystal that the pokémon was female. No one answered, and the stranger glanced at the prey which, for the moment, lay forgotten on the ground. "Mind if I have some?"

"We don't share food with pokémon like _you,_ " Blazefang growled, stepping forward. "Now leave us alone."

The pokémon didn't seem to mind Blazefang's hostility. She simply looked at the next closest pokémon, Rosie. "All right. Then can I have some of yours?"

"No!" Rosie shouted. "What are you even doing here?"

Redclaw moved in front of the rest of the group, facing the strange pokémon calmly. "There's no need for a fight," he stated, addressing his companions just as much as the strange lake pokémon.

"A fight?" the pokémon repeated, tilting her head. "I never said I wanted a fight. But, if you want to battle…"

"We don't," Rosie said quickly and seriously.

"Well…" Snowcrystal began, uncertain. "If all she wants is food…I think we have some to spare." The last thing she wanted was for the strange pokémon to suddenly get angry and demand food from them. She was a water type, and their group, which largely consisted of fire types, would be at a big disadvantage if this pokémon turned out to be very strong.

"Huh…" Spark muttered, his fur lying flat again as he approached the pokémon. "You don't look dangerous, and if you are, I could knock you out with my electric attacks. I don't think she's dangerous," he shouted, glancing at Redclaw and the group. "Just a stray floatzel."

"Knock me out?" the floatzel repeated, sounding as if she found the idea hilarious. "I'd like to see you try!"

Snowcrystal tensed a bit at her last statement, but she had sounded friendly. Maybe, she thought, this…floatzel could give them valuable tips about their journey ahead if she was used to living in the area. "Here," she stated, pushing the rest of the prey toward the floatzel and hoping Rosie wouldn't mind. She watched as the otter-like pokémon grabbed it eagerly and began eating it.

"Huh…" the floatzel was saying between mouthfuls, "it doesn't taste as good as seaking, but…still good!"

Blazefang let out a long sigh of frustration, and several of the others still seemed wary, though at least the threat of a fight seemed to have passed, if there ever was one at all. Snowcrystal realized that the others probably couldn't see the potential help this pokémon could give. Taking a few steps closer to the floatzel, she addressed her in what she hoped was a polite manner.

"Um…look, we're traveling through, and we're heading toward the mountain. Do you know what the mountain is like? Or what's beyond it? You see-"

"An adventure!" the floatzel shouted, sounding overjoyed. "That sounds amazing! You know, one of these days I want to go on my own adventure, to the ocean. I've always wanted to see the ocean…"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what the 'ocean' was like or why anyone would want to go there. From the stories she'd heard about it from flying types back at her mountain, it sounded huge and terrifying. "Listen," she told the floatzel, "you're missing the point. This is very important, and we need to know-"

"Why of course it's important!" the floatzel replied cheerfully. "I'd consider my own adventure important if I were in the middle of it."

Confused, Snowcrystal just stared until she felt Wildflame's voice by her ear. "We're getting nowhere with this," the houndoom whispered. "Just ignore her."

Snowcrystal sighed and walked away, to where Rosie – who looked rather annoyed that she had given away their food – was sitting. The floatzel seemed to have lost interest in the group and was focused on eating. "I guess she doesn't know much," she sighed. "Or doesn't want to tell us."

"Yeah," Rosie replied, irritated. "I don't understand why she would come up to a group of strangers like that. It's just…weird. Though after Forbidden Attacks, I guess nothing seems very strange any more."

Snowcrystal had to agree, but the floatzel's actions were pretty odd. She looked as if she felt perfectly comfortable in the midst of a group of strangers, regardless of the hostility she had been shown.

"Hey," Spark growled, nudging the floatzel in the side, "you could at least tell us what you're doing here, and what your name is, if you're going to be taking food like that."

"What I'm doing here?" the floatzel replied, sounding as if she found the question silly. "I saw that you guys had food and I wanted to come over. My name is Alex by the way, what's yours?"

"Alex?" Spark repeated, sounding surprised. "That's a human name! Do you have a trainer?"

The floatzel smiled and shook her head. "Nope. I used to, a long time ago. But she brought me here as a buizel and let me go one day, not sure why. I didn't mind though, I like it here."

Spark's ears twitched as he regarded the floatzel with curiosity. "A trainer brought you here? I thought they didn't come to these places…" The floatzel nodded in response and Spark remained looking confused.

"Hey!" the floatzel shouted, as if suddenly getting an idea. "Why don't I come with you? I've always wanted to travel, but doing it alone doesn't sound like much fun."

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Blazefang growled, still glaring at the floatzel.

Snowcrystal couldn't really agree with his views. Here was a pokémon, offering them help with open arms, and who probably knew a lot about the lands around them, or at least knew more than they did.

Spark just shrugged. "Well, you obviously aren't here to attack us, so sure, why not?"

Blazefang rolled his eyes and the other pokémon looked skeptical, though it had become obvious that the floatzel meant them no harm.

"Thank you!" Alex cried, lifting Spark completely off his feet. "I'll be helpful! I know the best ways to find water on the way to the mountain. I know all the streams and I know the good places to catch prey, and I-"

"That's great," Spark muttered. "Please put me down." The floatzel did so swiftly, leaving Spark sprawled out on the grass.

"We wouldn't mind having you come along," Snowcrystal told the water type with a smile, trying to be friendly even while the others weren't. "We could use a pokémon like you to help us out along the way."

"Yeah, sure," Blazefang muttered sarcastically. "Let every random pokémon join us, that's real smart!" He walked away angrily, but Alex didn't seem to notice or care.

"We're going to rest until tomorrow," Nightshade told the floatzel. "Then we'll head to the mountain. If you really can help us find water and food along the way, we would appreciate it."

Alex nodded vigorously. "Of course I will!" she cried excitedly.

  
**-ooo-**  


For the next few hours, the group rested in silence, apart from the splashes Alex made as she jumped in and out of the lake every so often. By then, most of the group had gotten used to her presence, apart from Thunder, who still kept her distance from everyone else. Alex and Spark had, surprisingly, began getting along very well, each telling the other about their experiences with trainers and living in the wild every time Alex took a break from swimming.

Snowcrystal had been lying by the edge of the lake, half asleep for a while, watching the sun set in the distance. Rosie was asleep near her and the others had either wandered off in search of more food or were just resting by themselves. Judging by the looks of her friends, Alex seemed like the only one enthusiastic about the journey lying ahead of them; even Wildflame was acting nervous.

She was close to dozing off when water splashed over her coat, jolting her back into full wakefulness. "Huh?" she murmured groggily, opening her eyes to see Alex sprinting past her across the grass, water droplets flying from her fur.

"What is she doing?" muttered Rosie as she gave Snowcrystal a half-asleep glance. Obviously the floatzel had woken her up as well.

"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Alex cried, beaming at the group of pokémon clustered around the lake edge.

"Early in the morning," Wildflame replied, sounding annoyed even though she was less tired than most of the others; as a dark type, the nighttime and moonlight gave her strength.

"Sounds great!" Alex replied. "I'll make sure I'm up early!"

"Let's hope she tires herself out and sleeps in so we can leave her…" Snowcrystal heard Blazefang mutter from nearby.

Snowcrystal sighed. Okay, so maybe Alex was an odd pokémon, a little annoying, but she could offer them valuable help. Surely having her around would be…

"Hey! Who are you?"

At Alex's shout, Snowcrystal jumped up in alarm, only to find that the pokémon the floatzel was talking to was Thunder. Alarmed, Snowcrystal watched as Alex bounded up toward the scyther on all fours. Thunder stood up and lifted her scythes as she approached.

The floatzel stopped a few feet from Thunder, looking at her curiously. Snowcrystal edged closer to the two. "Uh, Alex? I don't think you should…"

"Whoa, what happened to you?" the water type exclaimed loudly, leaning forward to get a better look at the cuts on Thunder's back and side. A couple moments later and she had to leap back to avoid being cut open by one of the scyther's blades, which was only slowed due to Thunder's current weaknesses. "Hey, calm down, will you? I didn't attack _you!_ And some of those cuts are infected, by the way," she added. "You might wanna-" The floatzel's words were quickly cut off by another narrowly-dodged slash.

Snowcrystal was about to say something when Thunder took a third lunge at the floatzel, this time grazing her arm with a scythe. At this point, Alex seemed to get the message, and gave Thunder an alarmed look before bounding back into the lake.

Thunder glared after the floatzel and then walked further away from the water's edge, leaving Snowcrystal standing alone and hoping that there wouldn't be any more problems between Thunder and the other pokémon in the future. It was a hope that she knew she probably couldn't count on.

  
**-ooo-**  


Katie made sure that Justin was busy trying to start a fire for the night before she slipped away quietly, leaving him alone with her electabuzz, which she had brought with her before heading out into the wilderness, to protect him. She walked toward a clump of trees that would hide what she was doing in case Justin came to look for her. She didn't want him spotting her before she knew he was coming. She felt bad for leaving the scyther in its poké ball for several hours since she had caught it, but she hadn't gotten a chance to slip away alone until now. She wasn't quite ready to tell Justin yet.

Stepping behind the trees, she took a deep breath and looked around worriedly. Justin would be wondering where she was soon. She had to make this quick. Taking the luxury ball out of her backpack – she hadn't dared to put it on her belt in case Justin noticed it – she threw it a few feet in front of her and watched the scyther materialize on the ground.

He appeared in a lying-down position, looking too weak to be able to sit or stand, and looked up at her feebly. Katie wondered if this scyther recognized her, but there was no way to tell. She couldn't read the expression in the pokémon's eyes. Her gaze traveled briefly over his body, and she noticed how thin he was. She tried not to focus on it too much; she didn't like looking at the scyther's wounds.

"Um…hello," she began, wondering if the scyther would even care that she was talking to him. "I guess…I'm your new trainer." She paused. That had sounded weird, as if she expected to train this pokémon. There was no way that would be a possibility, and it probably wouldn't be even if the scyther recovered. He might never want to battle again. She knew she wouldn't, if she had gotten injuries like that. And from what Nurse Joy had said, she suspected that these injuries happened in some sort of trainer battle, and the opponent had gone _much_ too far. "Well, I guess I'm not your _trainer…_ " she continued, "but I'm here to take care of you."

The scyther gave her a knowing look, as if he was listening, but there was a wary look in his eyes, one of mistrust.

"Here," she said, looking through her backpack for something else. She had, of course, brought medicine for her pokémon in case they got injured, including medicine to help with pain. She had gotten a type of medicine that was shaped like pokémon treats, and even though they were supposedly for baby pokémon who wouldn't eat the regular medicine – she had gotten them for Shinx – her pidgeot seemed to like them. She opened the box. The "treats" were shaped like random things, such as poké balls, berries, and a few random pokémon. It was silly, but it would do the job and, hopefully, help relieve the scyther of some of his pain, even if it wasn't much.

She picked up one in her hand and looked at the scyther, hesitating to approach it. She knew that this pokémon was, or at least used to be, dangerous. Getting down on her knees, she moved forward, hoping that the bug type wouldn't try to hurt her. She held her hand out towards his head. "Eat this," she told him. "It will make you feel better."

To her surprise, the pokémon showed no sign of aggression at all. He obediently ate the medicine, though she noticed that he did so with some difficulty. Pleasantly surprised, she reached into her backpack again and got out a potion. "Okay, this might sting a little bit…"

She was met with an agonized scyther cry the moment she sprayed the potion. The pokémon's eyes went wide with shock and he tried to move away from her, not having much success.

"Uh, sorry," she muttered, dropping the potion. "I guess I should…wait until the medicine…starts working…"

The scyther didn't give her any indication that he had heard, but he had stopped screaming and was now staring at the part of his shoulder she had sprayed the potion on.

Katie hoped that Justin was too far away to have heard the noise. She realized that he might be wondering where she was by now. "Well, I guess I'll have to do what I can now…" She had brought plenty of bandages along in case her pokémon needed it, and she began trying to use them to cover the worst of the scyther's wounds. Occasionally he would growl or hiss in pain, but he didn't do anything to threaten her. She began to wonder if this pokémon had begun to change from the vicious and mean scyther he had been in the past.

"Well, that's all I can do for now," Katie told the pokémon, well aware that Justin might show up at any minute. "I hope you can trust me. Whoever your trainer was after Justin must not have been very nice. And…I know what you did before was…very wrong…but… _I_ believe you can change." She gave the scyther a smile, but he just stared emptily at her.

"Okay, return," she whispered, holding up the luxury ball which shot out a beam of light that enveloped the scyther and then disappeared back into the ball.

Standing up, she turned and headed back to where Justin was waiting. She found him in just the same place she had left him, staring at the trees of the forest which were swaying in the breeze in the distance. He was probably wondering if the growlithe tracks they were following actually belonged to the white growlithe.

"Hi Justin!" she said, in a voice that sounded a bit too cheerful, she realized. "I was just over there by that little group of trees. I was just…um…"

"Look, I don't need to know about every time you have to go to the bathroom," Justin muttered, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, um…yeah, never mind," she muttered quickly, glad that Justin didn't seem suspicious at all. She went to set her backpack down by his, and as she bent down, she realized that she had placed the luxury ball on her belt with the other poké balls without realizing it. She un-clipped it and stuffed it into her backpack hurriedly. Her electabuzz glanced up at her as if he knew that she was trying to hide something, but she paid him no attention. She was far too concerned with how Justin would react when he found out about her scyther for the moment.

  
**-ooo-**  


Scytheclaw was now completely alone. He had returned from the pool with the small statues to find that Moonlight had been planning something in secret. The umbreon had won over most of the pokémon at last. Scytheclaw had been powerless against their numbers, and he soon had to accept that he was no longer their leader.

But he could _never_ accept that. That very day, he had left the canyon, alone, and though he now realized that he had nowhere to go, he could not bear the idea of turning back. He didn't feel like he could face any of those pokémon again, not now that he was powerless. All he had left to think about was the strange power he'd felt ever since fainting at the pool. After waking up, he had been sure to throw the gem back into the water as far as he could, but now, he wondered if there had been something more to it.

It was the thoughts of the stone that kept him distracted, letting him dwell less on the fact that he had just lost everything.

The beating of wings brought Scytheclaw back to his senses. Above him, a pidgeotto was circling. He was just pondering the idea of trying to catch it when, surprisingly, it landed in front of him, though at a safe distance. Scytheclaw sensed that this pidgeotto was out of the ordinary. It looked stronger, tougher, and it seemed as if it would be too fast for even him to catch, so he didn't try.

"What do you want?" Scytheclaw snapped, glaring at the flying type through narrowed eyes.

"I'm merely here to ask a few questions," the pidgeotto said slyly. "I come from a group of pokémon led by a vaporeon called Cyclone. He wishes to wage war on the humans…"

As the pidgeotto explained, Scytheclaw realized immediately that he was talking about the army that passed through his old home. As much as he despised the army, he couldn't help but find the idea of fighting against the humans, the species that had evolved him against his will, very appealing…

He still hated those army pokémon though.

"Tell that idiot I'm not interested in becoming his servant," Scytheclaw growled. "And I thought he left days ago. He should be far away by now! Is he so desperate for followers that he sent you back here looking for them?

"He is not far from here, actually," the pidgeotto replied. "Our army passed by that forest and we are resting now," he added, as if there were more of a reason as to why they had stopped moving that he didn't want to give away.

Scytheclaw looked at the group of trees making up the forest not far away. He couldn't see what was on the other side of it, but whatever it was; it was bound to be better than passing the forest by and wandering into that army. "Why are you even talking to me?" he growled at the bird pokémon. "You're wasting your time."

"I have one more question," the flying type began, ignoring the threat. "Have you seen a houndour recently? Full grown, but not close to evolution, or maybe he's one of those ones who simply doesn't want to evolve, very red fur color on his muzzle instead of orange or orange-red? Seen any houndour like that?"

An image floated into Scytheclaw's mind of Blazefang, the houndour that the heracross and his friends had brought along. He fit the description perfectly, but the houndour had not caused him any grief; it was the army threatening his home that had. It would be best not to help them at all. Giving the pidgeotto one last glare, Scytheclaw turned and walked off toward the forest.

" _No."_

  
**-ooo-**  


It was early morning when Snowcrystal and her friends were ready to set off toward the mountain. A few of the others had managed to hunt, and after they were done eating, they decided to take a quick rest, or, in Spark and Alex's case, go for a swim.

It was hard for Snowcrystal to relax with the sounds of Alex and Spark laughing and shouting back and forth as they chased each other in the shallows of the lake. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Stormblade, wondering if he was all right, and wondering whether the human who caught him would really be able to help. _'He has a better chance with the help of that human than he does out here with us…'_ she reminded herself, though it didn't make her feel much better.

"Snowcrystal!"

Turning, she realized that it was Rosie calling to her. The ninetales was limping in her direction, and she got up and walked over to her. "What is it, Rosie?" she asked.

"Well, I was thinking," Rosie began, "I mean, I just realized that…if Alex is coming with us, she should know _why_ we need to go to the mountains so much. I mean, I don't know if we should go into the whole 'Forbidden Attacks' thing, but…"

"HEY!" Spark yelled from the direction of the lake, distracting both of them. Snowcrystal looked to see the two of them in deeper water, Spark looking as though Alex had just pushed him in.

His response was only a loud laugh from the floatzel. From what she could see, Snowcrystal thought Spark looked rather angry.

"Okay, that's it…" the jolteon cried, and suddenly the water lit up with a burst of electricity and Alex cried out in pain before sinking under the water. Spark had a triumphant grin on his face, which didn't last long, for in the next moment Alex had come flying out of the water straight toward Spark, water streaming behind her. She cannoned into the jolteon with such force from the aqua jet attack that Spark went flying out of the water and they both landed on the shore.

Snowcrystal was startled by the sudden violent attack, and she was going to go see if Spark was all right and to get Alex to stop when both pokémon stood up, looked at each other for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

"Idiots…" Rosie muttered, rolling her eyes. "I'll never understand those pokémon. At least Spark has someone else to bother now."

Snowcrystal had other things on her mind. "Hey, Alex! Come over here!" she cried.

The floatzel bounded up to her with surprising speed and came to a sudden halt right in front of her. "Yes?" she asked.

"I thought you might like to know why we're headed to the mountain," she began. "We-"

"Why does it matter?" Alex interrupted. "It's an adventure! It doesn't need to have a reason."

"Well, actually," Snowcrystal replied, "it does matter. The well-being of…maybe even the _lives_ of some growlithe are at stake. We're looking for Articuno…he's the only one that can help us, and we heard that he went past that mountain…"

"Oh, I think he lives there," Alex stated with a smile. "I've heard from several pokémon that he lives at the top of that mountain. That's why there's still so much snow!"

Snowcrystal felt her hopes become instantly renewed. If what Alex said was true, then her search might finally be over. "You're sure?" she asked, feeling much more energetic now; she wanted to go to find Articuno as soon as possible. She had taken far too much time already.

"Yep!" the floatzel replied, sounding as if it was the most simple thing in the world. "What do you need Articuno for, anyway?"

"Well," Snowcrystal began, "do you think I could tell you on the way? I really think we ought to get going now."

In a matter of minutes, the entire group was heading toward the mountains, Spark and Alex bounding ahead in the lead. Spark had taken over in telling Alex about their quest so far, even going so far as telling her about the Forbidden Attacks.

Snowcrystal felt as if her energy was being renewed with each step. She now had a much greater hope of finding Articuno than she could ever have asked for. They finally knew where he was at last.

  
**-ooo-**  


That same morning, another group was getting ready to leave. Katie and Justin had found more growlithe footprints, and they led very clearly in one direction. Poochyena, of course, could easily follow the growlithe's scent.

There were signs of other pokémon, too, but Katie wasn't concerned with them. She just hoped that the ones that looked like scyther footprints really weren't. Yesterday and throughout the night, she had taken care of the scyther in secret. She still wasn't sure how to tell Justin about it.

She also wasn't sure what to do about the scyther either. He wouldn't eat the pokémon food she gave him, and she could tell that he was getting weaker. But at least the pokémon medicine seemed to be helping. Looking up ahead of her, she watched Justin standing beside Poochyena as the small pokémon ran around his legs, eager to begin following the scent. Sighing, she walked over to them, trying not to act as though there was something bothering her.

Crouched behind a large group of bushes, Darkfang watched the two humans leave. He had followed their scent from the place where Stormblade was supposed to be, and there was only one explanation for what had happened. One of those humans had captured Stormblade.

He wasn't quite sure what to do now, but he knew that he would have to tell Stormblade's friends once they came back…if they did come back. He really had no idea whether or not Articuno had settled on the mountain at all.

With a weary sigh, he started to head back, then quickly changed his mind. He still felt partially responsible for Stormblade, and the least he could do was make sure these humans were decent to him. Turning back around to face the trainers, Darkfang began following them slowly, careful not to let himself be seen.

_To be continued..._


	44. The Start of the Mountain Journey

As the group traveled and got ever closer to reaching the mountain, Snowcrystal began to notice that it felt colder. It was a welcome feeling to her, but she could tell that a few of the others were a bit unnerved by it, and Thunder was constantly shivering. She knew the cold winds were coming from the direction of the mountain, and wondered if the cold had something to do with Articuno, or whether the mountain was just naturally that way. The massive stone monolith ahead of them loomed ever closer, and Snowcrystal hoped that they would reach it by the end of the day.

"There's a stream over that way," Alex called from up ahead. The floatzel stood and pointed, the wind whipping through her fur. "It'll take a little while to get there, but there should be lots of prey…"

"It's too far out of our way," Wildflame replied crossly, narrowing her eyes against the wind. "We need to get to the mountain by sundown."

"Well, all right, if that's what you want," Alex answered with a shrug before bounding on ahead again.

Snowcrystal had to admit that she agreed with Wildflame, but if prey was going to be scarce…maybe Alex _was_ right.

"So uh, Snowcrystal?"

Snowcrystal turned in surprise, realizing that it was Spark speaking from up ahead. The jolteon looked worried about something. He paused to let the others move on ahead and allow Snowcrystal to catch up with him. "What?" she asked him, confused.

"Well, I was thinking," he began, "when we find Articuno and you go back…where should the rest of us go?"

"Oh…" Snowcrystal whispered. She had been so distracted by the thought of finally reaching Articuno that she hadn't been thinking about that much. She knew that while the thought of never seeing any of these pokémon again was painful, there was no way they could live by her mountain home. It was not a suitable habitat for any of them. "Well, maybe you could stay around here," she suggested reluctantly. "I mean, it seems like a good place…"

Spark shook his head. "No," he replied firmly. "I wouldn't want to stay here. Maybe some of the others would want to stay, but I don't. You see, I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out to be a wild pokémon."

"Why do you say that?" Snowcrystal asked, a bit surprised.

"This whole wild life…it just seems unnatural to me," the jolteon whispered back as the two of them began following the others again slowly. "Stormblade told me I would love it, but I just don't. I'm not meant to be a wild pokémon."

"So you think you would be happier with a trainer?"

"Maybe…" Spark sighed.

"Well," Snowcrystal began, thinking back to what she had seen the day before, "I'd miss you, but if that's what you really want, maybe we could find that trainer who caught Stormblade, and…and you could join her?"

Spark shook his head. "I didn't say I wanted to go with just any old trainer…" he muttered.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what else to say, and simply fell silent.

"I miss Justin," Spark admitted suddenly. "If anything…I'd want to go with a trainer who was like him." He paused for a moment. "But at the same time, I don't want to leave the group until I have to. Do you think…do you think that when we head back to your mountain, that you could leave me at the city? I'm sure there are lots of trainers willing to adopt a jolteon…I could find one…"

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Maybe…" came Spark's uncertain reply.

"You don't have to decide now," she told him. Some part of her still strongly wished that he'd change his mind, even though she knew that in the end it really couldn't affect her. Spark would have to find somewhere to live and it couldn't be near her mountain. She sighed. "You still have a lot of time to think about it."

"Yeah," Spark replied in a distracted sort of voice. "Yeah, I do…" He increased his pace a bit, walking at normal speed and distancing himself from Snowcrystal once again.

The growlithe watched him go, hoping that Spark would be able to choose the right thing for him when the time finally came. She hoped that somehow, everything would work out right for all of them, though whether or not it did…how would she know, if she was to return home with Articuno and leave some of the others behind?

  
**-ooo-**  


Katie's persian materialized in a flash of bright red light, blinking in confusion and looking up at her trainer with a puzzled expression upon realizing that not only was there no opponent to fight, but there was a strange pokémon scent she couldn't identify. The most noticeable smell besides the scent of the pokémon itself was that of sickness and foul-smelling wounds, and when she turned around to look at the source of the odor, she was surprised to see that there was a strange scyther lying on the grass nearby, one that she could tell was badly wounded. The bandages weren't enough to hide all the wounds covering his body, and something about the way they looked and smelled deeply unnerved her. She had been to many pokémon centers. She had seen bad injuries from wild pokémon or accidents in battle. But nothing like this. This was…different, somehow. Wrong. Unnatural. She turned to her trainer in astonishment.

"Look, Persian," Katie told the pokémon, reaching down to rest her hand on the catlike creature's head. "I want you to go and see if you can catch something, all right? Scyther was a wild pokémon; he's probably only used to eating fresh meat, and well, you know we're running low on pokémon food."

Persian just stared blankly at her trainer. This was one of those times she wished there wasn't a language barrier between herself and the humans. One thing was for sure; she certainly didn't like the idea of being responsible for feeding another injured pokémon. She had already had enough of that with Pidgeot. She glanced around, wondering if Justin was nearby, but she didn't see him.

"I guess I should explain things more, huh?" Katie sighed.

"Yes, I think you should," Persian muttered with annoyance, her fur bristling. Even if Katie couldn't understand her words, she was sure the meaning was clear enough.

"Okay, well," Katie began, glancing over at the injured pokémon. "This is our newest member of the team, Scyther."

Persian glanced over at the bug type again. Scyther gave no reaction at all; he was still in the same position she had first seen him in, lying down and staring blankly off into the distance at nothing in particular. Even with his injuries aside, he wasn't very impressive. He was larger than Persian remembered the scyther she had battled to be, but much too thin and weak looking to be strong. Whatever Katie meant by 'member of the team,' he certainly wasn't going to be helping them fight.

"He was Justin's pokémon when he was a trainer, but I found him like that…and I couldn't just leave him there. You'll help him and share your food, won't you?" Katie asked.

Persian looked into her trainer's eyes. Katie had always had this odd thing about helping wild pokémon. The feline pokémon had watched her care for several injured or sick pokémon she had found in the wild over her four years of being a trainer. However, she'd never seen Katie try taking care of something like a scyther, let alone one this far gone. "All right, I suppose," Persian sighed reluctantly, nodding because she knew there was no way for the human to understand her words. "But you'd better make this worth it once we get back to a city or town," she muttered under her breath.

Katie smiled and gave her pokémon a quick hug. "Thanks," she told the normal type, running her hand across Persian's head again.

The catlike pokémon purred, then stood up and began walking in the direction of some nearby trees, the cool wind coming from the direction of the mountain ruffling her fur. If it made her trainer happy and got her some sort of reward, she wouldn't mind tossing a few scraps to the injured pokémon. At least it would keep it from dying...probably, she thought, and Katie wouldn't be so distraught over having one of her 'patients' pass away. Even if Persian herself was rather indifferent to the other pokémon on Katie's team, she didn't want to have to go through _that_ again. Catching the scent of pidgeotto on the breeze, Persian pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and bounded forward, hoping for a good hunt.

Katie watched her pokémon go with a feeling of regret. She would have liked to have Persian or one of the others around when she finally told Justin that she had used up the last space in her current party, and she had decided that time was going to be now.

She looked over at Scyther, who was as still as ever. She hesitated a moment before going to find Justin; she wasn't sure if leaving an injured pokémon all alone was really a good idea. Then again, adult scyther had no predators, so she didn't think he'd be in any danger. She waited a moment longer before turning away and walking back to where her companion was resting with their supplies.

"Guess what, Justin?" she said cheerfully as she reached the small area where they had stopped to rest. "I found more growlithe tracks. They're still headed toward that mountain." She had, in fact, found more tracks, and she figured – or at least hoped – that the news would make Justin a bit happier.

Only, Justin didn't look happier. "We still don't know if it's the white growlithe," he mumbled in a dull voice.

"Uh…well…" Katie paused for a moment. She decided that lingering on the growlithe subject wasn't a good idea and would probably only make things worse. Might as well get straight to the point. "I…I caught another pokémon."

Justin's eyes went wide and he leaped to his feet, his face lit up in a smile. "You mean you've caught it?" he asked. "You've caught the white one?" His face fell when he saw Katie's expression. "You mean it wasn't the white one? What was it? A normal growlithe? Because, well, I don't know, maybe that's a clue…maybe the white one belongs to a group of normal growlithe, and-"

"I caught a scyther."

"You… _what?_ " Justin's expression changed from a look of disappointment to a look of horror. He suddenly looked extremely pale. "But…but why…I thought you said you were going to wait to catch more pokémon until-"

"Well, this one was injured," Katie sighed, forcing herself to go on. "I couldn't just leave it there…a second time."

"A second… _what?_ "

"I found the scyther I helped the rangers bring to the pokémon center." She didn't bother mentioning that the scyther had been Justin's. Her friend would realize that clearly enough.

Justin looked completely stunned. "What? What are you talking about?" he cried, looking furious. "You're lying! That scyther's dead. Blown up into a thousand pieces. You honestly don't think it could have survived that blast, do you? It's dead. _DEAD!_ "

"No it's not," Katie replied. "It's…it's alive. Maybe Team Rocket had something to do with it, I don't know. And I'm not sure how it got here, but I know it's the same one. It said so on my pokédex…" She reached for the pokégear to show him, but he wasn't listening.

"Why on earth would you catch any old scyther you found around here?" Justin cried. "Did you forget that scyther are dangerous? And that we were supposed to be trying to capture the growlithe?"

"Forget?" Katie replied. "Of course not! But I couldn't just leave an injured pokémon all alone! What about those shinx we found that were injured by poachers? You wouldn't have wanted me to leave them there."

"That was different!" Justin retorted.

"Look, just let me show you the scyther," Katie told him. "You'll understand why I need to help it."

"Don't let it out of the poké ball!" Justin looked horribly alarmed at the thought.

"It's already out," she told him, pointing to where she had just walked from. "It can't hurt you, you know…" Without waiting for a response, she began walking toward where Scyther was, Justin following her slowly and rather stiffly, still seeming in shock about the whole thing. Katie wasn't even entirely sure he really believed her.

"You can't keep a dangerous pokémon like that when Pidgeot's injured!" Justin was saying. "If Pidgeot's killed, we'll have to get back to the city on foot! And what if it hurts one of us? I don't even have pokémon!"

"If it makes you feel better, I'll keep one of my pokémon out to protect you from harm," Katie told him, wishing he'd calm down. She supposed there was no use trying to explain to him that Scyther was too weak to stand, let alone attack anyone.

Justin didn't speak again until they reached the place where Scyther lay. Immediately, both former trainer and pokémon froze. For the first time, Katie saw Scyther look someone straight in the eyes...and that person was Justin. And Katie knew in that moment that any doubts Justin had about this being his scyther were gone. It was clearly the same one they had stumbled across before, and it was giving Justin a look of pure hatred.

Justin wrenched his gaze away from the scyther and slowly turned to her. His voice was oddly calm, which unnerved her. "Why would you do this?" he asked. "I told you that pokémon was dangerous…I told you what it did to that girl, and what it did to _me!_ _Why_ did you capture it?"

"Because…I couldn't just leave it there…I had to help…it would have died…"

"It doesn't deserve to live."

"Justin, it's a _pokémon._ A pokémon that was used to being wild. It may not have known that what it was doing was wrong!"

"It was a _trained_ pokémon. It knew perfectly well that killing humans was the worst thing it could do."

"But…" Katie wasn't sure what else to say. Justin did have a point, she realized. "I know," she sighed. "But that doesn't mean he can't change. And with those injuries, I think he's been through far more than what he deserved…he seemed calm enough around me. I don't think he's the same violent pokémon he used to be."

"It's a scyther! They don't change. Violent is just the way they are! And that one is more dangerous than usual." He gave Katie a glare that made her cringe. "Get…rid…of…it… _now…_ "

Katie was about to respond when a meowing sound reached her ears. She turned to see Persian returning, holding a pidgeotto in her mouth. The normal type walked over to Scyther and set the prey down beside him, looking to her trainer for approval.

"What is she doing?" Justin cried, staring at Persian until he suddenly understood. " _You sent your persian to kill pokémon for that thing?_ "

"Well, yes," Katie replied. "Persian needs to hunt, and Scyther wouldn't eat the pokémon food I-"

"If it didn't eat the food you offered, it was the stupid thing's own fault!" Justin screamed. "Why waste life on something that's practically dying?"

"Justin, Persian needs to hunt for herself anyway…do you want us to run out of pokémon food? I don't see any harm in Persian sharing..." Her voice was faltering now, barely above a whisper.

"Then why don't you let Persian just share the food with the _other_ pokémon?" Justin growled. "You know, the ones who still have a chance to survive?" He walked over to where Persian was standing, and the catlike pokémon shied away and walked over to Katie, startled to see Justin like this. "I suggest you chuck that poké ball into the lake and get rid of it once and for all!" Justin shouted.

"I'm not going to do that," Katie said firmly. "I'm not going to get rid of him…I won't let an injured pokémon suffer."

Justin gave her a look of absolute loathing. "Well then don't blame me when you or your pokémon get hurt!" he growled. He then turned around and sped off in the other direction, toward their makeshift camp. Katie looked at Persian, who seemed just as shocked as she was. She knew that the normal type was very fond of Justin.

"Follow him, okay?" she asked, and her pokémon briefly rubbed her head against her leg before bounding off in the direction Justin had left.

Now standing alone, Katie couldn't help but wonder if Justin was right. But then again, the scyther had been perfectly calm around her. But it had still looked at Justin so angrily…

Whatever the reason, she thought, she had decided to help this pokémon, and that was what she was going to do. He'd already suffered more than enough for what he'd done. Maybe being shown kindness would make Scyther a better pokémon after all.

Or at least, she hoped it would.

  
**-ooo-**  


Nighttime had fallen upon the traveling group, and they had at last reached the foot of the mountain. It was surprisingly cold, and many of the pokémon found it difficult to sleep. Snowcrystal was one of them, but in her case, it was not because of the cold.

The small growlithe kept looking up at the mountain. It reminded her so much of her home, and she could only wonder what was happening to the other growlithe back in her own territory. Had the houndour driven them out by now? Or did she still have time? There probably wasn't much use worrying, she thought. No matter what, she had to try and help them. She couldn't lose hope…not now that she was so close…

Surprisingly, she managed to drift off into sleep. In her dreams, she was running around near the base of the mountain, which in the dream was the mountain where her tribe lived, trying to stop Blazefang from firing a Shadowflare attack at the peak and melting the ice…

She woke with a start in the misty light of early dawn. The other pokémon were still asleep; from the looks of it, she was the only one awake. It suddenly struck her that it was foolish of them not to have taken turns keeping watch during the night, and it was a mistake she intended to fix later on. They had been lucky that night, but there was no telling what sort of dangers could be waiting for them on the steep mountain slopes.

After a moment, Spark began to stir. The jolteon opened his eyes and sat up groggily, looking around him. "Hi Snowcrystal," he said tiredly, and she was relieved to see that he sounded much more like his normal self.

Nearby, Alex also stirred, and in a few moments she had opened her eyes and bounded to her feet, calling, "Wake up, everyone! Today's the day we get to meet a legendary!"

"Don't sound so sure," Blazefang grumbled as he sat up slowly, scratching his ear with a hind paw.

Snowcrystal didn't pay much attention to Blazefang; she was pretty much used to his negative attitude by now. The others were all getting up and whispering about the mountain journey to come…all except one. Thunder was still asleep.

"Thunder!" Snowcrystal called to the scyther, unwilling to get any closer to her in case she was in a bad mood. "Wake up! It's time to go!"

Thunder lifted her head quicker than Snowcrystal expected – it actually startled her a bit – and stared at her with what looked like a mixture of surprise and loathing. Snowcrystal flinched, but tried to keep her voice steady as she addressed the scyther. "We need to get going," she told the bug type as nicely as she could. "We're going to start climbing the mountain."

Thunder just stared at her a moment before standing up and turning away, her gazed fixed on the mountain. From where she stood, it seemed to Snowcrystal like Thunder was shivering violently, though she couldn't be sure. She was half wondering if she should mention something to Nightshade when a voice from behind startled her.

"Er…Snowcrystal…can I talk to you?"

She turned around to see _Blazefang_ standing there, looking anxious and worried, his paws fidgeting in the dry grass. If that wasn't surprising enough, the look in his eyes certainly was. He looked frightened, wary, and from the way he was acting, it looked like whatever he wanted to talk about was important, and it wasn't going to be easy for him either.

"Why do you want to talk to _me?_ " she couldn't help blurting out before thinking.

Blazefang didn't seem to feel like answering directly. "It needs to be you," he growled, though his growl sounded more worried than aggressive. "You're the leader of this group. The others follow you. Now come on, we need to talk…"

Snowcrystal glanced at the rest of the group. They were all still talking to one another in quiet whispers, or in Alex's case, loud yells. She turned and followed Blazefang reluctantly, feeling slightly confused that he had referred to her as a 'leader.' She had certainly never felt like one, least of all now when her goal was in sight and she didn't need to lead anyone anywhere, and after which their group would likely split up. She was jolted away from her confused thoughts when Blazefang stopped and looked at her expectantly. She wondered what she was supposed to say, and merely asked in an impatient manner, "Okay, what is it?"

"When we were in the cave," Blazefang said quickly, still sounding nervous. "That weavile…Shade…said that the ice Forbidden Attack…Deathfreeze…was used by an ice type pokémon a season ago. Think about when Articuno left, Snowcrystal. I think…it could have been him."

Snowcrystal had been expecting something along the lines of Blazefang wanting to tell her that he was ready to leave the group and go off on his own, or even to try and get her to ask the others to leave him alone, but this completely threw her off. She had to take a moment and repeat what he had said in her mind before the words started to make sense.

"It…it could have been any other ice type, right?" she replied, her voice shaking much more than she would have liked it to. Although the others had mentioned Shade's words about Deathfreeze, the thought had never occurred to her before.

"I don't know," Blazefang replied, flinching. "Shade wouldn't mention the pokémon's species…but he said that it took many pokémon to stop him and control him…because he'd gone insane. If he…"

"Wouldn't we have seen destruction from Deathfreeze around here if he had?" Snowcrystal asked, still trying to tell herself that Blazefang was only making a wild shot in the dark with his theory.

"Not really," said Blazefang, almost reluctantly. "The pokémon had to take him far away, using sleep-inducing attacks every time he showed signs of unleashing the Forbidden Attack. For all we know, the place they took him could be here. And Alex said that several pokémon told her that he lives up there-"

"I still don't think we should assume something like that," Snowcrystal retorted, interrupting him. "Darkfang saw Articuno…I highly doubt he was captive at the time…"

"Snowcrystal," Blazefang interrupted, his eyes serious, "about the whole 'going up the mountain to find him' thing. Rethink this. Darkfang may have seen Articuno before it happened…or before he was stopped. I know it sounds crazy, but everything fits. Why else would he leave us so suddenly, with no explanation?"

Snowcrystal didn't reply. Lingering doubts about the success of her mission were building in the back of her mind. They couldn't stop now, not when they were so close. And even if Blazefang was right, Articuno was of no harm to them if he was being guarded, was he? They had to try. And what if Blazefang was only saying such a thing to keep her away from Articuno? To help his own tribe?

Still, she thought, the others deserved to know the risk, if there was any to begin with. As crazy as it sounded, she knew she should probably tell everyone about Blazefang's theory before they left. Even if there was the slightest chance that Articuno might possess Deathfreeze, the others deserved to know. Snowcrystal became vaguely aware that Blazefang was still standing there, and told him firmly, "I won't turn back, but I will tell the others. Don't accept it as fact, though. I for one am certainly not going to." She gave him a suspicious glance before heading back to the group, leaving Blazefang looking helpless.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Articuno…with Deathfreeze?" Spark cried as Snowcrystal finished speaking, his eyes wide. "Nuh-uh. No way. Legendaries are smarter than that! They're, well…legendary!"

"Weren't the legendaries the cause of the Forbidden Attacks, according to legend?" Rosie asked.

"In some versions, yes," Spark replied with an air of importance, "but not in the one I was commonly told. In that one, they were just ordinary species of pokémon…ones with powers…"

"Regardless, would a legendary really not take a hint when some freaky stone starts giving him powers?" Rosie retorted.

"I think Blazefang could be right…" Redclaw spoke up hesitantly, but then added, "but he could be wrong…"

"Huh…a legendary with Deathfreeze?" Alex cried in a cheerful manner. "Well, that certainly puts an edge on things, right?"

"We don't need _you_ around anymore," Rosie growled at her. "This isn't exactly any of your business." To her annoyance, Alex didn't seem to notice or care that she had even spoken.

"I think Blazefang just wants us to stay away so he can find Articuno for himself," Thunder spoke up. Everyone stared at her in silence; Blazefang looked horrified. "Not that it's any concern to me," she added, "but you probably have no Forbidden Attack to worry about. Might as well throw the traitor," she glanced at Blazefang, "out and just get on with your original plan."

Rosie's fur stood on end as she turned to glare at Blazefang. "That makes a surprising lot of sense," she snarled. "You were pretty darn stupid to believe that we'd just give up after all that!"

"Well, worrying about it won't do much good," Nightshade told the others, standing up and placing himself between Blazefang and Rosie. "Like Snowcrystal said, we should still be prepared even if the chance is small. And the ice type with the attack is apparently guarded. There's little risk of a Forbidden Attack being used, and whatever happens, at least we will know where Articuno is and hopefully why he had left…" He cast a glance at Blazefang, who seemed like he had already accepted Articuno having Deathfreeze as fact.

"Who cares?" Thunder growled. "Let's just find the damn bird and be done with it."

"It's not like you have to come," Spark muttered, turning his head to glare at the scyther. "Stay behind if you like."

Thunder opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again, letting out a hiss of annoyance instead. Spark gave her a smug smirk; he knew as well as anyone else that Thunder couldn't hunt well even without being injured. She depended entirely on the group for food.

However, Snowcrystal wasn't sure that dragging her up a mountain in that condition was a good idea either, though neither was leaving her alone when she thought about it.

"Let's get going then," Redclaw sighed, standing up. If anything, he looked like he wanted to start walking now to stop a fight from breaking out; Rosie looked ready to rip Blazefang's fur off and Thunder was giving Spark a glare that looked as though she wanted to kill him.

As the others all stood up and watched Redclaw expectantly, Snowcrystal wondered if there was really a chance that Blazefang's speculation could be right. The others seemed skeptical enough to believe it was mere coincidence that the ice type had found the Forbidden Attack at around the same time Articuno left. However, even though Snowcrystal felt she should think the same…a small, lingering doubt at the back of her mind told her that the events were _too_ much of a coincidence. And Blazefang had been right in that everything _did_ seem to fit.

As she followed the others, she forced herself to try and think of other things instead and wait to find out for herself, but the thought still lingered. What if Articuno really had gone insane?

_What would she do then?_

_To be continued..._


	45. Articuno

Darkfang watched from a clump of bushes as Justin stormed back into the human's camp, looking furious. The scyther didn't know or care what was making the human angry; he was too busy focusing on more important matters. The female (he guessed; he wasn't quite sure how to tell) human had left a little while ago, but he had stayed put, watching the other one, not sure which of them had captured Stormblade but knowing that this was where they had made their temporary home. When the two humans had left earlier, he had waited for them to come back, not wanting to risk being seen. Now that one was back, Darkfang waited to see if it would let Stormblade out of a poké ball.

The human in the camp seemed distressed; he was pacing back and forth, looking somewhat terrified as well as angry. Darkfang jumped a bit as the boy suddenly kicked over a pile of trainer stuff at the edge of the clearing.

The human stood staring at the items in silence for a moment before he heard the sound of pawsteps and turned to see a persian running toward him. Darkfang held still in the shelter of the bushes as the cat pokémon walked up to the human…and then suddenly turned its head right toward him.

Darkfang locked eyes with the normal type for a split second before he swiftly backed away, careful not to rustle the leaves too much. The persian was still staring in his direction, its fur standing on end. Then without warning, it leaped forward with a yowl.

Darkfang barely heard the human gasp in surprise before the persian landed in the middle of the bushes, missing Darkfang only due to the scyther's speed. The catlike pokémon darted around frantically as the bug type quickly exited the bush...to be met by a terrified scream from the human.

"PERSIAN, THUNDER!"

The persian paused, as if taking a moment to realize that the human had given it an order, then fired a powerful blast of electricity at the retreating scyther. Darkfang cried out and stumbled to the ground, his limbs jerking as the electric attack surged through him and then slowly stopped. He tried getting to his feet, but his legs did not want to move. They felt unnaturally stiff. In fact, his whole body did. He found it hard to get any of his muscles to work at all.

The human in the clearing was screaming, and the confused persian was following his orders as well as she could. Darkfang heard the pokémon running toward him, and, realizing that he was paralyzed, could only mentally brace himself for the attack.

"Power gem!" the trainer shouted.

The persian paused, her eyes narrowing in concentration as the gem on her head started to glow with a bright light. It hurt Darkfang's eyes to look at it, yet he couldn't turn his head and look away.

A large, bright beam suddenly made its way toward him, and at such a close range Darkfang only glimpsed it for a split second before it slammed into his body, sending him flying backward until his momentum was stopped when he slammed into a tree. That jolted him out of the paralysis for a moment, however, and he quickly got up and limped off. Yet he could hear the trainer's indistinct shouts and the sound of the persian running closer to him. He felt the cat pokémon deliver a night slash to his back, but before the pokémon could do any more damage he sprinted ahead of it, not pausing to look back although he could soon tell that it was no longer following him.

Once in the shelter of the forest's outskirts, he paused to catch his breath and rest. He now understood that not all humans were the nice, caring ones he had known back at Stonedust City. The wounds from the battle might take a while to heal if he wasn't careful, and he knew that he wouldn't be hunting for a while. As soon as he felt strong enough, he stood up and limped back to the swarm. He didn't want to cross those humans again, but one thought stuck in his mind. _If that's how the human treated him, how would it treat Stormblade?_

  
**-ooo-**  


"Nothing…nothing at all…" the man muttered, kicking the dirt at his feet disdainfully. "I would have sworn there'd be something out here worth catching, or at least battling," he added, sneering at his surroundings. He was standing in a field of sparse grass with no trees or pokémon in sight. "Still, we're not giving up on the chance that there'll be strong or at least rare pokémon around here, seeing as not many venture this far, eh, Volco?" He cast a backward glance at his typhlosion, a powerful looking pokémon with a jagged scar across his face and a missing eye.

The pokémon said nothing but merely scraped his claws across the dry ground, seeming just as displeased with the area as his trainer. He knew as well as the human did that were it not for the police trying to inspect everyone who caught more than a few pokémon anywhere near Stonedust City, due to poacher activity, they wouldn't be wandering about in the wilderness looking for suitable pokémon. They were running low on food apart from what Volco could kill or Master could shoot, and unless that changed, they would have to give up and head back. There had been many claims of strong pokémon living in these lands, but it was starting to seem like they'd have better luck flying back to one of the other cities and starting from there.

Volco looked up as his master gave another grunt of frustration and started walking forward. The typhlosion followed him obediently. As the two carried on, Volco's thoughts drifted back to the last encounter with Thunder. For a while, Master had tried to seek her out and recapture her, as she was one of his strongest pokémon, though he had eventually given up the search. Volco had been, and still was, incredibly disappointed; he longed to get revenge on the scyther that had torn out his eye, though he knew by now that that was no longer a possibility. Thunder was far from where either of them would be able to find her, if she hadn't starved to death already.

Volco paused as his master stopped, still looking angry and tired. "Go on ahead," the man told his pokémon. "See if you can find a spot to rest. Maybe some fresh water too."

Volco nodded slowly, knowing that the human would understand the message, and turned and ran off. After a short while, he noticed that the ground didn't seem as flat and dry as before. He stared ahead as he loped over a small hill, suddenly realizing that the horizon seemed…odd, somehow. He wasn't able to see very far or very clearly, but it did look unusual to him. Curious, he ran faster, and as he got further, he realized what it was he had been looking at.

Ahead of him was a cliff. A cliff, he realized as he neared it, that dropped into a canyon and extended far in either direction. What was more important to him though, was the steady flow of water at the bottom of the canyon and the lush vegetation within it. The steep cliffs made Volco nervous, and he wasn't about to go down there and check it out. Turning around, he headed back to his master. Steep cliffs or not, this was certainly better that what he'd been hoping to find.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal never thought she would miss the feeling of snow between her paws so much until she was standing in a small patch of it quite a ways, it seemed, from the base of the mountain. The feeling of the cold substance on her paws brought back memories of her old home far more vividly than they had been in a while.

"Hey, Snowcrystal, what's the hold up?" Spark shouted from up ahead.

"Huh? Oh, uh, nothing!" she called back to the jolteon, flicking snow off her paws as she rejoined the group, most of which had passed her while she had been standing alone in the snow.

Nearby, Rosie craned her neck to look up toward the mountain's peak, the wind tugging at her long fur. "Let's hope the Articuno we meet isn't some insane psycho," she muttered, though Snowcrystal couldn't tell if she really was worried or just being sarcastic.

"Look at it this way," Alex told her. "If he is, at least it'll be an interesting sight!"

"This isn't some sort of game!" Blazefang growled at her. "If you find the prospect of getting torn apart exciting, why don't you go use aqua jet on Thunder?"

Snowcrystal didn't hear Alex's reply; she had turned around and glanced at Thunder. The scyther was still trailing at the back of the group, using her scythes to support her. Snowcrystal heard the sound of the blade tips scraping against rock as Thunder hauled herself over a steep slope…and then collapsed at the top of it.

"Oh dear…" Spark sighed, sounding more worried for anyone about to try to help the scyther than for Thunder herself.

"I knew that was going to happen!" Alex cried, a little too loudly.

"Think we should just leave her there?" Snowcrystal heard Blazefang ask.

Redclaw ignored him, walking carefully over the rocks toward Thunder. The arcanine leaned his head down, and Snowcrystal expected him to get his nose slashed, but Thunder didn't move. Nightshade and Wildflame walked closer to the two, and after a moment of hesitating, Snowcrystal followed them.

"She passed out," Redclaw sighed as they approached.

"Alex was right," Wildflame muttered. "It was bound to happen. What are we supposed to do now? She's not strong enough to make this journey!"

"Maybe she should stay here…" Nightshade began. "It'll only get colder and harder to climb the further we go."

Most of the other pokémon in the group were gathering around Thunder, looking nervous. "Maybe Redclaw can carry her!" Alex suggested, not seeming to notice that the looks the others gave her made it clear that that was a bad idea.

"Nightshade's right," Redclaw told the others. "She won't get much farther." He nudged Thunder gently away from the rocky slope, onto smoother ground. "Someone will need to stay behind and watch over her."

"How about Nightshade?" Rosie suggested. "He's practically the only one she doesn't want to kill…"

"Or Redclaw," Wildflame added. "He's a fire type…he could keep her warm."

Snowcrystal suddenly pictured Thunder lying against Redclaw with the arcanine's tail wrapped around her, and had to resist the urge to laugh, despite the situation.

"I'll stay," Nightshade said. He took a glance up at the mountain's peak, clearly knowing that he was in no condition to make such a journey. He seemed a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to travel the whole way, but the look quickly vanished as he turned to the others again. "I'll wait for you at this spot."

"Rosie…" Wildflame began, pausing once the ninetales turned to look at her. "I think you ought to stay behind too. I mean, your leg's not fully healed."

"I can make it," Rosie replied with a scowl.

"You're still limping badly. If there's any danger, you might not be able to get away fast enough."

Rosie's crimson eyes narrowed as she glared at the houndoom, but she didn't say anything. Snowcrystal suspected that deep down, Rosie knew that she was right, and climbing the mountain would take a huge toll on her.

"Look, we'll tell you all about what's happened right when we get back," Snowcrystal told her. "In the meantime, you can rest."

Rosie looked upward at the distance they still had to climb, and sighed in defeat. "All right," she muttered. "But you better be back quick."

"Thanks, Rosie," Snowcrystal told her, relieved that the ninetales hadn't tried to argue much. Snowcrystal didn't blame her; she looked exhausted, and her stubbornness had probably only come from not wanting to seem weak. "We'll be back soon," she told her.

"Well, hurry up and get going," Rosie replied, still not sounding happy. "You're wasting daylight."

Snowcrystal gave her friend one last smile and turned to follow the others, who were heading up a rocky slope.

"We'll bring you back an articuno feather!" Alex shouted over her shoulder as she bounded up the rocks on all fours.

As Snowcrystal climbed up the slope, she glanced back to see Nightshade watching them from down below. She paused for a moment before turning and climbing up onto another wide ledge, hoping that the three pokémon left behind would be all right.

As the group traveled further up the mountain, small flakes of snow drifted down on them. There were patches of snow all around them now, and every so often Redclaw or Wildflame would have to reprimand Alex or Spark for leaping in the piles and scattering snow over everyone else. Snowcrystal also noticed that the sky seemed unusually darker the further they went, and she figured it must be the thick clouds that had begun to gather over the mountain's peak.

"So this is it," she heard Wildflame whisper from beside her. The houndoom was shivering, but it seemed to be more a result of anticipation than of cold.

Snowcrystal wondered why Wildflame seemed so excited. Did she still want Articuno to help her tribe, even if they turned any houndoom away?

Blazefang looked just the opposite of excited. It seemed as if every step they took closer to the mountain's peak, Blazefang became more and more nervous. Spark and Redclaw, however, seemed uncertain and curious, but calmer, as they followed Snowcrystal up the mountain slopes.

In one place quite a ways upward from where they'd started, the going became much rockier. Snowcrystal found it easy to leap from boulder to boulder up the steep slope, but the others were finding it much more difficult. Blazefang whimpered as he tried to haul himself up using his front legs. Redclaw had to carefully decide where to place his paws in case he slipped off. Alex, on the other hand, _did_ fall off. She had attempted to copy Snowcrystal's jumps and slipped on an icy rock, tumbling into a snowdrift below. Spark had burst out laughing, so much that he nearly fell off himself. It took a while for everyone to reach the top of the slope, but Snowcrystal was relieved that when they did, the going looked like it would be much easier. There was a lot more snow, but the ground sloped gently, and there were no sharp rocky paths or slick ice.

"Look at all the snow!" Spark shouted, darting through it and leaving deep pawprints. "Reminds me of being back in Justin's town during the winter!"

Snowcrystal was relieved to hear that he didn't sound sad about the memory, and it was nice to see someone having fun now that she thought about it, especially when her mind was filled with conflicting emotions about how near to them Articuno was. She could see larger snowflakes falling more frequently around her now, and paused to look up once again at the dark gray sky before turning back toward Spark.

All of a sudden her fur began to bristle as she was struck with an odd, yet strong impression that there was something bad nearby. The snow and the strange landscape made it difficult to pinpoint any exact scents, and she couldn't see anything…

"Spark, look out!" Redclaw cried as the jolteon wandered toward a clump of pine trees that stood near an almost vertical slope of gray rock.

Just as Snowcrystal was about to ask the arcanine what had made him shout, a massive pokémon stepped out from behind the tall trees. Even from a distance, it looked taller than even Redclaw. The beast was covered in long, white hair, with a green coloring on its massive arms and stubby-looking legs. Its small eyes glared menacingly at first the jolteon, then the rest of the group; the eyes were the only feature visible on its otherwise expressionless face.

For a moment, no one moved. Even Spark and the strange pokémon had frozen in surprise. It was in this moment that Snowcrystal recognized what it was. She hadn't at first because this was the first time she had ever set eyes on one, but although its species didn't live on her mountain, she had heard about it. It was an abomasnow.

As Snowcrystal stared on in surprise, the tall pokémon lifted one of its massive arms, getting ready to swipe at the much smaller jolteon. "Spark!" she cried, but the electric type had already jumped out of the way as the ice pokémon's arm swung toward him. Knowing that he was no match for a much stronger creature in its own habitat, Spark turned and ran.

Yet the deep snow was slowing him down. After a few leaps, he tumbled, rolling over in the powdery snow before struggling to his feet again. The abomasnow, although much slower than Spark, moved with ease through the snowdrifts, catching up quickly as Spark struggled to move faster.

Without thinking, Snowcrystal bolted forward, going over the flame wheel tactic she had practiced again and again in her mind. Redclaw and Wildflame had rushed to the rescue as well, but it was Alex who moved quicker than all the others. Racing ahead of the three canines, her paws seeming to glide over the snow, she bared her fangs and headed straight for the ice type who was gaining on Spark.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal tried to yell, but either the wind had gotten stronger and drowned out her voice, or Alex wasn't listening. "It's a grass type!" the growlithe screamed. "Wait!"

Ignoring the growlithe's shouts, Alex ran on, bounding through the snow at a speed the others had not thought possible. White powder flew from her paws as the distance between her and her quarry shortened with every bound. She reached Spark just as the enemy pokémon was almost upon him, and flung herself at it with all her might.

Disregarding any actual attacks, the floatzel clawed and bit frantically at the creature as she latched her forepaws onto its shoulder. The abomasnow stumbled backward, swiping at her frantically.

Spark, who had fallen again, struggled to pull himself out of a deep snow pit, sliding along the ice on his belly until he managed to scramble out onto more solid ground.

Snowcrystal arrived on the scene quicker than Redclaw and Wildflame, who were not used to running through snow, to see Alex still clinging onto the abomasnow's side, her teeth digging firmly into its arm. Snowcrystal wanted to fire an attack, but the two were moving so quickly that she was afraid of hitting Alex; water type or not, she did not need any distraction from an injury right now.

The abomasnow roared in frustration as it stumbled backward into another pit of deep snow, then with another roar – a cry of anger this time – he grabbed one of Alex's tails in his free arm and wrenched her away. Alex's eyes widened in pain a moment before she was forced to release her hold. She then found herself hanging upside down, the abomasnow glaring at her as he held her by the tail.

The floatzel yelped as she was sent sailing through the air, the abomasnow's roar of anger ringing in her ears as she hit the ground hard. Dazed, she tried pushing herself to her feet, but a barrage of knifelike leaves, sent flying toward her by the ice pokémon, knocked her down, slicing through her fur and opening long cuts in her skin.

The still enraged abomasnow left the fallen floatzel where she was, rounding instead on Snowcrystal, who was still focusing on readying a flame wheel attack. The growlithe faltered in surprise, the flames flickering out as she lost her concentration. With another roar, the huge creature lumbered towards her. She didn't have time to run. If she could just conjure up a powerful enough fire attack…

But she didn't have to. Just as the pokémon was almost upon her, another roar resounded through the mountain area - Redclaw's. A stream of bright orange flame seared above Snowcrystal's head and headed straight for the abomasnow.

The creature howled in fury and pain, stumbling backward and away from Snowcrystal, some of its fur set alight. Wildflame appeared next to Snowcrystal, her paws kicking up snow into the air. Spark arrived next to her, every clump of hair on his body sharpened into needle-like spines. The abomasnow was still flailing in anger, trying to put out the flames.

"Do you think it's-" Snowcrystal began.

"Look out!" Wildflame cried, and only just soon enough. Snowcrystal barely managed to close her eyes and duck as a wall of snow, ice, and wind came hurtling towards them. She braced herself by digging her claws into the ground beneath her, but it wasn't enough. The powdery snow broke loose easily and Snowcrystal found herself being flipped backwards, landing in a heap where she was forced to endure the howling wind and jagged shards of ice.

Then suddenly, it stopped. The other three pokémon were still standing, although Spark looked unsteady on his feet. The abomasnow stood facing them, all the flames extinguished, though Snowcrystal realized with worry that it seemed as if for the most part, only the pokémon's fur was burnt. The injury itself didn't seem bad enough to truly hinder the ice type.

Redclaw was the first to leap forward, red flames forming inside his muzzle which he then launched at the foe. Yet before the flames reached the abomasnow, another massive barrage of ice and snow made its way toward them, stopping the flamethrower attack. Snowcrystal's eyes widened. That snow attack looked far worse than the first.

Before she could act of her own accord, teeth met in her scruff and she felt Wildflame frantically dragging her away. To her surprise, they managed to avoid the blast of snow, which seemed for the most part to be concentrated on one specific area. As it thundered past, she noticed that Spark had managed to avoid it too, but Redclaw…

Redclaw was lying unconscious in the snow, ice frosted thickly over his fur.

"Redclaw!" Snowcrystal cried, fear for both her friend and herself welling up inside her; Redclaw was the strongest fire type in the group. That left only her, Wildflame, Spark, and…

Where was Blazefang?

Without stopping to think about it, Snowcrystal looked frantically at Wildflame while the abomasnow paused, as if stopping to regain some of its strength. "What was that?" she cried, not knowing what sort of ice attack could stop a powerful fire type in his tracks. Wildflame, however, was more focused on trying to hit the ice type with another fire attack.

"Sheer cold!" Spark replied from where he stood, his eyes still focused on the enemy. "Watch out! It's coming again!"

This time, Snowcrystal was ready. As the ice and snow hurtled towards her, she quickly moved out of the line of fire, and once the air cleared again, she was relieved to see that Wildflame and Spark had avoided it again as well.

Wildflame leaped forward, shooting a stream of flame from her mouth, but once again a mass of whirling snow and ice, more like the first attack than the second, weakened it before it reached its target. This time, even Wildflame was knocked backward by the fierce wind, crying out in pain as she tumbled into a patch of snow.

Wildflame looked frantically at Spark, who seemed just about out of energy, and back at the abomasnow, who didn't seem tired at all. Snowcrystal had expected the pokémon to be strong, but not _this_ strong. The thought that it might have trained itself in strategies against fire types briefly crossed her mind, and with a jolt of horror she saw it readying another attack, far quicker than she knew she could finish summoning a flame wheel…

Suddenly a loud screech overhead sounded around them, its echo making it seem far louder than a sound any pokémon could make. Out of the corner of her eye, Snowcrystal spotted a birdlike shape in the sky. _Was that Articuno?_

"Hey, leave them alone!" a voice shouted, but it was a voice Snowcrystal recognized. Alex's voice.

The floatzel was bounding toward the abomasnow, water beginning to form around her body from the air around her. Already it was crackling with ice from the intense cold brought about from the recent ice type attacks, but the water was moving too quickly around the floatzel to freeze completely. With a yell, Alex launched herself forward, more water spinning around her as she collided with the abomasnow just as it launched another attack.

This time, the blizzard wasn't as strong as the ones before it. Snowcrystal endured it rather easily before it faded, quicker than the other two. When it did, the sight that greeted her eyes greatly surprised her. Both pokémon – Alex and the abomasnow – were partially frozen to the ground from the water meeting the blizzard attack. Alex was standing on all fours, each of her paws immobile, but that did not stop her from firing a water gun attack disdainfully in her enemy's face.

"Now!" Wildflame shouted to Snowcrystal, before quickly launching a flamethrower at the surprised abomasnow before it had a chance to retaliate.

Snowcrystal focused all her energy and concentration on a flame wheel, realizing with immense surprise that it formed far quicker than she had expected. She launched the whirling tornado of flame at the struggling pokémon, and Alex ducked her head as the flames struck the abomasnow, right on target.

Snowcrystal began summoning the strength for another flame wheel, knowing that the attack would have melted the ice, but a sudden shriek from Wildflame made her glance in the houndoom's direction. What she saw made her blood run cold.

A massive pidgeot, far larger than any she'd ever seen flying over her own mountain, had sunk its claws into Wildflame's back and bowled the houndoom over. _It wasn't Articuno she had seen…it was another enemy!_

Near the abomasnow, Alex grunted as she wrenched her paws free of the weakening ice. The huge white pokémon was injured and tiring now, and the floatzel knew it. Opening her mouth, she fired several star-shaped beams of energy at the weakened pokémon, causing it to give a yell of rage.

Snowcrystal's attention, however, was on the massive bird pokémon. Spark was darting around it, firing sharpened spines at it whenever possible, but he couldn't use an electric attack; the pidgeot's strong talons were still gripping Wildflame.

With a strength she hadn't known she had, Snowcrystal summoned another flame wheel even quicker than she had before, and sent the searing flames spiraling straight at the winged enemy.

The pidgeot squawked loudly, releasing Wildflame and taking to the air. Spark struck it with a thunderbolt, but to everyone's surprise, the flying type stayed airborne.

Snowcrystal heard another cry of pain and then saw Alex running toward them. "Abomasnow's down!" she panted. She seemed exhausted and had several long cuts across her face, probably from another razor leaf attack.

As Spark focused on attacking the huge pidgeot, another shriek rent the air, and a second pidgeot, almost as large as the first, dove down toward the jolteon, ignoring the bolt of lightning that shot upwards toward it from the panicked eevee evolution. It was Spark's lightning speed that saved him. Luckily, he was standing on a flat rock with only a thin covering of snow. Bounding off of it, he avoided the pidgeot's raking talons as it swooped past.

Snowcrystal was about to try and aim an attack at the swift flying pokémon when a screech for help met her ears. Whirling around, she saw Blazefang in the distance, struggling in a patch of snow next to a dangerously steep cliff, a fearow bearing down on him. She saw it stab downward with its beak, catching Blazefang in the hind leg and making him howl with pain. From what she could see, some of the snow around him was red…

What happened next made Snowcrystal feel like everything had suddenly gone horribly wrong, much more wrong than anything that had happened to them so far. Bright, blue-white flames, flames she had wished never to see ever again in her entire life, erupted from Blazefang's gaping mouth. The houndour's eyes widened, glowing a searing bright yellow as the twisted fire wrapped itself around the fearow, enveloping it completely and causing it to tumble backward over the cliff with an earsplitting screech. Blazefang stood up slowly, not noticing the blood flowing from his leg wound, and turned to look at the group who were still fighting.

His eyes were still a bright, pure, unnatural yellow. Walking mechanically, as if not on his own, Blazefang made his way toward them, leaving bloody pawprints in the snow. His eyes blazed, his mouth stretched in a grin…

But before he reached them, a dark shape raced across the snow, its long legs sending more powder sailing into the air. It cannoned into Blazefang, knocking the houndour clear off his feet and into the icy snow. It was Wildflame.

The houndoom stood over Blazefang, her sides heaving. Snowcrystal could hear Alex and Spark approaching her, having managed to fend off both pidgeot. Snowcrystal felt a pang of shame; in her panic at seeing Shadowflare, she had not rejoined the battle. It wasn't like she could have done much, she tried to convince herself. The only good long ranged attack she had was flame wheel, and she could never have hit something as fast as a pidgeot. Only half satisfied with her excuse, she walked over to where Wildflame was standing over the motionless Blazefang. The others followed solemnly.

Blazefang's eyes were opened, but they were back to their normal red. The houndour was looking at Wildflame with an expression of helplessness. "I'm sorry…" Snowcrystal heard him whisper as she approached. "I tried to fight it…I really did…"

Snowcrystal glanced around at the others. They all had cuts from shards of ice or leaves, and all of them looked exhausted as they stared down at Blazefang. Silence fell upon the group, and Alex was the first to speak.

"What about Redclaw?" she asked.

Snowcrystal turned around and darted toward the arcanine, who was beginning to stir. "Redclaw?" she whispered, stopping by his side and nudging his icy fur.

The arcanine's eyes opened. "Snowcrystal…" he whispered weakly. "Is everyone all right?"

"I…I'm not sure," she replied uncertainly. "No one's seriously hurt…I don't think. Can you get up?"

Redclaw didn't reply, but he slowly lifted himself to his paws. He was weak, but he didn't collapse. "I'll be fine with a little rest," he rasped. "It only knocked me out. It was an ice attack after all, and I'm a fire type."

Snowcrystal heard footsteps as the rest of the group bounded through the snow toward them, even Blazefang, who still looked horrified at what he'd done.

"Well, we'd better get going," Wildflame told everyone. "Those birds might come back…with friends."

"Wildflame's right," Redclaw agreed, staggering forward. "Let's move on."

"But are you sure you've got enough strength?" Snowcrystal asked worriedly.

"I'm strong enough," came Redclaw's reply.

Without much of a choice, they began heading further up the mountain, fear giving them both strength and speed. Even when the snow became thicker higher up, they did not stop. Fear that a pokémon would drop down on them from the sky and attack spurred them onward.

After a while of trudging through snow, the group finally decided to take a break. There were no signs of any enemies, and they all felt very worn out.

"How much further?" Spark muttered, flopping down in the snow.

Snowcrystal lifted her head, narrowing her eyes against the biting wind. The wind had grown stronger ever since the abomasnow's blizzard and sheer cold attacks. It would be harder to climb the rest of the way, even if it wasn't quite so far. A sudden, horrible thought struck her. If the blizzard attacks could make more wind and snow and ice, did that mean that _they_ could be causing the mountain to be this way, rather than Articuno? _'No!'_ That couldn't be true. Darkfang had seen Articuno, and Alex had told them…

"It's not that far," Wildflame told the others from where she was still standing. "We can keep going. If we stay here, we risk more danger." The wind whipped at the houndoom's thin flanks and dried blood shone on her wounds, but the look in her eyes was fierce. She was more determined to get to Articuno than ever now.

"Wildflame's right," Redclaw agreed, heaving himself to his feet. The arcanine swayed for a moment but managed to stay standing. "I can keep going. What about the rest of you?"

"Redclaw," Spark began, "I don't think you should-"

"I may not be Thunder," Redclaw replied, "but Master did teach me something I could make use of, and that was endurance. The real question is…are the rest of you ready?"

"So soon?" Alex asked, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.

"I'm ready," Spark said as he gave a weary sigh and stood up. "I sure don't want to be caught in the open."

"Me neither," Snowcrystal agreed. "Let's go."

They headed off, more slowly this time, keeping their eyes fixed on the rocks and trees around them, as well as the sky, in case an enemy could be lurking near. As they got ever so closer to the top, Snowcrystal could see that the sky was darkening even more, the clouds above them seeming ominous.

They soon came to a place where the rocks sloped upward so steeply that even Snowcrystal knew that she would not be able to climb it. Finding a dead end at one side and forced to go around the other way instead, they were soon met with a horribly steep cliff that seemed to slide down into pure gray nothingness. The group of six pokémon huddled together, the wind pushing at their backs as if it wanted to fling them over into the abyss.

"What now?" Alex cried over the wind. She was clutching Snowcrystal's fur.

Snowcrystal wasn't worried about heights; she was used to this in her mountain home. Yet something about the wind made her nervous. It seemed almost _hostile._ Nevertheless, she glanced around, wondering if there was any way…

Yes! There was. A narrow ridge leading up the mountain. Despite there being only a few feet between the rock wall and the edge of the cliff, Snowcrystal felt as if the ridge would be safe.

Safe for a mountain growlithe…but for the others?

"That way!" she called, pointing her nose toward the winding ledge.

"Are you crazy?" Alex called.

"No," Snowcrystal replied. "I know it looks dangerous, but if we move carefully, it won't be. The rocks should block most of the wind…" ' _Until we round that corner…'_ she thought, looking ahead to where the path swerved out of view around the rock wall. _'Then the wind could be heading straight for us…'_

Wherever it led, they couldn't go back now. How long could they waste looking for another route with those enemy pokémon lurking about? Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where the ledge began and placed a paw on it hesitantly, then walked onto it. It felt as sturdy as it looked, and the wind didn't seem nearly as strong there. "Follow me!" she cried, walking forward with confidence, hoping that would help the others overcome their fear.

Spark went next, and the agile jolteon seemed almost as comfortable as Snowcrystal after the first few hesitant steps. "She's right!" he called back. "The wind's mostly blocked here!"

Alex went next, a lot slower than Spark, followed by Wildflame and Blazefang and lastly, Redclaw. The arcanine was having the most difficulty, being the largest, but he followed the others determinedly, his gaze focused only on the way ahead.

Snowcrystal plodded forward carefully, her fur prickling as she neared the place where the path veered around the corner. Taking another deep breath, she approached it carefully and stepped around the corner.

A blast of wind met her, forcing her to close her eyes and dig her claws into the icy ground in fear of being blown backward over the edge of the cliff. When she managed to open them, she was horrified at what she saw.

The path ahead sloped gently upward for a little while, and then suddenly turned steep. The steep part of the slope was made up of jagged rocks leading upward with a sheer drop on one side. Snowcrystal even doubted her own climbing abilities would allow her to scale that. With sinking regret, she realized that they needed to turn back.

Turning around ever so carefully, she rounded the corner and faced the others.

"What's wrong?" Spark asked, looking puzzled.

"It gets really steep and narrow over there!" she explained, having to shout over the noise of the wind. "We have to go back and find another way!"

"Are you sure?" Redclaw cried worriedly from behind the others. "I don't think I can turn around!"

Realizing the bad situation they were in, Snowcrystal frantically tried to think of a solution. Yet before she could, things became much worse.

A sudden shriek sliced through the air, and another gigantic pidgeot – or the same one, she couldn't tell – wheeled into the air above them, circling once before diving straight at Redclaw.

Spark whirled around, firing a blast of electricity at the pokémon; it cried out and swerved away at the last instant, squawking harshly, but Snowcrystal couldn't make out the words.

Everyone stood poised and ready, their eyes locked onto the large winged shape. Or… _shapes._ Snowcrystal watched in terror as more and more bird pokémon appeared, some far off and heading toward them, others very, very close. Snowcrystal watched Spark's eyes dart from one to another; there was no way he could bring them all down with electric attacks at once. There was only one thing for it.

"Run!" she shouted, darting back around the swerve in the path, kicking up loose snow and almost slipping. It occurred to her that her friends would not be able to move nearly as fast, but she didn't stop. She couldn't slow down, for that would slow them down as well. She headed for the steep rock slope, feeling a whoosh of air as a pair of talons narrowly missed her; a bird had dived down at her from the top of the rock wall above them.

Panting, she reached the base of the rocks and leaped onto the first one. Pain stabbed through her paw as she cut herself on its sharp edge, but without stopping, she jumped to the next, and the next, and the next…

With a cry that was more terror than pain, Snowcrystal felt talons meet in her scruff and her paws were torn away from the rocks as she was lifted clear into the air. Flailing helplessly, she watched the rock ledge get smaller as she was lifted up, then watched as the ground down below moved out of her line of vision to be replaced with a sickeningly long drop down to a ground she couldn't even see through the whirling snow. Her captor was going to drop her.

' _No! No!'_ she cried frantically in her mind, twisting in the bird's grip out of sheer panic, all rational thought lost on her.

Then, suddenly, a wave of heat washed over the growlithe, and the pokémon holding her gave a cry of pain before veering off to the side sharply and releasing its grip. Snowcrystal plummeted, but only for a few terrifying seconds. She landed roughly in deep snow, and it took her a moment to force herself to look up and realize that she had landed on top of the rock wall, above the ridge where the others were climbing. The slope was much gentler on this part of the mountain, and the mountain's peak looked closer than ever before. _They were so close…_

The burned pidgeot had managed to right itself in the air, but now was focusing on a new target. Wildflame. Spark had reached the part of the ledge that led steeply upward, and with the agility his species was blessed with, hopped from rock to rock with lightning speed. Snowcrystal noticed with both relief and admiration that he did not stumble or slip once, although she expected him to at every jump.

Running up beside Snowcrystal, the jolteon stood at the edge of the rock wall, his eyes blazing as he watched Wildflame, Blazefang, Alex and Redclaw struggling to reach the steep rocks. With a cry of fury he threw back his head, and all at once several bolts of lightning erupted from his body. Forks of jagged electricity reached across the sky and lit it up with a brilliant white-yellow glow. Several of the bird pokémon shrieked and fell, only to right themselves after they were released from the attack. But Spark was still standing, sending even more beams of lightning at the attackers. At the moment, none of the bird pokémon could get near him, or the others.

Alex had reached the steep rocks. Followed by Wildflame and then Blazefang, the floatzel began making the climb, the wind tearing at her as she went. Redclaw waited below them, his massive frame quivering with fear. Near the middle, Wildflame slipped, but luckily against the solid wall next to her, and managed to climb back to her feet shakily. Alex paused and waited for the houndoom to catch up to her, then leaned against her as the two made their way to the top, the floatzel having better paws for gripping than Wildflame. Blazefang followed shakily behind, but being smaller, he found it easier to keep away from the cliff edge. Sheer desperation was overcoming fear, and the houndour was forcing himself to use all his strength to climb up each jagged boulder.

Then, suddenly, Spark's electric attack stopped. The jolteon wavered on the spot, as if he was about to faint. Small sparks flew from his body, but that seemed to be the only electricity he had left. The bird pokémon moved in toward them once again.

One of them raked Alex across the back, causing the floatzel to loose her grip just as she was about to reach the top of the slope. She rolled over the side of the ledge, her paws gripped the edge as she fell, stopping her but leaving her hanging helplessly. Wildflame, who had staggered to the top, looked down at Alex with a look of terror as Blazefang managed to struggle up to the top alongside her.

Snowcrystal began running over to the water type, when a roar from Redclaw made her pause. The arcanine was trying to fend off two pidgeot who were attacking him from both sides. He fired a flamethrower at one that looked terrifyingly as if it had been about to use whirlwind, and it flew away, crying harshly in rage.

Redclaw swiped at the other with his paw, then made a dash for the rocks. He fired another blast of flame at a bird pokémon who had been trying to attack Alex, allowing the floatzel to scramble up onto the ledge and limp to safety. The arcanine reached the bottom of the steep slope and leaped, his paws outstretched in a mighty bound, showing far more grace than one would have thought a creature of his size would be capable of. His mane streamed out in the wind and his eyes locked on the ground beneath him before his leap was brought to a jarring halt as he landed roughly on the narrow ledge of rocks. Hardly pausing, he leaped up again, a much shorter distance this time, and his paws had scarcely touched the ground beneath them before he bounded upward once more, heedless of the bird pokémon who circled around him. One of them launched a whirlwind that missed him as he propelled himself upward and to the top of the ledge. The arcanine landed on solid ground at the top, lifting his head in a roar that echoed around them, sounding as loud as if several arcanine had been roaring at once. Then he whirled around to face the pokémon that had been following him, firing a stream of flame at them before turning and launching a similar attack at another group. Several more blasts of fire from the arcanine lit up the sky. Many of the enemy pokémon squawked in fear. Then Redclaw ran over to the rest of the group, standing in front of them before lifting his head and blowing out a stream of flames that encircled them all.

Snowcrystal watched as the brilliantly burning inferno circled them at startling speed, melting the snow around them. Redclaw was keeping the flames flowing from his open mouth, creating a towering whirlwind of fire that began to reach high above them. Snowcrystal huddled in front of Spark to shield him from stray flames that were being blown toward him from the wind, and looked up at the round circle of dark gray sky above, watching a few of the birds veer away from the flames.

Then suddenly, the whirling fire stopped, flickering out, as it had nothing to burn. Redclaw stood, gasping for breath, his eyes locked on the enemy bird pokémon. There seemed to be even more of them now, and in their exhausted state, no one had much strength to fight.

"Hurry!" Redclaw called, racing out onto the snow. "Toward the peak!"

He darted over the snowy slope, his mane and tail streaming. Forgetting all tiredness, the other five pokémon ran after him, following in the arcanine's path so as to meet less resistance from the deep snow. All around them, the angry bird pokémon were moving closer, seeming to realize that the fight had left the travelers.

Snowcrystal was now in the lead along with Redclaw, her paws racing over the snow with ease. She had her eyes fixed on the slope ahead of her when she felt talons rake her across her back, knocking her head over feet.

A sharp beak sliced downward at her, and she twisted away, feeling it scrape the skin beneath the fur on her neck. Around her, she could hear the cries of her companions, but as for who was still running and who had been caught…she had no way of knowing. She struggled to free herself, kicking frantically at the bird and wishing her face wasn't pressed down in the snow so she could use a fire attack, even a weak one…

Through a haze of terror and pain, she heard Redclaw howl in distress. Loud cries of flying types told her that they had either brought the arcanine down, or he was surrounded. Cries of friends and foe alike rang in her ears; she struggled madly but the talons held her in place, pressing her deep into the snow as the pokémon's beak stabbed down toward her…

Then she heard another cry, one that sounded distinctly birdlike, but yet different all the same. It was a strange, eerie melody that rang out around the mountaintop, and it sounded hauntingly familiar, even with her ears pressed in the snow. At the moment, the staraptor holding her looked up, freezing in surprise. Snowcrystal lifted her head as much as she could and looked up as well.

The sight that greeted her took her breath away. Soaring through the haze of snow, long tail feathers streaming out behind him, was Articuno. Even bigger and more majestic than any of the other birds, the great ice type flew overhead, and Snowcrystal felt a strong, cold wind wash over her. With a startled squawk, the staraptor released her, leaving her alone to watch as the massive, blue feathered bird wheeled down close to her before circling up and around and flying over each of her friends, who had all been released and were still as stone, watching the legendary with awe. Struggling to her feet, Snowcrystal watched as Articuno flew near her again. He looked powerful…strong…so calm and in control…not insane at all!

Then with a suddenness that surprised her, the gigantic bird suddenly plummeted downward, startling the other flying types and causing them to take wing and head away from Articuno. Just as the ice type was about to reach the ground, he lifted his wings, gliding over the snow until he reached out with his massive black talons and gripped a jagged spar of rock near Snowcrystal, coming to a halt and folding his wings as he eyed her with his penetrating red gaze.

Snowcrystal stared back, hardly daring to move. After all this time, Articuno, the very same pokémon she had seen so often back at the mountain, was standing right in front of her. She had never seen him this close before. Every gleaming blue feather shone brightly, reflecting some of the dim light as if made of ice itself. Darker blue feathers made up the crest on his head, and he had a powerful, slightly curved beak, and wings that looked magnificent even when folded at his side. He was the most beautiful pokémon Snowcrystal had ever seen, and she felt tiny and insignificant in his presence. His form was outlined against the snow whirling in the air around him, but the majestic pokémon did not even seem to notice the biting winds. He regarded Snowcrystal with a look of genuine curiosity, and after a moment, the growlithe forced her stiff legs to move and walk closer to the legendary.

Around her, the others had slowly stood up and began to stare in awe at the massive bird. Snowcrystal heard their footsteps as they edged closer, and paused as Articuno turned his head to look toward them, then focused his gaze on the growlithe again. Snowcrystal realized that she couldn't hear the other birds anywhere near, and wondered if they were hiding from Articuno. When she was as close to the legendary as she dared to get, she stopped. "Articuno…" she began. The ice bird looked at her and then took a pace forward so that he towered over her. She shrank back, and heard the others behind her stop. "Articuno, I need your help."

"So that is why you have come here?" the ice bird replied, his voice loud and clear even over the sound of the wind. It carried a hint of the same graceful melody she had heard when he had arrived; it sounded unlike the voice of any other bird pokémon. "What about them?" He inclined his head sharply toward the other five travelers, who were now moving closer together, Redclaw standing in front of the others protectively.

"They're helping me," Snowcrystal explained. "We-"

"I called off the flying types to stop them from attacking a white growlithe," Articuno replied. "But those others are a threat. Especially that jolteon."

Snowcrystal chanced a glance at her friends, and saw Spark casting an astonished look at the others. She figured that being an electric type meant he was more dangerous to those birds…who for some reason seemed to be guarding Articuno, and realized that she needed to try and explain quickly. "He's not dangerous," she replied, looking into Articuno's red eyes. "He came to help me. We only fought back against those bird pokémon because we didn't have a choice. I came from the mountain where the growlithe tribe lived. I came to find out why you left! The snow is melting and our territory is shrinking. I fear that the houndour tribe will drive us out. You must come back!"

For a moment, Articuno simply stared at her, and she thought she heard the winds around her dying down, as if the whole area around them was becoming calmer as Articuno listened to her. "I am sorry," he told her. "I can not come back."

"What?" Snowcrystal gasped. After all this time, even when she thought Articuno might have been insane, she had not expected to get an answer so devastating. Here Articuno was, healthy and capable of defending her home, and yet here he refused. "But…why?"

From a little ways away, Alex tried to creep closer to Articuno, but a glare from the ice bird froze her in her tracks. Snowcrystal was still waiting for an answer, watching the legendary with wide eyes.

Articuno stepped closer to Snowcrystal, his talons crunching through the thick snow. He spoke loudly and clearly, as if he realized the exhausted pokémon watching from a distance would not be of any threat against the sheer power and numbers on his side. "I am here to watch over something," he told her. "It is of great importance. I am sorry about what has happened to the old mountain. Had I known your land would fall into chaos, I would have tried to talk with the leaders before leaving, whatever the risk."

"What…whatever the risk?" Snowcrystal repeated. "You left without warning! What risk could we possibly have posed to you?"

"It was not you and the houndour who were the risk," Articuno replied. "It was time. When I was called upon, I had to leave at that moment. I flew for many days before arriving here, and I was nearly too late. I would have thought that the two tribes would be able to work something out amongst themselves, but if they cannot do that, then I cannot help them any longer."

"But the ice is melting!" Snowcrystal screamed. "What could be so important that…" She paused, thinking about what Articuno had just said. He was here to watch over something, and it had been urgent enough for him to have to leave immediately, and he had obviously been warned by something powerful and important – another legendary perhaps – for him to have taken action so suddenly. As these thoughts whirled around her mind, one thing seemed to make sense, and even if it was just a guess, she had to at least find out. Fixing Articuno with a determined look, she asked, "Does all this have to do with the Forbidden Attacks?"

If Articuno was surprised, he did not show it. Instead, he merely nodded. "I wouldn't have expected isolated pokémon like you to know," he began slowly. "How much do the tribes know?"

"Nothing," Snowcrystal said. "I found out on my way here. A pokémon told us that the ice attack had been used…."

"And a few others as well," Articuno replied, and his gaze drifted slowly to Blazefang, who cringed and ducked behind Wildflame.

"Yes…" Snowcrystal replied. "That's what you're guarding, isn't it? What all these pokémon here are guarding? Another Forbidden Attack? If that's what the problem is, then why don't you throw it off a cliff, or bury it somewhere? It can't be that hard to get rid of!"

"It cannot be destroyed," Articuno replied, an edge of anger to his voice this time. "Hiding it means that there is still a chance that it could be found. Pokémon are already seeking the attacks, and being guarded by a legendary is the only way to deter them. There are other pokémon willing to fight for me, but only a legendary strikes enough fear into a pokémon's heart that they avoid trying to obtain the stones."

"Then why can't one legendary guard them all?" Snowcrystal shouted. Her emotions were whirling inside her like the snow in the wind around them; she didn't know how to feel or react. She was having a hard enough time accepting everything she was hearing.

"Because each one needs a certain place where it can be guarded. An area where a pokémon of the type needed to use the attack would have a difficult time reaching," he explained with a calmer tone to his voice. It was as if he could sense the young growlithe's distress and thought the pokémon he had once looked after deserved to know why he had left her to fend for herself.

Snowcrystal didn't reply at first; she was too busy thinking. Maybe, she realized, the reason all the bird pokémon had attacked them was because Spark was an electric type? Was it the electric Forbidden Attack that Articuno was guarding? Was that why he had singled Spark out as a threat? "But…but I don't understand…why did you have to go?"

"Because this is a place I can survive in," the legendary began, "that others can't. It was ideal for hiding one of the stones, but only one. The rest are scattered. If one is taken, that means another in the same area could be taken too. That is why many legendaries were called upon."

"But who-"

"I can't tell you," the ice bird replied.

"So you're just going to let my tribe be driven out of our home?" Snowcrystal asked. Even though logic was telling her that Articuno was bound by some sort of promise he had made to someone, she wasn't in any emotional state to listen.

"There will be nothing left of your home if the Forbidden Attacks become out of control," Articuno said, his tone gaining a fierceness that made Snowcrystal shrink back. "With three or more found and some unaccounted for, I must do my part in protecting the remaining ones. We legendaries must do all we can."

"But can't you stop them? Take them away from pokémon? ...Destroy them? There must be a way."

Articuno remained silent for a few moments. "I believe only the ones who brought them about can do that," he said.

"Then who-"

"I don't know, nor is it my place to know," Articuno replied.

Snowcrystal lowered her head in defeat. She couldn't bring herself to ask any more questions. The main answer was clear; Articuno wasn't coming back with her.

"I will let you and the other pokémon leave in peace," Articuno said calmly. "But earlier, some of the pokémon on this mountain flew back to me, telling me that one of the others with you used the fire Forbidden Attack."

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied. "That was Blazefang. He…he's trying to control it, but he was under attack and…well, he used it on a fearow." She winced as she said the last word. "I'm sorry..." She did not know whether or not Articuno knew the fearow personally, but she felt terrible for it all the same.

"I know," came Articuno's cold reply. "And when I heard that another fight had broken out and the intruders were holding their ground and hadn't fallen off the cliff, I came to stop it before the attack could be triggered again. It was only because I saw you that I called them off. I had not expected a growlithe to come here. But now, you must leave. You and the others, especially that houndour, have no place here."

"What about my tribe?" Snowcrystal cried.

"They cannot live here either. Nor would it be safe," Articuno responded. "You will have to leave here quickly. As for the houndour…" he paused to look at Blazefang again. "I will let him go, but if he can not keep his attack under control, I nor anyone else can stop him from being captured and imprisoned like the ice type."

"He won't use it again," Snowcrystal replied, hoping she sounded more sure than she felt. "He hates the attack…"

"At least he is one of the more sensible owners," said Articuno, though he still regarded Blazefang as if he was a graveler that could self destruct at any moment. He gave the ragtag group of pokémon one last glance, and spread his magnificent wings, taking to the air. "I will tell the pokémon here not to harm you if you don't fight them first," he told Snowcrystal as he glided gracefully over the snow. "But you must leave quickly."

Snowcrystal was about to reply, but Articuno had suddenly soared much higher into the air, at a distance far enough for it to be futile to try and cry out to him. As she watched him soaring above the mountaintop, several other bird pokémon appeared, flying near him. She could tell that they would soon know not to attack her or her friends. They were free to leave, but Snowcrystal found that she could barely get her paws to move. She felt as if her tribe was utterly alone now. They had simply been left to fend for themselves.

Suddenly she felt Redclaw's fur brush against her and turned to look up at the arcanine. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."

Snowcrystal looked away, still standing unmoving. "Go where?" she asked. "What is there left for me to do? Go back and tell them I've failed?" Thinking, she realized that she couldn't stand the thought. She hated the feeling of having come all this way just to realize that she was powerless to help after all.

"I'm sure your tribe can work something out…" Redclaw began.

"We need the snow to live!" Snowcrystal retorted with a flash of anger. "And Articuno just left us to die!"

"Snowcrystal, look!" Spark cried, walking over to her with the other three following him warily. "You can't be of any help to them out here. It's probably best to go back, where there's something you _can_ do."

"But there isn't something I can do…" Snowcrystal sighed, feeling her anger fade. "Not if I go back without help. I mean, if there's any way…any way I could help them somehow…help Articuno be able to return…" She paused, thinking back to what the ice legendary had said. Even he did not know much about how the Forbidden Attacks had come about, but he had known that he could not destroy them.

' _I believe only the ones who brought them about can do that…'_

That's what he had said. A small spark of hope flickered inside her. Maybe, after all, there _was_ something she could do. If she could find out who created the Forbidden Attacks, she could give Articuno and the other legendaries the information they needed. And if there was even a chance that some pokémon out there would know who those beings were, she was far better off searching for them than returning home only to watch helplessly and use up her tribe's dwindling food supply as the growlithe were forced off the mountain. Keeping her gaze fixed on the haze of ice and snow around her, she didn't even notice Redclaw or Spark's reply. "I'm going to find out…" she said softly.

"What?" Spark replied, obviously confused.

"I'm going to find out who created the Forbidden Attacks," she said, louder, as she turned to face her five companions. "Someone out there has to know who they are. They can't hide from all pokémon."

Redclaw and Spark exchanged glances, while Wildflame looked utterly at a loss for what to do. Redclaw looked the growlithe in the eyes. "Snowcrystal…"

"I know it sounds hopeless," she replied. "But I can't return home…there's hardly any prey as it is. All of you who are still looking for homes can keep looking, and I'll follow you, asking pokémon if they know anything. Someone will, I'm just not sure who or where."

"I…I suppose, but…" Spark began, "if we're all looking for things in different places, then…"

"Well, I'm not," Blazefang declared, stepping forward with a look at Snowcrystal. "You may not be my first choice of company, but if there's a chance I can get rid of Shadowflare, I assume my best bet is to follow you, on the chance you do learn something. I need to find out as well, so the legendaries will be able to do something in order to help me."

Spark glanced at the others, then said, "I'll help you, Snowcrystal. After all…I've come to realize…I don't really want a trainer if it's not Justin. I'm just as lost as Thunder or Wildflame or Redclaw. I suppose that continuing to look for a new home together would be best."

"And a lot safer," Redclaw added, though he still looked uncertain. "If this is really what you want to do, Snowcrystal, then do it if you feel that it's right. And if we don't find anything…" He paused. "Well, we can always be on the lookout for a new home for your tribe as well."

To her surprise, Snowcrystal didn't find the remark insulting or disheartening. "All right," she agreed. "I'll do that. As long as I'm trying to help."

Throughout this time, Wildflame had been completely silent. The houndoom did not speak as the group slowly made their way back down the path they had come from. Snowcrystal knew that she was probably still very confused, but she had the chance of a new future now, even if her own tribe had rejected her. Soon, she thought, Wildflame would feel hopeful again too.

As they descended the mountain, Snowcrystal felt a new determination rising within her. The quest had not ended. There was still more she had left to discover…more that would help her tribe and many other pokémon as well. And now she no longer needed to search for the legendary that had been on her mind almost constantly since the start of her journey.

There was nothing more that Articuno could do.

Now _she_ had to do something.

_To be continued..._


	46. An Unsettling Discovery

By evening, the group had made their way back down the mountain and onto the plains. Snowcrystal had told the three who had stayed behind what had happened, and they all settled down to rest at the base of the mountain in silence, each with their own thoughts.

Wildflame in particular felt lost. Everything she had hoped for had been dashed when Articuno had refused to go with them. Now she did not know whether to return to her pack empty pawed, or follow Blazefang in the hopes that he would know what to do. But then again, he had his own problems that had nothing to do with her. Should she go back to the mountain? The snow was melting anyway; it wasn't like there was any more risk that Articuno would reverse it to help the growlithe tribe, but yet…the hopes of pleasing Firedash and gaining a higher rank in her own tribe were gone. Did she really want to go back to her pack life? With so little freedom and so many with ranks above her? The houndoom's thoughts drifted as she glanced over the pokémon gathered around her.

Should she keep going with them? They were looking for new homes, weren't they? Then again, she had lied to them. They couldn't exactly trust her…but at the same time, she realized, tricking them on Blazefang's orders was in the past. She figured that none of that mattered now, and as she glanced around at the others once again, watching them rest and talk, she decided that they didn't need to know.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Which way do you think we should go then?" Alex asked. The group had rested for a while and was now headed away from the mountain. "I mean, I know you don't want to run into that Cyclone pokémon, but…"

"You're still coming?" Blazefang muttered as he angled his head to look at her, giving the floatzel a slight sneer. "I thought you already had a home."

"Well, I'd rather come with you," she explained. "I want to help Snowcrystal find out the…the Forbidden Attack thing, or whatever it was…you see-"

"Forbidden Attack thing?" Blazefang repeated, sounding disgusted. "It's obvious you aren't taking this seriously. You're better off in your old home, which was perfectly fine." He turned away from her, walking ahead.

Snowcrystal watched him sadly and turned to Alex. "Thanks…for wanting to help," she whispered to the floatzel once he had gone. "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to need all the help I can get."

"Alex can come if she wants," Redclaw added. "We're not going to order her around." A grunt from Blazefang was the only response.

Glad that the argument was somewhat settled, at least for now, Snowcrystal looked up to see the forest in the distance, remembering that that was where she had last seen Stormblade. Once again, she found herself wondering whether the human who had captured him was able to take care of him properly.

They were approaching a place that had only a few clumps of scattered trees here and there, and Snowcrystal began wondering if they should go back to the forest, or whether it was too dangerous to be worth the risk.

Any further thoughts about the forest or the route ahead were rudely interrupted by enraged shouts from Thunder at the back of the group.

"Leave me alone, or I'll chop your tails off!" the scyther was screaming, her eyes locked on Rosie, who was standing with her fur bristling and all nine tails lashing.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Rosie spat back. "A blind hatchling could see that you wouldn't last a second fighting a fire type! You probably couldn't even get close to me without passing out again. You need to learn your place, learn to shut up, and learn that you aren't the most powerful pokémon ever. You get weak just like the rest of us!" A few embers flew from her mouth as she spat out the last words.

Thunder looked murderous, but she made no move to attack, and Redclaw stepped between them before a fight could escalate further.

"All right, stop this now," the arcanine muttered angrily. "Rosie, go up with Snowcrystal at the front of the group. Thunder…"

"I'll do what I want! That ninetales can only fight with petty words. I can tear her apart!"

"And you will do nothing of the sort," Redclaw growled, his voice losing its usual patience and gaining an irritated edge to it. "Stay here. She won't bother you."

He waited for Thunder to respond, but she only stared back at him, neither replying nor making any sort of move to attack. Redclaw turned away and followed Rosie, who glanced back at Thunder and glared at her, sticking out her tongue.

"Coward!" Thunder shouted at her, but she looked too exhausted to try and carry the fight further.

Snowcrystal watched the others, most of whom had paused during the brief fight, turn and start walking again, but she stayed put. Then, wondering if she was going crazy for thinking this would work, made her way over to Thunder, hoping to be able to calm her down.

On her way to the back of the group, she passed Blazefang and Wildflame, who were walking side by side. Wildflame glanced at Thunder. "She doesn't get along with anyone here, does she?"

"She doesn't get along with anyone at all," Blazefang replied with an annoyed flick of his ear. "I don't see why she doesn't just leave. No one wants her here…"

Their voices faded as Snowcrystal passed them and approached the weakened scyther.

"What do you want?" Thunder growled, though she sounded less aggressive now; Snowcrystal was pretty certain that she secretly didn't want a fight.

"I…I just wanted to talk with you," Snowcrystal stammered, hesitating a moment. Thunder's scythes still looked very sharp.

"Why?"

"Well, I just do," she replied, not sure what Thunder would think if she told her she was trying to help. "And you can talk to me while we walk. That way, we might not get so tired if we're focusing on something else…" She paused, wondering if Thunder would take that as some sort of insult about being weak.

"What good would that do?" Thunder muttered. "Talking will waste energy, not save it!"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how to reply, but at least Thunder didn't seem any angrier. She opened her mouth to reply, but a voice from up ahead interrupted her.

"Snowcrystal, Thunder, are you coming?"

Snowcrystal recognized Redclaw's voice and turned to see the arcanine looking at them. Without another word, she turned and followed the others, Thunder trailing along more slowly.

  
**-ooo-**  


By the time the group stopped for a break, everyone felt exhausted, even those who had not made the entire journey up the mountain. Now that the strongest members of the group had hunted and brought back as much as they could find – although it wasn't much – everyone was separating from one another to rest. Snowcrystal wondered if it would be a good idea to try to talk to Thunder again. She was surprised at how calm the scyther had been during their last conversation…well, 'calm' as far as Thunder was concerned. She was just worried that more fights would break out and someone would be hurt. Hopefully, she'd be able to reason with Thunder and at the very least get her to make sure to stay away from the others.

"Hey, Thunder," she said cheerfully as she approached the scyther, trying to sound as if she was happy to see her rather than dreading it. "Do you think-"

"What is it with you?" Thunder growled from where she was lying on the grass, fixing her blue eyes on Snowcrystal. "Why are you talking to me? I don't even like you."

' _I know…'_ Snowcrystal thought, suppressing a frustrated sigh. _'The only one you don't hate is Nightshade.'_

_Nightshade…_ She thought of something, hoping that it would be the answer she needed to keep Thunder out of trouble. "How about you walk by Nightshade when we leave again?" she suggested. "He won't let Rosie bother you."

"I do not need his help," Thunder growled, getting up and standing to her full height. She towered over Snowcrystal, making the growlithe cower.

"I didn't mean that…" she whispered. She wasn't sure why Thunder had been calmer while listening to her give similar comments earlier, but seemed offended all over again by them now.

Thunder didn't reply. Instead she merely lay down again, as if forgetting that Snowcrystal was there. "Besides," she muttered, "Nightshade's an idiot. I don't really listen to what he says. It's all nonsense."

"No…Nightshade's really smart," Snowcrystal replied. "I…I thought you liked talking to him."

"I do not. Not anymore. He says he _understands my pain,_ " Thunder said in a sneering voice. "But he's wrong. He thinks he can talk to me like he had the same experiences, like there was something physical blocking his way. But it was his own stupidity that was blocking his way, and he can't even see that now! He tells me to trust other pokémon, but then tells me these things that make me realize how much of a mistake it was for him to do so. He's angry and wants me to make his own mistake. He wants me to be miserable like him. But I'm not that stupid…"

By now Thunder was staring at Snowcrystal angrily, though at the moment, the growlithe hardly cared. Thunder's words confused her and she had little idea of what the scyther was talking about, but whatever it was, she didn't like to hear Thunder talking about Nightshade, or anyone, this way. She wanted to shout to Thunder that she was the one who didn't understand, but she said nothing.

"I was trapped!" Thunder continued, nearly loud enough to be heard by the others, although luckily, none of them seemed to notice. "If I could have gotten out and killed Master I would have!"

At that moment, Snowcrystal felt like she should speak up. "Nightshade is not miserable, Thunder," Snowcrystal replied. _'But you are…'_ she wanted to add, but held her tongue.

"What would you know?" Thunder responded angrily. "You're just as delusional as the rest of them."

Snowcrystal bit back a confused response. There was no use arguing, she thought, not when Thunder was so set in her own beliefs…whatever they were. Instead, she asked another question that had been on her mind. "So…you don't actually trust Nightshade?" she said quietly, pretty sure that she knew what the answer would be.

"No," Thunder replied, but the slight wavering in the tone of her voice made Snowcrystal wonder if she really did, even a little, or without realizing it. "But I'm right, and he probably knows it. That's why he's trying to drag me down. I was right and he was wrong!"

Snowcrystal was pretty sure that at this point, there was no sense trying to get Thunder to understand or even to explain what she meant about Nightshade. She couldn't be sure if the scyther was actually serious or just rambling things off the top of her head. Without another word, the growlithe turned and ran back to the others, still feeling unnerved. She did not want to talk to Thunder anymore, that was for sure.

"Snowcrystal?" a voice called to her from behind a group of trees. She recognized Redclaw's voice again.

"Yes?" she called, hoping her voice didn't give away her mood.

"We're going to start moving again," the arcanine told her, peering from around a tree trunk. Most of the others had gathered there already, and none of them seemed aware of the odd conversation between her and Thunder. Thunder herself soon joined the group of waiting pokémon, looking just as she always did and giving no sign that anything had happened. She didn't even look angry.

As Redclaw started to lead the way, Snowcrystal paused for a moment, still wondering about the things Thunder had said.

"Are you all right, Snowcrystal?"

The growlithe looked up to see Nightshade standing nearby, looking concerned.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she muttered, quickly hurrying by him and up ahead with Spark, Alex, and Redclaw at the front of the group. She caught a glance of Thunder out of the corner of her eye, watching the group with an unreadable expression.

Snowcrystal had the unsettling feeling that things were only going to get worse between Thunder and the rest of the pokémon in the group. They couldn't exactly leave her behind to fend for herself, yet how long could they keep her with them before someone got hurt?

  
**-ooo-**  


"It's getting dark," Spark muttered with a quick glance at the sky.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Blazefang called from behind him, looking irritated. Snowcrystal knew that the houndour was nocturnal, but after such a long time traveling, no one really seemed to care when they slept anymore as long as they got a chance to do so.

"Well, I wouldn't mind sleeping now. Dark or not, everyone's exhausted," Rosie stated loudly, looking around at the others with a glare that dared them to disagree.

"Rosie's right," Redclaw agreed. "We're all tired. Let's rest."

The traveling pokémon settled down as the sky grew dark, some curling up together in small groups and others lying down by themselves. No one bothered to try and keep a look out; in this place they figured they didn't have much to fear, especially since they made up such a large group of pokémon.

Snowcrystal didn't feel much like sleeping. She felt restless, still going over what Articuno had told her in her mind. She had to find some other pokémon who knew more about the Forbidden Attacks, and now that the entirety of her quest dawned on her, it seemed almost impossible. Watching the sky darken to black, Snowcrystal lay down against Redclaw's forepaw, thinking that, if anything, she should at least rest if she wasn't going to sleep.

  
**-ooo-**  


The sound of something moving woke Snowcrystal from a light doze. Instantly she sat up, surprised that she had fallen asleep and wondering if there actually was some sort of danger out there on the plains. However, a quick look told her it was only Thunder, pacing back and forth a little ways away from the others. Snowcrystal glanced at her sleeping companions; none of them had been bothered by the noise. She watched Thunder for a moment and then lay back down.

Then without warning, the scyther suddenly darted away at full speed. Lifting her head in surprise again, Snowcrystal dug her claws into Redclaw's fur.

"Redclaw, wake up!"

The arcanine's head shot up, surprising Snowcrystal a bit as he looked around. "What is it?"

"Thunder!" the growlithe replied. "She just…ran off!"

Redclaw gave her a startled look before standing up quickly, his head pointed in the direction Thunder had gone while he sniffed the air carefully. "Follow me," the arcanine whispered, and without waking the others, he set off in Thunder's direction.

Snowcrystal tried hard to keep up with him, but even long days of running through the mountains had not prepared her to keep up with an arcanine. Her legs simply weren't long enough, and she could barely trail behind him. Luckily, they didn't have to run long, but when they found Thunder, Snowcrystal could hardly believe what she saw.

The scyther was leaping and slashing at another figure, a bug type with an odd, unnatural sheen to his armor. In a moment when Thunder's opponent paused, Snowcrystal recognized him instantly. _Scytheclaw! What was he doing here? Had he come to get revenge on them?_

With a frantic look at Redclaw, Snowcrystal wordlessly begged him to do something. She was too afraid of hitting Thunder to use a fire attack, but to her relief, Redclaw only hesitated a second before leaping into the fray, pushing Thunder aside and pinning Scytheclaw face down on the ground. The scizor stayed motionless as Redclaw held him, seemingly with little effort.

' _The fight ended…just like that?'_ Snowcrystal thought, feeling as if Scytheclaw should have put up more of a struggle, or at least been a bit more prepared for Redclaw's attack. But the scizor still didn't move. She then remembered that he had fought Nightshade very recently, and the heracross still had _his_ battle wounds.

"What are you doing here?" Redclaw growled, his fangs gleaming in the starlight.

"I could ask you the same question!" Scytheclaw spat.

Snowcrystal's eyes wandered to where Thunder was, surprised to see her lying on the ground as if she thought no one would notice her. She seemed exhausted and weak.

"What do you want with us?" Redclaw snarled.

"Nothing!" the scizor cried. " _She_ attacked me!" He tried to glance over at Thunder, but the way Redclaw's paw was pushing him to the ground made it impossible.

Now that Snowcrystal got a good look at Scytheclaw, she could tell that he was still injured from the battle. Not only that, but he had gotten some new injuries as well, and parts of his normally shiny armor were filthy. She couldn't say she felt sorry for him, but it certainly explained why Redclaw had been able to overpower him so easily.

"What's that around your neck?" Scytheclaw snapped suddenly, jolting Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. She noticed that the scizor was staring straight at her, his eyes blazing. "Is that one of them? One of those stones?"

"N…no…" Snowcrystal replied, shaking her head as she backed away, almost unconsciously. _He didn't mean the Forbidden Attacks, did he? Did he know about them?_

"That's enough!" Redclaw growled with another glare at Scytheclaw. "Look, if you don't want a flamethrower to the face, I suggest you get up and walk back the way you came from…now!" In a swift movement he released Scytheclaw, who glared murderously at the arcanine before turning and running off toward a large group of rocks.

Snowcrystal glanced at her friend after the scizor had retreated. "Redclaw…do you think Scytheclaw thought my stone was a Forbidden Attack?"

"I don't know," Redclaw replied, but she could tell that he was worried. "Even if he does know something," he added before Snowcrystal could speak, "it's too late now. And I doubt he'd know more than a legendary like Articuno does anyway."

"But-"

"Several pokémon know the legend," Redclaw continued, "and…I know you want to ask pokémon about these attacks, but we can't trust him."

"I wasn't going to-" Snowcrystal began, but stopped mid-sentence. She had detected the hopelessness in Redclaw's voice. So many pokémon knew the legend…but how many of them actually knew something that would help them?

  
**-ooo-**  


When the three of them returned to the rest of the group – Thunder reluctantly – Snowcrystal felt even more restless than ever, too restless to even lie down. Even after Redclaw fell asleep, she stayed awake, pacing back and forth as she scanned the sky, absorbed in her own thoughts.

What if Scytheclaw _had_ known more than Redclaw suspected? After all, Cyclone's army had moved through their valley, so what if one of Scytheclaw's pokémon had overheard one of Cyclone's and the valley pokémon had learned something? Come to think of it, Cyclone himself probably knew a lot more about the Forbidden Attacks than she did, but there was no way she could talk to him. But maybe…

Maybe she really could talk to Scytheclaw after all.

She stood up, wondering if she should ask someone to come with her, though she wasn't sure if they would. And Nightshade and Redclaw couldn't come; Scytheclaw wouldn't cooperate with them. But he had nothing against her…

After a moment of thought, Snowcrystal silently got up and crept away. She knew that what she was about to do was risky, but she wasn't about to turn down her first real clue to finding out more about the Forbidden Attacks. She could only hope that everything would go as planned.

It wasn't hard to track Scytheclaw's scent over to the large rocks, but he wasn't there when she reached them. He must have moved on, further away from her group. Undeterred, Snowcrystal followed the scent trail to a small grove of trees, thinking that it was a likely spot for the scizor to rest. As she got closer, the scent grew stronger, and as she walked into the trees, she grew more and more certain that her hunch was right. As quietly as she could, she crept further into the grove, the trees' branches obscuring most of the moonlight and shrouding her in near darkness.

A darker shadow fell over her as she stepped around a large bush, and before she could even pause to wonder what it was, something slammed into her body and knocked her to the ground. Her head landed against a small pile of pointed rocks and she heard a small snap; she felt her crystal slide off her neck and fall onto the ground. The plant fibers holding it in place had broken. She stared up in shock as a red pincer reached down and grabbed her around the neck. She froze, not daring to move in case her throat was cut by the razor edges of the pincer. Her eyes slowly moved upwards to lock themselves with Scytheclaw's. The scizor looked wild and desperate, as if he wanted something out of her, but she couldn't even begin to guess what he could want. He wasn't going to try to eat her, was he? She was contemplating risking an attempt to use a fire attack when the scizor spoke.

"Do you have it?" he growled, but Snowcrystal could only stare at him in confusion. "That power! The power that the army was looking for! The army that _your_ friend knew about!" He paused, looking at the terrified growlithe suspiciously. "Don't even try to tell me that you don't know. My servants heard pokémon from that army talking. It comes from strange stones! Yours is one of them, isn't it? You wouldn't carry it around otherwise!"

Scytheclaw suddenly released her, leaving her panting for breath as he stooped over her and picked up the broken necklace. The crystal was still attached, glowing faintly despite a filthy covering of dirt on its surface.

"That's not one of them," she gasped, giving Scytheclaw what she hoped was a convincingly honest look. He shot her a glare and she added, "To activate one of the real ones, I…I think you have to touch its center. Blazefang mentioned that…so you can try it if you want."

She watched as Scytheclaw tapped the crystal a few times and turned to look at her. "I already have it," he muttered, throwing the crystal down at her paws. "You try it."

Snowcrystal obediently did as she was told, and, as she expected, got no result. "I've already done that, and I don't have any power," she explained. "But…that's what I wanted…I mean, I came to talk to you. I wanted to ask you what you knew about the…the…"

"Your houndour friend has it…" Scytheclaw began suddenly. "The army wanted him. He must have taken the crystal's power. He's the one I need."

A cold chill swept through Snowcrystal's body. Surely Scytheclaw wasn't trying to gather pokémon who could use Forbidden Attacks too? "Look," she began, "I'll get Blazefang…" She cringed, hoping he wouldn't see through her lie, and went on, "I'll get Blazefang if you tell me what you know."

"You want me to trust you?" Scytheclaw sneered.

"You won't be able to get him on your own, not with my friends guarding him," Snowcrystal pointed out.

She expected Scytheclaw to be angry, but the look he gave her was only one of defeat. "Fine," he muttered, in a voice that seemed to fit his weakened state much more than the angry growl he had been threatening her with before.

Snowcrystal kept silent and watched him expectantly, prepared to run in case he made any sudden move to attack her. Even if he was weak, she wasn't taking any chances. She'd seen what he'd done to Nightshade.

Scytheclaw looked away from her as he started to speak. "I found that stone in the mouth of an old arcanine statue at the bottom of a pool. When I touched it, it felt really strange, almost as if a pokémon were using a psychic attack on me. I passed out then, but when I woke up…"

"Oh no…" Snowcrystal whispered. Scytheclaw turned to glare at her and she realized that the words had come out of her mouth before she'd even realized it. Even now that she knew he was angry, any fear she would have felt was drowned out by the realization that Scytheclaw could have very well gotten hold of a Forbidden Attack, and who knew what he'd done since he'd been on the loose with it.

"What?" he demanded, turning around and straightening up to full height so he towered over the growlithe. "What was that thing? Do _you_ know what it was?"

"Yes…" she whispered silently, too afraid to try and lie even though by now she was sure that Scytheclaw didn't know much about what the Forbidden Attacks were, just that they were a 'power.' "That was a Forbidden Attack."

Scytheclaw paused, his angry look vanishing to be replaced with a new look, one of complete confusion. "A…a what?"

Snowcrystal realized that the best thing to do now would be to explain to Scytheclaw what the Forbidden Attacks were. Maybe, if he knew, he'd know better than to use one. "A Forbidden Attack," she repeated. "Blazefang has one. They're extremely powerful, but extremely destructive and…and they make the user go insane, if they're used too often. And it gets harder to resist the more they are used. The wounds caused by the attacks don't...I mean, might not heal. If pokémon know you have one, they could try to kill you, because if you die, the power is transported to the nearest steel type."

Scytheclaw simply stared at her. "You've got it all wrong!" he snarled. "Sounds like nothing but silly tales used to frighten young pokémon. Nonsense. But a 'Forbidden Attack…'" He suddenly looked thoughtful. "That could be what they're called…I touched the stone and got this power. But what you're saying about insanity is a lie. It hasn't been hard to resist using it and I haven't started going insane!"

"You mean you used it?" Snowcrystal asked, fighting the terror that threatened to overwhelm her. What would they do now that another Forbidden Attack was on the loose? She forced herself to become calm enough to ask another question. "Did you…find out what it does?"

"Yes," Scytheclaw replied, confirming Snowcrystal's worst suspicions. "I found out. I…I can heal things."

Snowcrystal suddenly felt as though everything she'd learned about the Forbidden Attacks had turned upside down. Of all possible things she could think of the steel type or bug type Forbidden Attack being capable of, this was the last thing she had expected to hear. _Healing things?_ That didn't sound like a Forbidden Attack at all…

"But at a cost…" Scytheclaw continued. He was turned away from her now, lost in thought as though he wasn't even aware he was talking to someone anymore. "I found out when I was hunting and injured a pidgey instead of killing it. That's when I first used the power. I can heal things, but it causes _me_ pain. And I cannot heal my own injuries. I certainly tried. The power is absolutely useless to the one who has it! And that-" He turned around to look at Snowcrystal as if suddenly remembering she was there. "...Is why I need the houndour. I need him to heal me so I can survive in this awful place!"

"Blazefang can't heal," Snowcrystal whispered, unsure of what to say or even if he'd believe her. "His attack…well, it's destructive. It's wrong. It does nothing but hurt other pokémon. Scytheclaw, I'm not even sure if what you have is a Forbidden Attack at all."

"What do you know?" the scizor growled. "That army was searching for a power and this had to be part of it. If it wasn't a…Forbidden Attack…or whatever they were searching for, what is it?"

"I don't know," Snowcrystal replied with complete honesty. "But if you come with me…well, I think you should talk to my friends."

"Forget it," Scytheclaw growled, suddenly seeming furious again. "If Blazefang doesn't have the same power, then what use is he to me? I won't go back to them just so they can attack me again."

Before Snowcrystal could stop him, the scizor had bounded off into the trees, leaving her alone and confused in the darkness beside her broken and tattered crystal amulet.

  
**-ooo-**  


"A large group of pokémon passed this way, Volco. That's what we're looking for, right?"

The typhlosion grinned, earning a rewarding pat from his master as he scanned the area around him, fresh with signs that a large group of pokémon had passed that way not long ago. The canyon was rich with vegetation and the river provided him, his master, and the remaining pokémon with all the food and water they needed. The going would be good for at least a while.

"Come on, Volco," Master stated, turning and walking again, following the sparkling river. "Looks like there were quite a few different species in this group. Plenty to choose from, eh?"

Volco padded quietly after him, his senses alert as he scanned the trees around him, noting with glee that the area seemed to be untouched by any trainer before them.

  
**-ooo-**  


Nighttime had also fallen upon Justin and Katie. The two friends and Katie's pokémon had stopped for the night, lost in the confusing plains and with no further sign of the white growlithe they had been so diligently searching for. Even Poochyena had become confused, and no longer seemed to be able to find a scent to follow. Justin and Persian sat away from the others; Justin still refused to talk to Katie about anything other than the white growlithe. He simply sat with his back to them, alone in his thoughts.

Stormblade was, for the first time since being captured, sleeping outside that night. He had managed to get his new trainer to understand that he preferred it, and she had let him lie down on one of her blankets instead of making him spend another night in the poké ball. Stormblade had never disliked poké balls, but they had always felt so unnatural compared to sleeping beneath the sky and stars.

Although his pain had been dulled quite a bit by the human's medicine and he could think clearer, it was still distracting enough to keep him awake most of the time. He had done nothing but rest since Katie had captured him, but he still felt exhausted. Even finally being able to get enough food hadn't restored his energy like he thought it would have. He just seemed to feel more and more tired.

But at least, he thought, the humans had lost Snowcrystal's trail. The growlithe could go on to find Articuno without the threat of being captured by a poké ball. Briefly, he wondered how far they'd gotten, and whether or not help was on the way for Snowcrystal's pack already. And whether Spark was still on his way to find a new home, or if he had somehow found one already. The scyther kept his gaze focused on the stars, certain that if Snowcrystal hadn't found Articuno yet, then she would soon, and everything would finally be right for the growlithe and her tribe.

Under the same stars that Stormblade was watching, Snowcrystal slowly made her way back to the group, her broken amulet hanging from her mouth. Feeling more confused than ever, she seemed further away from her goal than she ever had.

_To be continued..._


	47. A New Destination

A few days had passed since Snowcrystal's encounter with Scytheclaw, and the pokémon found themselves nearing the canyon once again. They had decided to rest early the previous day, but everyone was still tired. Morning had come faster than anyone had anticipated, and as the group of pokémon waited for those who were currently out hunting to return, they talked in low voices about what Snowcrystal had learned.

Snowcrystal herself kept out of their conversations; she had talked about it enough. Instead she simply waited for the hunters to return while trying to drown the sound of the others out. Her crystal amulet had been fixed by Nightshade, who had managed to find some thin but tough plant fibers to replace the broken ones that had held the crystal around her neck before. She wasn't sure where Nightshade was now; he had flown off to find food for himself and hadn't yet returned.

As she was contemplating walking away from Wildflame, Spark, and Rosie, who were talking to each other worriedly about the Forbidden Attacks, and finding a quieter spot, she noticed Redclaw heading back from a grove of trees. The arcanine had a taillow in his mouth, but nothing else. Snowcrystal hoped Alex would return with something more, because one taillow wouldn't be much of a meal for all of the meat-eating pokémon in the group.

Blazefang's head perked up as Redclaw approached, and he stood up from the clump of dry bushes he'd been resting in. "That's it?" he scoffed. "That arcanine needs a few hunting lessons, I think."

"Hey!" Rosie snapped. "He's the one doing the work. I bet you're not such a great hunter yourself."

"I'm a better hunter than he is," Blazefang growled. "And I'd be able to catch much more if you pokémon would let me!"

Snowcrystal watched Rosie roll her eyes and look away, while Blazefang lay back down with a frustrated grunt. It had been decided by the group that Blazefang would not hunt; everyone was too worried about the risk of him losing control of his Forbidden Attack. Although Blazefang tried to insist that he wouldn't, no one believed him after the incident on Articuno's mountain.

Redclaw trotted up to them wearily, dropping the taillow at their feet, where Wildflame sniffed at it, looking disappointed. "Where should we head now?" the arcanine asked them. "We're nearing the canyon again, and I know you don't want to go back through the forest…"

"Or further past it," Rosie added. "That's where Cyclone and his followers went."

"We could travel across the canyon and then explore the land on the other side," Redclaw suggested. "Cyclone's pokémon headed in that direction…" He turned his head toward the forest trees in the distance. "So we wouldn't run into them."

"I guess it's as good as any other place," Rosie muttered. "I just hope it has more prey."

"You pokémon have no idea where you're going," Blazefang growled. "You could be heading away from any hope of finding out more about the Forbidden Attacks for all you know."

Snowcrystal inwardly flinched; she knew Blazefang had a point. Right now their only plan was to rely on pure chance. After finding Articuno and learning about Scytheclaw's power, Snowcrystal's hopes had been deteriorating as she realized more and more just how daunting their task was, even if there were a lot of pokémon to talk to. She didn't like the fact that they had once had a set destination for their journey – Articuno's mountain – and now that they had nearly reached the canyon again, they seemed right back where they started, alone and simply left to wander aimlessly.

"What about the humans?" Spark suddenly said, causing everyone to look at him. Undaunted, he continued, "I mean, the humans know about the legend. Maybe we could go back to the city!"

"Too dangerous," Rosie replied. "You think any of us, especially Snowcrystal, would be safe wandering around a human city?"

"You have any better idea?" Spark retorted irritably. "At least there we'd have some sort of start. It's better than wandering around in the wilderness."

The ninetales narrowed her eyes. "You just love humans too much."

"Well, hi, everyone!" a cheery voice called, putting the argument to a stop. Snowcrystal turned to see Alex standing a few feet away with a couple of goldeen at her feet. Snowcrystal had been so distracted by the others that she hadn't even heard the floatzel approach. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Blazefang growled with a glare at the floatzel. "Now do us a favor and quit stalking us!"

"Hey, she brought us food, didn't she?" Rosie stated. "Which is more than can be said for you." She gave Blazefang a grin that earned her a seething look from the houndour.

"We're talking about where we're going to travel after this," Spark told the floatzel. "But let's talk about that later! I'm hungry!"

The pokémon agreed to split up what little food they had gathered, and when Thunder reluctantly approached them, Redclaw tore off a chunk of meat for each pokémon, all of whom looked less than pleased with the amount they got. Thunder grabbed hers and walked out of earshot of the others before sitting down to eat. The rest of the pokémon were eating together in silence when Nightshade returned.

Spark, who had finished his meal in a few bites, looked at the heracross and asked, "Nightshade, do you think we should go back to the human's city? I mean, it's the one place we know of that might have people...or pokémon, who know more about the Forbidden Attacks."

Nightshade seemed surprised at the question, but before he had a chance to answer, Rosie spoke up.

"You really think we'd be able to find out anything without some human coming up to us to fight or capture us? We wouldn't even be able to get close to any useful-"

"But the pokémon could know!" Spark protested. "I could pose as a trainer pokémon on some sort of errand. If I picked up a few pieces of paper from a garbage bin they'd just think I was delivering something for my trainer. A few of you could do that too, and we could search different parts of the city, asking the pokémon. I've been thinking about this ever since we left the mountain…and I think it could work. Unless, you know, you just hate humans too much…"

"That could work," Redclaw said. "I'm too big to pass for an errand running pokémon, but I, and those who don't want to take part, could wait in the forest."

"So you're supporting his crazy plan?" Rosie growled.

"It's not crazy," Redclaw responded. "Let's face it, Blazefang's right. We really have no idea where we're going."

Snowcrystal listened, not sure she wanted to join in the argument. She had to agree with Spark, however. She had seen the painting in the city's library depicting a human artist's interpretations of the Forbidden Attacks. They knew _something_ , probably more than most pokémon. And the pokémon around them probably knew something more too. Traveling back to Stonedust City seemed so dangerous…but then again, wasn't wandering around foreign lands dangerous as well? "I…I agree with Spark," she said hesitantly, aware that a few of the other pokémon were looking at her strangely.

"What about those of us who are looking for homes?" Wildflame asked. "That includes you, Redclaw," she added, turning to the arcanine.

"I know," the arcanine replied. "But I don't see anywhere suitable for me to live out here, and truthfully I'd rather help Snowcrystal than stay in a strange place alone. If we find wild arcanine, however, I probably will join them. Until then, I'd rather be of some use to someone else rather than simply wandering about on my own."

Wildflame muttered something about him being crazy but said no more. Instead she just looked down at her paws and let the others talk.

"I don't like it," Rosie said quietly, shaking her head as if trying to shake off a bad thought. "I really don't like it…"

"You don't have to come," Spark reminded her. "I mean-"

"So you're just going to leave me here all alone?" Rosie retorted.

"No," Spark replied. "I just…thought that maybe you could go your separate way once we were close to the city."

Rosie didn't look satisfied with that answer either. "What was wrong with exploring the wild?"

Blazefang watched the two arguing pokémon through narrowed eyes. "Pfft…humans," he muttered. "I'm no one's errand pokémon." Beside him, Alex yawned.

"Look, you won't even have to take a step inside the city!" Spark was telling Rosie. "You could wait out in the forest with the others, far enough away so the humans won't see you."

Up until then, Nightshade had only been listening silently. "What I think," he began, and even Spark and Rosie stopped their arguing to listen to him, "is that Spark has the best idea. If all the Forbidden Attacks are as dangerous as Shadowflare is, think of how many pokémon could be hurt by them if we don't find the answer and tell the legendaries. If this human city has some sort of a clue, I think we should follow it. It's better than wandering around blindly, hoping for information to suddenly fall on us. Spark's plan is a good one, and going near the city will be no more dangerous than roaming strange lands we don't know. I think we should listen to Spark."

"I know that I will," Snowcrystal spoke up firmly before anyone else could reply. "I know I won't be much help once I reach the city, but I'll find something I can do. I need to find this information. And someone in that human city might know what we need, or at least have some sort of clue."

"But…" Rosie began, sounding very dismayed now that she could see she was outnumbered.

"I never thought I'd say this," Blazefang muttered, "but I agree with the jolteon. I'd rather be following some sort of clue than wandering out in the middle of nowhere. The faster I learn how to get rid of this attack, the better."

"What about you?" Rosie asked Wildflame, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Makes no difference to me," Wildflame said. Rosie's hopeful expression fell.

"I'm sorry, Rosie," Redclaw told the ninetales. "But this looks like our best chance. I'm sure Spark knows enough about the humans to keep us safe as long as we're careful. We won't let anyone get captured."

Rosie looked down at her paws and did not reply.

"So it's decided then?" Spark asked. "I know it's risky, but at least we know what we're up against, whereas we have no idea what's out _there…_ " He looked in the direction of the canyon, and Snowcrystal suddenly found herself unwilling to find out what lurked beyond it as well.

"I think it is decided," Redclaw replied. "We should be safe going back through the canyon now that Scytheclaw is gone, and there's plenty of prey there. Prey that we need."

"Come on, Rosie!" Spark cried. "Foooooooood!"

"I still think it's a bad idea!" the ninetales stated, ignoring Spark.

"I'm sorry," Snowcrystal told her. "But my mind is made up. I'm heading back to the city, along with anyone that wants to come. You…you won't even have to go near the humans, Rosie. It won't be so bad."

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" she muttered. "Go with you or get left alone…"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what to say. Redclaw was already looking toward the canyon, a newfound hope in his eyes. "We won't put you in danger, Rosie," he tried to assure her. "But Nightshade's right…there are lives at stake now that Cyclone is searching for the Forbidden Attacks. Spark's idea is more likely to lead us to answers. We should trust him."

Spark beamed at Redclaw, but Rosie still looked angry. However, it was clear that she realized that it had been decided; they were going to travel back to the city.

"Let's get going," Blazefang growled impatiently, walking away from the scraggly bushes he'd been resting next to and following Redclaw.

"I'll come!" Alex announced. "I can help. Maybe the humans know about the ocean too…oh! I bet they do!" She bolted off after Blazefang and Redclaw, overtaking them and turning around to wait for the rest of the group eagerly.

"Thunder, we're leaving!" Redclaw called back to the scyther.

Thunder looked up at them for a moment, realized they were starting to travel again, and slowly walked back toward them from where she had been eating, seeming agitated. "We're going already?" she growled when she reached them.

No one bothered to answer. Probably, Snowcrystal thought, because no one could think of anything to say to Thunder that wouldn't make her mad. They followed Redclaw and Alex in silence, each with their own whirlwinds of thought.

Then Thunder stopped in her tracks. "Why are we going that way?" she asked in a low, threatening voice that didn't really match her question. "Are we going across the canyon?"

"No," Spark told her. "We're going back into it. We'll climb up the other end near where the cave was and go back the way we came."

Snowcrystal realized that Thunder didn't yet know of their plans to return to the human city, since she had been away from the group at the time. "We've decided to go back to the city," she told Thunder. "To find out about the Forbidden Attacks."

"What?" Thunder replied, suddenly looking more furious than Snowcrystal had seen her in a long time. The other pokémon stopped momentarily to look at her; they could all tell that she obviously hadn't taken the news well at all. "Go back to where humans live? I'd rather die!"

Snowcrystal opened her mouth to speak, but Redclaw did first. "You won't have to take a step inside that city," he told Thunder. "Just a few of us will. You'll stay out in the forest with-"

"No!" Thunder replied fiercely, lifting her scythes and baring her teeth. "I won't go near it!"

"No one's asking you to come," Blazefang muttered. "Go on and run off now if you must."

Snowcrystal wished Blazefang would keep quiet. Everyone knew, though no one openly admitted, that Thunder relied on them for food; she would starve on her own. Luckily, this time Thunder did not reply, and as the rest of the group turned and continued walking, she trailed behind, still glaring daggers at them.

The group of pokémon carried on until they reached the canyon's edge. It was there that they decided to stop for another rest. The top of the cliff leading down into the canyon was dotted with bushes which provided them shade from the sun.

"You think one of us should go looking for food down there?" Spark asked, peering down the rocky ledge that formed a path from the cliff to the canyon's base, where he could see plenty of foliage growing near the river.

"Good idea," Rosie agreed.

Redclaw sighed. "I suppose so," he began, standing up. "We won't have to worry about any hostility now that Scytheclaw's gone. Who wants to go with me?"

"I will," Snowcrystal stated as she looked up.

"So will I!" Spark chimed in.

"Anyone else?" Redclaw asked wearily. No one said anything. "All right, come on you two," Redclaw told Spark and Snowcrystal, who sprung to their paws and followed him. Getting up from her resting place, Thunder began to follow them too.

"And where are _you_ going?" Rosie sneered.

Thunder bared her teeth at the ninetales. "With them!" she yelled with startling ferocity, looking almost as if she wanted to tear Rosie's head off just for questioning her.

Though the look in Thunder's eyes made Snowcrystal back away, Rosie seemed unaffected. "Huh, like you could catch anything with those injuries," the ninetales snorted.

Thunder made no reply, but continued to glare at the fire type. Then she stepped forward and lifted her scythes. Rosie stood without flinching.

"Face it," she said. "It's true."

"Now hold on, Thunder," Nightshade spoke up as he limped over toward the two angry pokémon. "I don't think it's a good idea to go wandering off now. You want to get strong again, right? And the best way to let that happen is to rest-"

"I am strong!" Thunder shouted. "Stronger than you are. I don't want to wait around for food!"

Snowcrystal couldn't understand just what had been making Thunder so agitated the past few days, and especially that morning, but the look on the scyther's face made it seem as if she wanted to attack someone right then and there. It worried her a bit. She had a feeling that Thunder could really care less whether or not Nightshade thought she was weak; she just seemed so furious that other pokémon were questioning or disagreeing with her. She had acted in that manner before, but she had never seemed so angry over such small things.

"If you wait here," Nightshade told Thunder calmly, "the others will do the work for you. You don't have to do anything and you can be all by yourself while you wait."

From her clump of bushes, Rosie snorted. "What are we, her servants?"

"The others are doing this so you can rest," Nightshade continued. "I am resting too. That does not mean that I, or you, are weak, or that we're telling you this to order you around. We're not trying to force you, I just-"

"I don't care," Thunder spat. "I want to go looking for food instead of waiting around here."

"Don't you think it would be better to lie in the shade? Where it's cool? The others will bring the food-"

"I don't want to!" Thunder shouted, her voice full of barely concealed menace. Her eyes narrowed and she paced back and forth a few times, her scythes twitching and her eyes on the heracross. "Are you stupid?" she screamed, her voice escalating to a much louder volume. "I just told you I didn't want to! How many times do I have to tell you? Are you just going to ignore what I say like everyone else?" Thunder's shouts had become even louder and more furious, and Snowcrystal glanced at Redclaw, wondering if they ought to just leave.

"Thunder, _please…_ " Nightshade began, a tone of worry creeping into his voice that Snowcrystal was not accustomed to. Nightshade never sounded worried, and to hear him sound like that now was somewhat startling. "Just do this one thing for me. I promise I'll listen to you. Stay here…please?"

Snowcrystal turned her attention to Thunder, waiting to see how the scyther would react. At the moment, she was staring at Nightshade with loathing. Then, with no warning at all, she darted forward and slashed her scythes across Nightshade's body.

"Thunder, stop!" Snowcrystal shouted, but before the words had even finished leaving her mouth, Thunder had knocked Nightshade to the ground and stabbed her scythe into his back. Snowcrystal watched in horror as blood flowed down Nightshade's damaged armored shell and onto the grass. To her relief, Nightshade pulled away from Thunder, and though this caused more blood to flow as the scythe was pulled out, it wasn't nearly the sort of amount Snowcrystal would have expected; though damaged from the fight with Scytheclaw, Nightshade's thick shell had prevented Thunder's blade from going too deep.

But before Nightshade or anyone else could retaliate, Thunder sliced at the heracross again, and Nightshade could only try to block her scythe from hitting his eyes as Thunder tore into any weak spot she could find – namely Nightshade's wounds – with both blades.

It was hardly more than a second later when Thunder was roughly pulled off Nightshade by Redclaw, who had sunk his teeth into her back. But the damage had been done. Flinging Thunder to the ground, Redclaw pressed his paw down on the scyther's back with enough force to keep her from moving and using her blades.

"Thunder!" Redclaw shouted, sounding, if possible, even more furious than Thunder had been. "What in Ho-oh's name did you do that for!?" His voice escalated to an enraged wail as he yelled the final words. Thunder just glared at him, no longer trying to move.

The other pokémon had all begun to gather around Nightshade, who lay motionless on the blood soaked earth.

"She's killed him!" Rosie wailed. "She killed him!"

"Oh no…" Alex whispered, retreating behind a clump of bushes and peering above them with wide eyes as the rest of the pokémon began screaming and talking in a panic.

"He's not…he can't be dead, can he?" Spark cried, looking frantic as he rushed to Nightshade's side.

"I told you she was dangerous!" Blazefang yelled over the frenzied voices of the other pokémon. "I told you!"

"Quiet, everyone!" Wildflame shouted, managing to raise her voice above the noise of the others. Not bothering to wait for them to quiet down, she bent down to sniff at the still form of the heracross. Nightshade's eye opened and his gaze flicked upward toward her. The houndoom breathed a sigh of relief.

"She killed him!" Rosie was shouting. "He's not moving!"

"Quiet!" Wildflame shouted. "He's not dead! But we have to do something. Does anyone know anything about healing?"

"I might…but we don't have anything my trainer-" Spark began.

"I don't care!" Wildflame snapped. "Just tell us!"

Snowcrystal stayed standing where she had been, feeling too overwhelmed by what she had just witnessed to move. Thunder was forgotten by even Redclaw as he and several of the other pokémon ran to collect moss and other plants to try and stop the bleeding. She looked at Nightshade, not even sure if he was still conscious.

"I knew something like this would happen," Blazefang growled as dropped a wad of moss by the others. He seemed to be the only one still focused on Thunder. "There was something wrong with that scyther, couldn't you all tell? I told you she wasn't right in the head! You couldn't have all been oblivious to that. And now what do we do? We can't let her follow us anymore!"

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, who looked as though she felt the same way Blazefang did. Snowcrystal had to admit that she agreed, but she didn't want to send Thunder away; she hoped the scyther would leave on her own. But at the moment, Thunder was simply standing there, staring at Nightshade and the others with an almost numb expression, no longer seeming like the furious monster she had been a few moments ago.

Any other thoughts about Thunder were interrupted by the worried voices of her friends. Realizing suddenly that she ought to be doing something rather than standing around watching uselessly, Snowcrystal rushed over to them, peering closer at Nightshade. At the moment, she could not tell how injured he was due to the moss the others had put over the wounds. She wasn't sure that moss would do much good, but she didn't feel like it was her place to question Spark and the others, who seemed to know what they were doing much more than she did. She looked at Redclaw, who was holding down the moss. "He'll be all right, won't he?" she asked.

The arcanine looked at her with an expression that was calmer than she expected. "I think so," he answered. "He fainted, but I don't think the wounds are fatal." Beside him, Spark nodded slowly in agreement.

Upon hearing this, the other pokémon seemed to calm down a bit, and set off to gather more moss. By now, the worst of Nightshade's wounds didn't seem to be bleeding nearly as much, and as the pokémon gathering moss returned, they realized that they would not need to gather more and stopped, waiting for Nightshade to awaken. Some of them paced around nervously. Snowcrystal reached forward and nudged Nightshade's side, but he did not move. "Stop that!" Redclaw told her. She backed away obediently, realizing with guilt that she still had yet to do anything to help.

"I still can't believe that you pokémon are surprised," Blazefang spoke in a cold voice. "It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. You saw how that creature acted toward everyone, you saw her threaten to attack members of our group. And what did you do? Nothing."

"Shut up!" Rosie spat at him. "This has nothing to do with you! And if you want to blame anyone, blame _her!_ " She shot a venomous glance at Thunder.

"Nothing to do with me?" Blazefang scoffed. "That's the sort of thing you kept telling me before. If you'd listened to me, or at least given me a tiny fraction of respect, you'd know that she was a bad pokémon. You even watched her try to kill me!"

Rosie glared back at him but did not answer. Instead, she turned her glare toward Thunder. "What did you try to kill Nightshade for?" she screamed, standing up to full height and raising her nine tails in a fan shape around her, which made her look much bigger and more threatening than she actually was. "He was only trying to _help_ you, you murderer! You want to attack me too? Come on, I've got one bad leg. I should be easy to take down. Come on and try!" Flames flickered out of her mouth as she spat the last words.

Alex rushed over to Rosie, standing at her side and looking warily at Thunder as she spoke. "Rosie! Don't start any more fights! Blazefang is right. That scyther is dangerous."

"Dangerous is right," Wildflame stated, walking up in front of the others. "Thunder…we can't trust you anymore. I think you should leave now."

Thunder looked at Wildflame with the same blank expression she had just given Rosie, but didn't move.

Snowcrystal, who had been watching Rosie and Alex, turned away and walked toward the cliff edge leading to the canyon, feeling that at least for now, the threat of Thunder attacking anyone else had passed. She wished she didn't have to hear any of the group's conversation, at least not right now. Despite everything Thunder had done, she found it hard to believe that Stormblade and Nightshade had been wrong, that Thunder really was hopeless, a threat that couldn't be controlled, numb to any amount of kindness shown her.

Trying to drown out the sound of the others' shouts at Thunder, Snowcrystal stared down the rock ledge that led along the wall of the canyon. That was where they were going, but somehow the trees and ferns did not look nearly as inviting as they had before Thunder's attack. Now, it just seemed like another difficult and exhausting road they would have to travel.

Suddenly, a strange movement caught her eye, and her ears pricked up. Something was moving along the rock ridge leading up to the cliff top. Jumping in surprise, she spun around and looked at the others, who seemed too busy talking or arguing to notice. Looking back toward the rocky path, the thing that had been moving emerged from behind a clump of plants, and Snowcrystal felt her blood run cold.

It was a human. But not just any human. A human she had seen before and hoped never to see again. She recognized the way he looked from the time she and the others had fought that quilava, Volco, in the town they had rescued Thunder from. Only now, she could see as a second figure emerged behind the human, he was a typhlosion. Frantically, she turned back to the others. "Everyone, stop!" she cried. "A human's coming this way. Thunder's master!"

Redclaw looked at her, his expression darkening. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Snowcrystal nodded.

Redclaw stood up and walked over to the cliff edge, taking one look. Immediately he backed up, alarm on his face. "She's right!" he called. "We have to leave now. Come on!"

"What about Nightshade?" Rosie asked. "How will we bring him with us?"

"We…we can't," Redclaw sighed. "We can't risk moving him that far so fast. Alex, see if you can move him – carefully – over behind those bushes. He might be safe and hidden from view there…"

"Might?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Look," Redclaw told her, his voice edged with an odd tone of panic, "that human will come close enough to the top of the cliff to notice us any second now. We don't have time. We have to leave. Right now." He pawed at the ground anxiously, his eyes wide and afraid.

Snowcrystal looked away from him to watch Alex pull Nightshade behind the bushes. The other pokémon had stopped talking, and just looked at Redclaw with stunned expressions. Only Thunder remained emotionless.

"Well, we can't just leave him here!" Wildflame exclaimed with a glance at Nightshade.

"Can't we fight the human?" Spark cried out.

"I…I don't know!" Rosie cried before anyone else could answer. She was staring at the bushes where Nightshade was, but Snowcrystal could tell that she was panicking about the human.

"Come on!" Redclaw cried desperately. "We have to go now-"

An excited cry broke off Redclaw's statement, and all the pokémon froze as a large typhlosion clambered over the edge of the cliff, obviously having noticed them quicker than his trainer and having taken a shortcut up the side of the rocks.

Snowcrystal backed away as the winded typhlosion surveyed them all with one cunning eye, not seeming afraid. Snowcrystal noticed that his other eye was closed, a long scar running across it. The typhlosion was grinning, his single eye looking from Thunder to Snowcrystal herself.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh!" In a split second, Alex had rushed past the others, forming a whirlpool of water around her body as she launched herself at Volco. The aqua jet attack struck the typhlosion in the chest, sending them both flying over the cliff's edge and into space.

Snowcrystal heard the angry – or in Alex's case, simply shocked – cries of both pokémon as they vanished over the edge, and the snapping of branches and twigs as they tumbled down. She heard them come to a halt and was waiting for Alex to reappear when the typhlosion's trainer appeared on the edge of the path a short ways away and stepped onto the cliff top.

For a moment, both the human and the group of pokémon simply stared at each other in surprise; none of them had expected the human to appear so quickly, and Master certainly hadn't expected to see so many pokémon in such an odd group.

In the split second that followed, several things happened at once. Redclaw took one look at Master and bolted, faster than Snowcrystal expected even he could run, in the opposite direction. Wildflame launched a flamethrower at Master, who ducked down on the rock ledge, using part of the cliff wall for protection and barely avoiding the blast. Volco reappeared at the top of the cliff, looking ready to fight, and Thunder, who up until that point had been standing unmoving, raced toward her two enemies.

Volco readied himself for an attack as Thunder came nearer, yet to his surprise, she rushed right by him, heading straight for Master instead. Alarmed, Volco got ready to shoot a fire attack in her direction, but there was no need. Before Thunder could ever reach Master, the man had stood up so that he could reach over the cliff, pulled out a poké ball and pointed it at her. She dissolved in a beam of red light and vanished inside before her blades ever touched him.

Shocked, Snowcrystal backed even further away from the human. It was then that she realized that Rosie and Wildflame had fled as well. And not only that, but Master was staring right at her.

Someone shoved against her shoulder. "Go on, run!" That was Spark's voice. Snowcrystal caught the jolteon's eye and did as she was told, turning and running after the others. She heard Blazefang mutter something under his breath and sprint after her. As her paws pounded the rough earth, she didn't dare look back, though her fear for the others as well as herself was mounting. It wasn't long before she saw a flash of bright yellow fur and realized that Spark had caught up with her. "Where's Alex?" she asked.

"Behind me!" Spark panted as he ran. "That human had other pokémon with them…you should have seen them! There was no way we were going to…" His voice trailed off and he seemed to be trying to focus his attention on running rather than talking.

Snowcrystal could see Alex running on her other side now, limping but still keeping pace with her and Spark. The human and his pokémon didn't seem to be following them, but the way Master had looked at her was deeply unsettling. Would he follow them now? What would they do? Could Thunder escape again? All of a sudden she remembered that Nightshade was still back there. Alone. Defenseless. And there was nothing any of them could do but hope that Master and his pokémon would leave him alone or not find him at all.

"Wait…" Alex gasped as she began to fall behind. "Stop…"

Snowcrystal slowed down, noticing the otter-like pokémon come to a stop. Spark came to a halt as well, looking almost as tired as she was. Snowcrystal stopped too as Spark glanced back to where they had run from. "He's not following us," he stated nervously.

"Not yet," Snowcrystal muttered worriedly. "He…he looked at me strange. I think he wants to catch me and you of all pokémon would know that humans have a fascination with pokémon that are…different…to them."

"Who was that guy?" Alex asked in between pants.

"Thunder's trainer," Spark answered. "'Master.' We don't know his name. I can't imagine what he'd be doing out here…unless he was trying to catch the rare species of pokémon in that canyon. Or us, if we'd have stayed there longer."

"You should have attacked the human while I had the typhlosion distracted," Alex growled. "My old trainer taught me that attacking humans was wrong…but something makes me feel like that guy would have deserved it. You think your heracross friend will be okay?"

"I don't know…" Snowcrystal whispered. "We can't exactly go back there, can we?"

"Not yet." Spark stood up again, casting a worried glance at the now very small looking figures of Master and his pokémon in the distance. "But we'd better find the others. They must have stopped somewhere ahead."

Snowcrystal didn't argue as Spark led them onward.

  
**-ooo-**  


The others had stopped further away than Snowcrystal had expected; she imagined that in their weakened and tired state, only sheer terror had driven them on. She wasn't used to seeing the group split up like that out of fear. Even Redclaw had run, when he hadn't even thought of doing such a thing while they were on Articuno's mountain. The group was now resting among several large, dry bushes, and when Snowcrystal, Spark and Alex arrived, everyone looked up at them with fearful expressions.

"You're all right!" Rosie gasped in surprise and relief. "Do you know what to do about Nightshade? What are we going to-"

"We'll have to wait." Redclaw's voice had gained its usual calm, but though there was relief in his eyes at the sight of the three arriving pokémon, he seemed reluctant to bring attention to himself and didn't seem to want to look at them directly. "There's nothing we can do about Nightshade right now. We'll have to wait until the human leaves."

"What did you just run away for?" Spark growled, causing most of the pokémon to look at him in surprise. "Nightshade's back there, don't you remember? And all you did was run without even trying, leaving the rest of us to face all those…"

Redclaw's furious gaze snapped toward Spark. "Did you see what happened to Thunder?" the arcanine roared, resulting in an even greater look of surprise from everyone around him. "Sure, maybe he doesn't have my poké ball anymore, but he could have captured me again. I don't care what any of you think of me for running, but I would rather die than be one of his pokémon again." He gave Spark a glare that rivaled any evil look Thunder had given any of them. Spark lowered his gaze and slowly backed away, not replying.

No one spoke up again.

Snowcrystal sat by herself for a long time, listening to the howling winds and then watching the sky grow darker as night settled in, half worried about Nightshade and Thunder, and half worried that Thunder's trainer was coming after them. Though no one taking their duty as lookout saw him anywhere near their resting spot, it wasn't enough to put her mind at ease. The way he had looked at her, like she was some sort of rare prize to own rather than a living thing still deeply unnerved her.

  
**-ooo-**  


In the early night, Snowcrystal took her turn as a lookout for the group, hoping that the task would give her something to focus on rather than the events that had taken place that day. She wanted anything else to think about, and she didn't feel like talking to anyone. As she gazed out over the land they had just passed through, warily looking for any movement, something caught her eye and made her freeze.

Near the canyon edge, but much closer to them than Snowcrystal thought anyone should have gotten without her noticing, was the shape of a human. Her whole body tensed, and she was about to cry out to the others, when she realized that this human, even if she could only see its outline in the fading light, was very different looking than Thunder's Master. He wasn't quite as tall, and he was thinner, and he was standing, barely visible against the dark rocks, and looking down into the canyon. And there was someone beside him, a pokémon.

She hadn't noticed the pokémon at first; it had been standing in the shadows, but when it moved, Snowcrystal recognized the shape instantly. It was a scizor. _'Scytheclaw?'_ She wondered. _'Is that Scytheclaw?'_ She continued to watch the pokémon and human shapes, but they didn't seem to be moving much. She had no idea what Scytheclaw would be doing around a human, but she wasn't about to go closer and find out. She wanted to alert the others, but she decided to keep quiet for the moment. After all, she didn't want them to panic if there was no real danger; this human was obviously a different one and didn't seem interested in or aware of them at all.

Something moved from behind the human and scizor. It was another pokémon, but Snowcrystal couldn't quite tell what species it was. The human turned away from the canyon and stepped toward this second pokémon. Suddenly more worried, Snowcrystal looked back at the others in her group. Seeing that they were already tense and anxious enough, Snowcrystal wasn't sure she wanted to alert them to the presence of the strange human unless it actually did something threatening. She glanced back to where the human was.

It was gone. And so were the pokémon. Blinking in surprise, Snowcrystal studied the canyon edge. There was no way they could have climbed down and out of sight in the second she had taken to glance away; it was as if they had never been there at all. She stared at the spot for quite a while before she finally managed to look away and focus again on watching for Thunder's trainer. There was no sign of the strange human anywhere else either. Reluctantly, she admitted that she must have been imagining things.

  
**-ooo-**  


In the middle of the night, Redclaw, Alex, and Spark returned with Nightshade, who, thankfully, had not been injured worse since being left near the human. Spark had not spoken to Redclaw since his outburst, but Alex had convinced him to go along and help. Redclaw had not gone back until Alex and Wildflame, who snuck off back to the area they had left Nightshade at, had confirmed that the human was no longer there, and that his scent had led back into the canyon. Snowcrystal still wasn't convinced that Thunder's trainer wasn't following them, or that he hadn't just gone back into the canyon for a while to rest and find food for his pokémon. At least Alex and Wildflame had mentioned nothing about any other humans, so the strange human was not around, if it even existed. Seeing Nightshade being carried in carefully on Redclaw's back, she tried not to dwell on her worries while there were more pressing matters to think about.

Redclaw lay down slowly and Alex and Spark carefully pushed Nightshade off his back and onto the ground. The heracross's eyes flickered open for a second and then closed again. Though his wounds were no longer bleeding, they looked deep.

Rosie hesitantly approached Nightshade's still form. "Nightshade? Can you get up?"

"No," he replied, his eyes opening slowly and his voice sounding much weaker than usual. "Not now. I need to rest." His eyes closed again.

"Leave him alone," Wildflame told Rosie, pushing her away. Rosie didn't protest.

Everyone else watched in silence until Blazefang spoke. "Well, what are we going to do now? We can't go back in the canyon if that human is lurking about. And now that Nightshade's the new Stormblade, how are we going to get to the human's city anytime soon?"

Snowcrystal glared at Blazefang, wanting to retort that Stormblade's injuries were his own fault, but he just turned away from her.

Surprisingly, it was Nightshade who spoke next. He made no effort to push himself upright, and though Snowcrystal was pretty sure he could if he wanted to, she realized he probably knew that it would make his injuries worse. The heracross's gaze was fixed on Blazefang as he spoke. "My wounds are not as bad as Stormblade's were," he rasped. "I just need a few days…then I'll be able to travel again."

"And by 'travel,' you mean ride on Redclaw's back?" said Blazefang.

"If that's what it takes."

"But we don't _have_ a few days!" Blazefang snarled back. "What if that human comes back? How are we ever going to get to that city if-"

"Blazefang," Redclaw began, "there's nothing we can do about that now. After what happened, we all need a rest. We can decide what to do tomorrow, but we won't be leaving in the morning unless we absolutely have to."

Blazefang exchanged a glance with Wildflame, but neither dark type said anything.

"What about Thunder?" Alex asked, voicing the question that Snowcrystal assumed had been on everyone's mind.

"What about her?" Rosie muttered back.

"Aren't we…going to try and get her back?" Alex looked around the group, confused.

No one said anything.

"You mean, you're just going to leave her with that trainer?"

"Why not?" Blazefang muttered. "It's what she deserves. Besides, she wouldn't put her life or freedom on the line for any of us, so why should we do it for her?"

"You _really_ think she deserves to belong to a trainer like that?" Snowcrystal asked, giving Blazefang a seething look. Sure, she was angry at Thunder too…no, more than angry, but certainly that didn't mean she deserved to have her trainer put her through any number of awful things again? "I know that what Thunder did was horrible, but I don't think anyone deserves that."

"Naive and innocent as always, huh?" Blazefang replied.

"Look, Snowcrystal, Alex…" Wildflame began, "we can't try and bring Thunder back. That human's pokémon are stronger than us, and if they're anything like Thunder, they can handle a lot more damage from attacks too. Not to mention that he has poké balls, and if any of us fainted or got badly hurt, we could end up like her."

Redclaw nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry…but it's not worth it."

' _Not worth it?'_ Snowcrystal thought. _'After you showed us all how terrible you felt everything about that trainer was? You know more than anyone else how awful being under that human's control is!'_ Though she wanted to say these things out loud, she didn't.

"Thunder had no reason to attack Nightshade," Redclaw continued as if he could tell what she was thinking. "I hate to say it, but I think her time with Master made her almost as bad as he is."

A sudden memory surfaced in Snowcrystal's mind. A cave floor covered in sticky mud. Thunder rushing in to help Stormblade and then pulling him to safety… She found it hard to believe that Thunder was as bad a pokémon as some of the others thought she was. She may have done many bad things, but there was good in her somewhere. She glanced over at Rosie; after all, the ninetales had seen Thunder rescue Stormblade as well.

Rosie noticed her looking and glanced back, catching her gaze and turning to the others. "Wildflame's right," she said, and Snowcrystal's hopes dropped. "It's too risky, and that human's pokémon are too strong. Thunder may have been part of our group and followed us around, but can any of you really call her your friend? She was mean, rude, vicious, horrible, and as you all just saw today, downright _sadistic._ Sorry to anyone who wanted her back, but she's not worth risking anything for."

Snowcrystal realized that Rosie probably didn't even remember the incident in the cave at the moment, and if she did, she didn't care. Deep down she knew that Wildflame was right, and that they couldn't risk confronting that human and his pokémon. She didn't want her friends to get hurt. But at the same time, the thought of whatever vague horrors Nightshade and Redclaw had hinted to her about Thunder's past filled her with dread. Thunder had probably been sentenced to a fate worse than death, and none of them could do anything about it.

In the midst of her thoughts she realized that Rosie was still talking. The ninetales' eyes were still cold and angry. "…And as far as I'm concerned," she said calmly, "that trainer can do whatever he wants with her."

Though Snowcrystal wasn't sure if everyone agreed, no one spoke up to argue.

_To be continued..._


	48. Separation

Morning came far sooner than expected, or at least, that was what Snowcrystal thought as she watched the sun slowly rising over the horizon. The growing light of sunrise did nothing to brighten the dark thoughts that still filled her mind. There had been no sign of 'Master' all night, but Snowcrystal knew that he could still be lurking in the canyon, maybe closer than any of the others thought. Yet they could not leave, not with Nightshade in such awful condition.

Everyone was edgy, nervous, and fearful, many of them wondering just when Master's super-powered pokémon were going to ambush them. They all felt trapped and helpless, too worried even to hunt. The thought that there had been no sign of Master was hardly comforting.

Alex and Redclaw had tried to get food for Nightshade from some of the nearby trees, but the sap proved too difficult to collect and bring to him. Nightshade was growing weaker. As a pokémon that needed to eat often, he was certainly feeling the effects of hunger, made even worse by his injuries.

"It was Thunder…" Blazefang was muttering as Redclaw tried to give Nightshade a piece of bark with a few drops of tree sap on it. The houndour's gaze was focused on the dirt in front of his paws. He was shaking, as though barely managing to suppress a steadily climbing panic. "Thunder did this. If it weren't for her, we'd be out of here by now."

"I think Master is more to blame than her," Alex whispered quietly. Even the floatzel seemed worried and afraid, her usual carefree demeanor completely gone as she nervously smoothed down the fur of one of her tails that she held in her paws.

"If it weren't for _her,_ " Blazefang growled in response, "we'd be able to get away from Master."

Snowcrystal was only half listening as the others carried on whispered conversations. She glanced at Wildflame and Redclaw, who were currently keeping watch. The fact that they hadn't spotted anything yet still didn't reassure her. As the day wore on, she and the others were only becoming more and more paranoid, acutely aware of just how vulnerable they were. Many of them looked like they wanted to leave anyway, but they were either too worried about Nightshade or too afraid to go off alone and leave the group.

Snowcrystal was crouched beside Nightshade, who was lying completely still. Alex and Blazefang's conversation about Thunder reached her again, and she sighed. Wanting some sort of a distraction, and figuring that Nightshade would want one too, she looked at the heracross. "I don't think you were wrong about Thunder," she whispered. "She was just…well…"

"I don't blame Thunder," Nightshade replied, his voice sounding even weaker than before. "I blame her master for turning her into the pokémon that attacked me."

And it was back to Master, the human that could be lurking anywhere in the canyon or the surrounding area. Why hadn't he found them yet? Had he been distracted by the other pokémon in the canyon? The thought made her cringe. No, she told herself, the canyon pokémon were too well protected. They would be safe. They had to be. She couldn't bring herself to reply to Nightshade; she didn't want to talk about Master or Thunder anymore.

"We shouldn't just be waiting here," Rosie said, and Snowcrystal turned to listen, more to look for another distraction than actually wanting to hear what the ninetales was talking about. "We have to do something. Maybe we can smell out the human, attack him from behind, and kill him before he has a chance to let out any of his pokémon."

Snowcrystal, as well as most of the others, stared blankly at her. Blazefang was the first to speak. "Well, if you want to volunteer for that, go ahead. Let's see you get past his typhlosion."

"But we could all-"

"Forget it, Rosie," Spark told her. "Those aren't ordinary trainer pokémon. We'd never win if he had a chance to release them. And Volco's a pokémon too. He'd smell us coming. That's…that's just a crazy idea."

"What do you think we should do then?" Rosie hissed at him. "Sit here waiting until he comes and finds us?"

"No," said another voice, and Wildflame turned from where she was surveying the land ahead. "We can't wait here. It's just as dangerous as walking out in the open, and it's getting us nowhere. I think we're going to have to risk moving Nightshade."

The other pokémon exchanged glances with each other, but Rosie just kept staring, an almost panicked look in her eyes.

"All right," said a voice. It was Nightshade.

"You…you sure?" Alex asked tentatively. No one else said anything.

"Wildflame is right," the heracross said with what seemed like a great effort. "We can't stay here. I'm willing to take the risk."

There was silence for a moment. "Okay," Blazefang said, standing up. "Let's go. Now."

The rest of the pokémon seemed to reach an unspoken agreement at the houndour's words and got to their feet, pacing around restlessly. Redclaw lay down on his belly beside Nightshade, and Alex helped the heracross climb onto his back. Redclaw stood up carefully, Nightshade clinging on feebly to the arcanine's mane with his claws. For a moment he looked as if he was about to slide off, but he managed to hold on. Redclaw led the way, dry brush cracking beneath his paws.

Snowcrystal trotted after him, realizing that the others expressed obvious discomfort at the slow pace they were being forced to walk due to Redclaw and Nightshade. Redclaw seemed to notice this too. He stopped, and a conflicted expression crossed his face before he muttered, "The rest of you go on ahead. I'll follow your scent."

Blazefang, Wildflame, and Rosie broke into a trot and ran on ahead without hesitation, but the others paused. "Go," Redclaw told them. Alex and Spark looked at each other, but to Snowcrystal's surprise, did not argue, and instead nervously followed the others. Redclaw's looked down at Snowcrystal.

"I want to stay," she said stubbornly. "I-"

Redclaw simply nodded. "All right," he agreed. "But if I tell you to run, run."

Snowcrystal nodded wordlessly as she walked at the arcanine's side. Far to their right, the cliff edge of the canyon stretched across the dry ground ominously, and she couldn't help glancing at it often, expecting Master, or that strange human she had seen during the night, to appear out of it at any time. But no one came. She told herself not to worry. The human had probably gone, seeing as they hadn't been attacked yet.

They walked on in silence. Snowcrystal was wondering when they would reach the beginning of the canyon and the cave entrance they had come out of before, when Redclaw stopped suddenly, his muzzle lifted to the air.

"It's Master," he whispered. "He's close."

Snowcrystal had been so focused on convincing herself that she was being too paranoid that she didn't quite believe the news at first. But it quickly dawned on her that Redclaw wasn't lying. He couldn't be. "Where?" she asked in a panic.

Redclaw's muzzle was pointed toward the canyon a ways behind them. "Run!" he yelled at Snowcrystal without answering her question.

It took Snowcrystal a moment to will her legs to work, and as she did, she also caught the faint scent over the wind. She heard the scramble of paws and saw Redclaw trotting as fast as he dared over to a group of rocks away from the canyon. Looking away, she raced across the ground in the direction her friends had gone.

She wasn't sure where Redclaw had gone to, and a group of trees up ahead prevented her from seeing her friends, but when she saw movement to her right, she knew instantly that something was wrong.

Climbing over a pile of rocks near the canyon's edge, not far away from where she was, was Volco. The two fire types' eyes locked together for an instant, both looking equally surprised to see the other, and then Snowcrystal turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

Volco shot after her; she could hear his paws pounding the ground. Even though she was used to running, Volco was much bigger than her, and from the sound of it, he was gaining. _'If I can just run long enough to tire him out…just keep going and find the others…'_

A heavy weight cannoned into her from behind, sending her crashing muzzle first into the dirt. Her paws slipped out from under her and she rolled onto her side, gasping for breath. Volco's claws dug into her filthy white fur as he hauled her closer to him, dragging her along the ground and not seeming affected at all by her struggling.

"A nice surprise," he muttered simply, a gleam of triumph in his single eye.

Snowcrystal tried to turn her head around to bite him, but he only pushed her to the ground harder. She stared up at his face, trying not to focus on the unnerving sight of his scarred, empty eye socket, and thought frantically about what other attacks she knew. Only fire attacks, she thought, which wouldn't do her much good. Still, it was the only thing she could do.

She readied a flame wheel attack, but Volco saw what she was doing and slammed her head roughly into the dirt. The beginnings of the flame wheel flickered out and died. Snowcrystal scanned the area desperately for any sign of help, but neither Redclaw nor the others were anywhere to be seen. She wasn't even sure if any of them knew she was in danger.

Sharp teeth met in her scruff and she was hauled roughly off her feet. Desperate, she fired a whirlwind of flame from her mouth that shot into the sky, but Volco didn't even act like he had noticed. Running at the canyon and not caring if Snowcrystal got jostled against the rocks, he leapt over the cliff and down onto a narrow ledge that ran along its side. Snowcrystal stopped her fire attacks, both because she was too tired and because she did not want to set the canyon pokémon's home on fire. Instead, she flailed wildly, trying to inflict some damage with her claws and teeth or make Volco lose his grip. It was useless; every time tooth or claw made contact, Volco ran on as if nothing had happened. Snowcrystal couldn't tell where she was, but she knew they were getting further and further away from her friends. She knew her friends would talk about her, and then just like they decided with Thunder, they would come to the conclusion that it was too risky to save her…

Snowcrystal felt like she was going to black out from the pain of being half carried, half dragged across the canyon ledge when Volco came to a stop. He did not release his grip, and Snowcrystal tried to touch her back legs to the ground to lesson the pressure on her neck and shoulders. When she had succeeded with this, she noticed a disturbing scent in the air. _Blood._ And a lot of it. Her gaze wandered around the place Volco had stopped in, a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes. It rested in the middle of a wide ledge with a rock wall and higher ledges on one side. She tried to take it all in, knowing that anything she could find out about the area might be useful to her, when she saw it.

Moonlight, the umbreon who had helped her group convince Scytheclaw not to fight Cyclone, who had stood up against the scizor at great risk to himself, was lying awkwardly on his side at the other end of the clearing. A pool of blood had formed around him and his red eyes stared wide open in a sightless gaze toward the sky.

Staring in horror, Snowcrystal realized that it wasn't just him. There were other patches of blood both in the clearing and nearby, from different pokémon, yet there were no other bodies. At one end of the clearing, half hidden by bushes, was what looked like a tent. That could only mean one thing. Somehow, Master had managed to find and capture some of the canyon pokémon, and Moonlight must have died fighting him.

Some low hanging branches near the tent shook, and Master himself stepped out of it. Snowcrystal wasn't accustomed to seeing humans, but there was something about the way Master looked that she didn't like. She knew enough about him to despise him already, but there was something very threatening about his appearance now that she saw him up close. He did not look like the trainer that had captured Stormblade, or the other humans she had seen in Stonedust City. They had all looked rather vulnerable and out of place outside their human dwellings, but this human did not. He looked as if he had no trouble surviving out in the wilderness, and no fear of the pokémon either. He looked as if he had no reason to be, and he knew it. He seemed bigger and stronger than most of the humans she had seen, and as he stepped closer, she noticed a bloodied bandage around his left arm. It looked like the wound was fresh. She wondered distantly if Moonlight had done it and then pondered whether it was worth risking a fire attack. She couldn't, she realized quickly, while Volco was holding her. If she injured his master, he would probably kill her.

Master seemed to understand this in some way, because he showed no fear as he approached Volco and Snowcrystal. On his way, he paused at Moonlight's body and gave the umbreon a small kick. Snowcrystal saw a gaping red wound in his stomach that looked almost like something Thunder could have done, but the wound wasn't clean enough to have been made by a scythe. Master looked over the umbreon's body, seemed satisfied with something, and walked over to Snowcrystal, stopping just in front of her and Volco.

"Drop her," he told Volco.

Volco's mouth opened and Snowcrystal hit the ground. She tried to remain on her paws, but found they wouldn't support her. Master's hand reached out and grabbed a handful of her neck fur. He lifted her up, more painfully than Volco had done, until the two of them were eye to eye. Snowcrystal felt an overwhelming urge to fire a flame wheel in his face and let Volco do whatever he wanted to her, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't just give up and not even try to escape and find her friends; if she did that, they might come looking for her and meet the same fate.

Master slowly moved her so that she was facing away from him; he seemed to want to take a close look at the pale gray stripes on her back. He ran the fingers of his other hand through the white tuft of fur on her head, then turned her to face him again, staring into her eyes with a strange fascination. "You did well, Volco," he said smoothly. "The white growlithe. I thought the color might be some sort of mutation, maybe albino, but she could be something else entirely." His hand moved toward her crystal amulet and he held the crystal itself in his hand, peering at it for a closer look. "Think she belongs to a trainer?" he asked Volco, who tilted his head and gave him a look of feigned innocence.

The typhlosion then seemed to lose interest a bit, and went over to sniff hopefully at Moonlight's carcass; Snowcrystal realized that the umbreon's body would probably end up as food for Master's pokémon.

"We'll see," Master said. He now held her at arm's length, still dangling painfully from her scruff. Her eyes kept darting around the bloodied grass of the clearing, wondering what had happened to the other canyon pokémon. When she looked back at Master, he was holding a red and white sphere in his hand. Whatever hopes she had left plummeted.

He tapped the sphere against her head and suddenly a chilling sensation swept over her. She felt different than she had ever felt in her life; the scenery shimmered in front of her eyes, confusing her for a second before she was drawn into blackness. However, she could feel, in some way she didn't quite understand, that she was not captured yet. With all her might she fought against the strange energy consuming her, feeling her strength wane even more. But there was no way she was going to give up. She had nothing to lose now, and she couldn't let herself get caught…

Just when she thought she would black out from the effort, light flooded her vision and her body reformed normally on the ground next to Master. The poké ball dropped uselessly to the ground. Master bent to pick it up and at the same time grabbed her scruff again, twisting her head so her muzzle was pointed upward at the sky as if he was suddenly worried she would try to use an attack on him. Then he pulled out another small sphere from his pocket. This one looked different than the one he had used before. Master pushed the small button in the sphere's center and it grew to be the size the previous poké ball had been.

Snowcrystal struggled wildly, and by some stroke of bizarre luck that surprised even her, managed to slip out of Master's grasp. She hit the ground roughly and took off, only to be stopped by Volco as the typhlosion knocked her to the ground. Trapped, she looked in a panic at Master, only to realize that it hadn't been bizarre luck that she'd escaped at all.

Master had been distracted by something moving on a rock ledge on the canyon wall not far above them. But it wasn't one of Snowcrystal's friends. It wasn't even a pokémon.

It was another human.

This human, Snowcrystal realized, was much like some of the ones she had seen before in Stonedust, a young, barely full grown human who looked out of place so far from a city. He was taller and looked older than the one who had captured Stormblade. He was much scrawnier than Volco's trainer, and the fur – or whatever it was – on his head was a darker brown. He was standing with the most surprising nonchalant look on his face, not seeming surprised at all at the scene that lay before him. Snowcrystal wondered if this human had been watching them, and for how long.

"What are you doing here?" Master shouted at him, looking furious. Snowcrystal noticed that he was still holding the differently colored poké ball. Volco, meanwhile, looked at the newcomer with surprise; Snowcrystal wondered how the human had managed to get so close without the typhlosion noticing him.

The scrawny human did not answer. He simply stared back. Then Snowcrystal realized it. The human she had seen during the night had looked a lot like he did. At least, from what she could tell, he had. He had certainly been tall and thin, that was for sure. The strange human's gaze wavered around the clearing before focusing once again on Master. "Let those pokémon go," he said, his voice sounding rather quiet compared to Master's booming yell.

Master didn't reply but cast a knowing glance at Volco, who threw back his head and shot a billowing column of flame at the human standing on the cliff. Something moved in a blur in front of the oncoming fire attack, and Snowcrystal saw the human duck down as a pokémon came to a stop in front of him. The pokémon lifted its arms, in which it held two strange objects, and formed a shimmering, almost transparent barrier in front of the fire. Despite this, Volco kept up the attack, and the pokémon behind the barrier strained harder, while the trainer, flinching from the heat, backed up against the rock wall.

Snowcrystal felt teeth in her scruff again, and looked around in panic, only to see the dark blue and white face of another pokémon before it began hauling her out of Master's line of sight into the trees.

Master's gaze flickered from the pokémon trying to hold back Volco's flamethrower toward her. Fury crossed his face as he hurled the poké ball at her – it missed – and then reached in his pocket again.

A sharp gasp from Volco distracted him; the typhlosion had stopped his flamethrower and the shimmering barrier in front of the younger human's pokémon – which Snowcrystal could now see was a yellow and brown bipedal pokémon of some type – vanished. Snowcrystal couldn't see any more, for the pokémon holding her had whirled around and began racing through the trees. She heard a cry of pain from Volco, and a furious shout from Master, but she couldn't tell what was going on. Branches whipped in her face and her back legs hit rocks and tree roots painfully, but the pokémon carrying her did not stop. It raced up a steep slope and suddenly they were standing on the ledge the strange human and his pokémon were, but further back, out of range of Volco's attacks.

The pokémon set Snowcrystal down, but she felt too numb to move. From here, at a higher vantage point, she could clearly see Master, his furious gaze locked with the gaze of the trainer standing boldly on the cliff. Both Volco and the trainer's pokémon had stopped attacking. Master gave the other human a nasty grin.

"You want a pokémon battle, boy?" he asked, reaching into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. Snowcrystal saw the glint of something shiny and silver, and she thought he was going to pick up that, but he didn't. Instead, he grabbed several poké balls and flung them in front of him in the clearing.

Five pokémon at once began to materialize. Snowcrystal only recognized a nidoking and a tyranitar from Spark's descriptions of them; the others she was unfamiliar with. Before they had even finished forming, Master had thrown out several more poké balls, each with a different pokémon. Snowcrystal didn't know much about trainers, but Spark had told her enough for her to know that they were only supposed to carry six. "Find the growlithe!" he barked at one, which Snowcrystal immediately recognized as a houndoom, but one much bigger and scarred looking than Wildflame. The houndoom took off in the direction Snowcrystal had been taken; she realized it would find them by following their scent trail in a matter of moments.

Looking wildly for an escape, she heard the strange human's footsteps as he retreated, and turned to look at him without thinking. He looked, for the first time, scared. His pokémon had put up another barrier of energy, and some sort of attack slammed against it, creating a deafening noise and knocking both the pokémon and his trainer off their feet. And that had only come from the closest of Master's pokémon. The others had started rushing toward the cliff – Snowcrystal could now see strange collars around their necks that looked different from the one Thunder had – and at the same time, she heard the houndoom's panting as he neared them from behind…

A sudden change came over the scrawny trainer. Looking almost like he was acting in a blind panic, he got up and dived toward Snowcrystal and the pokémon who had been carrying her, who ran forward to meet him. The boy's hand gripped a poké ball and aimed it at the white pokémon, who vanished in a beam of red light, while his other grabbed the fur on Snowcrystal's shoulder. The still stunned growlithe was too frozen with fear to think of pulling away. She heard the sounds of pokémon firing attacks and rocks crumbling nearby, and then the first of the odd trainer's pokémon, the one who had put up the barrier, ran up to the human and touched his shoulder.

Instantly Snowcrystal felt an even stranger sensation come over her than the one she had felt being pulled inside the poké ball. Everything vanished before her eyes and she felt almost like she was falling, or being pulled forcefully in another direction, and when everything reappeared in a haze that slowly lifted from her eyes, it looked completely different. They were no longer in the canyon, though from the looks of things, Snowcrystal could tell that they weren't far from it. She couldn't quite recognize the place, however.

Slowly, she stood up, shaking from head to toe. She could feel warmth trickling down her back; she was bleeding from where the pokémon had grabbed her. Another red light momentarily blinded her, and she shut her eyes as a creature formed from it.

"Relax," said a smooth voice, and Snowcrystal turned to see the white and dark blue pokémon, the one who had carried her, looking at her. "You must stay calm. Arien, this alakazam, you see, used his teleport move on you and my trainer, but it can only take us short distances. We still need to move."

Snowcrystal stared back at the pokémon she could now recognize as an absol, then looked at the other pokémon called Arien. He had two pointed ears and clawed feet. A long clump of fur-like whiskers sprouted from either side of his snout. She didn't think she had ever heard of his species before. Arien gave her an odd look and she turned back to the absol.

"Why can't he teleport us a bit further?" she managed to ask.

"Teleporting just one extra pokémon or person, let alone two, takes far too much energy," the absol explained. "Energy he can't afford to lose. Come with us. We have to get away from here. Don't be afraid, you don't have to worry about being captured."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how on earth he expected her not to worry, but, feeling like she had no choice, she stepped closer to him and looked at the human worriedly.

The trainer got unsteadily to his feet, quickly putting out the small flame on the sleeve of his shirt that must have come from being too close to an attack before they teleported. He knelt down by the absol, briefly checking him over with a look of concern. He then did the same to the alakazam. Seeming satisfied, he stood back up. "Let's go," he told his pokémon, but instead of walking, he unclipped a poké ball from his belt. Snowcrystal flinched and drew back, but when the human threw the poké ball, another pokémon came out of it.

She had seen this type of creature before. It was brown and green with a long neck and four massive leaf-like wings fanning out from its back. It had what looked like fruit growing on its neck, which arched high over Snowcrystal's head. She backed away nervously.

"I can't go," she told the absol and Arien in a panic, turning away from the large pokémon. "I have to find my friends…"

The absol looked a bit unsure of what to tell her. Arien did not answer either, but instead turned to look at the tall human who looked ready to mount the tropius. A knowing look flashed between them, and Snowcrystal was surprised. It was almost like… _understanding…_

Then it clicked. _'That pokémon's a psychic type,'_ Snowcrystal thought. _'He's bonded with that human and they can communicate…'_ It suddenly seemed as if Master and his illegal pokémon were far, far away, much too far to reach her. It almost didn't matter anymore. Here was a human…a human who could, through Arien, communicate with pokémon. This was exactly what she had longed to find but hadn't even dared hope for, her link to the humans' knowledge of the Forbidden Attacks.

"Come on," the human said. "We're going to get away…and find your friends."

Snowcrystal looked up at him numbly as he scooped her up in his arms and sat on the tropius's back, returning his other two pokémon back to their poké balls. She was no longer focused on whether he was trustworthy or not. He had access to what she needed, and if there was any chance he could help her find the information that Articuno did not have, it was worth the risk of being captured.

"Let's go!" the human called, and the tropius's wings beat up and down frantically as it lifted into the air.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened as the ground grew smaller and smaller before her eyes. She whimpered and dug her claws into the human's arm, trying not to look down or at the sky around her. She didn't want to know how high up they were. Being on a tall mountain while standing on solid rock was one thing, but being suspended in midair on a pokémon, completely helpless, was something else altogether. She wished she could ask the human just how far he planned to go, but without Arien the alakazam out of his poké ball, there was no way she could communicate with him.

Nevertheless, he seemed to sense her nervousness, and held her more tightly with his right arm, his left resting carefully on the tropius's neck. Snowcrystal's eyes wandered to the grass type's head, which seemed far away on its outstretched neck as it glided, Snowcrystal thought, horribly close to the clouds. "Where are we going?" she called up to it, but the wind blew her words back in her face. The tropius gave no answer; either it hadn't heard, or it was too focused on flying.

Suddenly the tropius's body and wings seemed to shudder a bit, and it turned its neck as if looking at something that had suddenly surprised it from below. The human noticed and leaned as far over as he dared while keeping Snowcrystal in the same place. His expression turned to one of surprise. "Go down, go down!" he cried.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what he was shouting about, but she wasn't about to look down to see. She closed her eyes as they suddenly tilted forward, which told her that the tropius was making its descent. She didn't dare open her eyes until they landed with a slight jolt. Dazed, Snowcrystal looked around, seeing that the canyon was still near them, but she still wasn't sure where she was. Held in the trainer's arms, she watched, confused, as he stepped off the tropius's back. Once the tropius's neck was no longer blocking her view, Snowcrystal realized what the trainer had seen.

There were two other humans standing nearby. One of them, she realized with a jolt of shock, was the one who had Stormblade. But any thoughts of Stormblade were pushed to the very back of her mind as the smaller of the two other humans stepped forward, a furious look in his eyes.

The trainer holding Snowcrystal did not seem to notice. "You have to leave," he told him urgently. "There's-"

"Wait," the smaller male trainer interrupted. His eyes were completely locked onto Snowcrystal, so intensely that she wasn't even sure he had really noticed the trainer holding her. "That growlithe…" he said slowly, seeming like he was trying to sound calm and innocent when he was really angry. "Did you catch it?"

"No," the trainer holding her replied, but there was a panicky edge to his voice, as if he was still thinking of Master back at the canyon. Snowcrystal wished he'd hurry up and tell the other humans; she wanted to leave, and fast.

But before the trainer could explain anything, the smaller human who had looked at her funny walked closer. "Good," he replied, and reached in his pocket for something. Snowcrystal felt a familiar feeling of panic as he took out a poké ball. "Because you have no idea how long I've been searching for it."

_To be continued..._


	49. The Agreement

Snowcrystal tensed as the human holding the poké ball stepped toward her with a fiercely determined look in his eyes. To her relief, the human holding her stepped away from him as he did so. "You can't just…just catch her," he said, seeming to fumble for the words.

"What do you mean?" the human with the poké ball yelled back. "It's a wild pokémon. You're _supposed_ to catch them!"

"Not…this one. And this is not what I wanted to talk about," the trainer holding Snowcrystal said more fiercely. "You have to leave. There's a very bad poacher-"

"No one's a _poacher_ for catching a wild pokémon, if that's what you mean," the smaller human snarled.

" _Justin, stop it…_ " his companion whispered, sounding worried. "Listen to him. If he's come to warn us, something must be wrong. Let's just get out of here…" Snowcrystal was surprised to hear the name 'Justin,' but now wasn't the time to speculate; there were much more urgent matters to think about.

"Well what are _you_ doing all the way out here?" Justin shouted, ignoring his friend. "You must be out here to catch pokémon too!"

"No," the taller trainer replied, clutching Snowcrystal tighter. "My pokémon and I were exploring."

"What sort of trainer explores places in the middle of nowhere without a pokémon center for no good reason?" Justin growled.

Snowcrystal looked up at the trainer holding her, who seemed confused as to why Justin hadn't found his answer an acceptable one, and at a loss for what to say. He shrugged. "Me, I guess. I'm not much of a battler. I just like to see new places and see how wild pokémon live-"

"Well you're a freak if you call this fun!" Justin shouted.

"You should go back to the city," the taller human told him without answering, once again trying to warn the strange humans about Master. "Do you have a flying pokémon?"

"I'm not going back without that growlithe!" Justin snarled, his gaze still fixed firmly on Snowcrystal.

"I have a flying type," the female human said slowly, acting like she was trying to ignore Justin. "A pidgeot. But he's injured…"

"Then come with me," the tropius's trainer told them, and mounted his pokémon again, still holding Snowcrystal. "We'll be safe in the city."

' _The city?'_ Snowcrystal thought frantically. There was no way she could go to the city now. She couldn't leave her friends in danger. She started to struggle against the human's grip, but he only gave her a brief worried look before he looked back at Justin and his companion, still holding her firmly. Snowcrystal desperately wished he would let his alakazam out. She couldn't run away; she needed to remind the alakazam that her friends were still out there…

Justin, miraculously, seemed to be distracted from the subject of Snowcrystal for a moment. "How do you know we can trust him?" he yelled at the female trainer, who had started to walk toward the tropius. "I don't believe him. He's using that as an excuse to keep the growlithe himself!"

Snowcrystal cringed. Just like that, Justin was back to focusing on her again. The trainer holding her fidgeted nervously, as if he hadn't counted on them not trusting him.

"Don't you think that if he wanted to catch it, he would have done so already?" the female trainer told him. "He wasn't holding onto it while riding a tropius for the fun of it. And if he wanted to attack us, he would have done _that_ too. And look at the burns on his clothes…it's obvious he's encountered trouble. He can't be lying about it-"

"The growlithe burned him, more like," Justin muttered.

"It's not attacking him now," she pointed out.

"Katie…"

"Come on, he has the growlithe, so let's go back. There's no use in staying here and getting lost without a healthy flying type for ourselves. And if he tries anything…" She looked at the trainer on the tropius and Snowcrystal realized with surprise that she suddenly looked a bit suspicious. "I have pokémon too." Without waiting for a reply from Justin, she climbed on the tropius's back behind its trainer.

Snowcrystal shuddered as she watched Justin, hoping that if he did agree to go with them, he wasn't about to try and capture her in the poké ball while they were in the air.

She was thinking of how to get the attention of the trainer holding her in some way, when a loud roar interrupted her thoughts. The trainer's grip on her loosened; she turned around and peered over his shoulder at the shape of a massive arcanine stalking slowly toward them from a group of rocks. The fur of his mane was standing on end and he looked much more ferocious than usual. His head turned and he spotted Snowcrystal.

With another roar he ran toward the humans, and behind him, a few more shapes emerged from the rocks. Snowcrystal saw the somewhat distant forms of Alex, Wildflame, and Spark.

The tropius they were currently riding on started to back away, moving so suddenly that it almost dislodged Katie and its own trainer. Both of them threw poké balls ahead of them; Katie's beam of light formed into an azumarill, and Arien the alakazam appeared from the other.

"Katie…what's going on?" Justin cried in a frightened voice, running behind the tropius and staring at the oncoming pokémon fearfully.

"They're making a mistake…" Snowcrystal whispered to herself. "Arien!" she yelled, watching Redclaw get closer and closer to the two defending pokémon, the others not far behind. "Tell them to stop! Tell your trainer to stop!"

But the alakazam was too busy focusing on the oncoming pokémon and forming a protective barrier around himself as he stood in front of the humans to reply. Snowcrystal wasn't sure he had even heard her.

Redclaw was almost upon them now, looking ready to attack the barrier again and again until he got through – Snowcrystal knew that protect only lasted so long – and pokémon, either the trainers' pokémon or Redclaw and the others, were bound to get hurt. She tried to shout out to the arcanine, but her voice was drowned out by another roar before Redclaw fired a blast of flame at the alakazam's barrier. Spark was right behind him, electricity flying off his form as his fur sharpened into pointed spines. He looked ready to attack Azumarill…

Then he stopped. The electricity across his body flickered feebly and then died out. A look of pure disbelief spread across his face as he stood staring – at what, Snowcrystal wasn't sure – then he turned to Redclaw and yelled, "STOP!"

Perhaps it was the surprise of seeing a friend who had come to help him telling him such, but Redclaw did stop. Arien's protect faded away, but he did not attack; instead he merely watched as Alex and Wildflame caught up. They also held back from attacking, but looked far more nervous than Redclaw.

Snowcrystal wriggled free of the human's grasp and ran to meet them, making sure to stay out of range of Justin, who still seemed intent on capturing her. Wildflame, Alex, and Redclaw, seeming to realize that she was not in immediate danger, relaxed.

"Snowcrystal, what's going on?" Wildflame asked. "What are you doing-"

"That's him," Spark whispered, to no one in particular. "That's…my trainer."

"Your _what?_ " Wildflame asked, whirling around to face the jolteon, but Spark wasn't listening; he had already started running toward Justin.

Of course Justin was Spark's trainer. It was Justin, Snowcrystal realized, that Spark had been looking at. She had thought, however, that he had just been some other human named Justin, not actually Spark's former trainer. Snowcrystal was slightly worried for her friend, but he passed the two trainer pokémon easily; they simply watched him. Justin stepped out from behind the tropius, looking confused for a moment until the jolteon came closer and recognition dawned on him.

Spark reached Justin and jumped up to greet him so enthusiastically that he completely bowled him over. Justin, however, didn't seem to mind at all; he threw his arms around the jolteon, whose fur had turned back to being silky and smooth, and buried his head in the stiff fur of Spark's mane. Spark was rapidly licking the top of Justin's head – for he couldn't reach his face – and shouted joyfully in between licks. "Justin! Justin! I finally found you!"

Wildflame shot Snowcrystal a surprised look, and Snowcrystal returned it; she had been taken off guard by the sudden turn of events just as much as the houndoom had. The two trainers and the rest of the pokémon looked confused, too.

"Justin?" the trainer called Katie asked. "What…is that…an old pokémon of yours?"

Justin looked up for a moment to nod, and the moment he did so, Spark got up as well and began to run joyous circles around him. "This is Spark…my jolteon." He was smiling, which struck her as surprising. In the short time Snowcrystal had seen this human, he had looked so unhappy. Snowcrystal certainly hadn't seen Justin so happy, and from the looks of Katie, neither had she.

The trainer who had carried Snowcrystal slowly stepped down from his tropius. "Are you going to listen to me now?" he asked.

As he began to talk to Katie, Snowcrystal remembered the alakazam. Moving close to him, she whispered, "Can you help me? I need your trainer's help. Me and my friends need to get to Stonedust City. And…" She paused, wondering how on earth she was going to explain her quest to this pokémon so quickly. She took a deep breath. "We need to find out as much as we can about something called the Forbidden Attacks. They're far too powerful, and some are on the loose, and we've heard that the only pokémon who-"

"I have heard of the Forbidden Attacks," Arien replied. "We know the story. And we believe they exist."

"You believe it?" Snowcrystal breathed in disbelief. It was surprising, but when she thought about it, Arien's trainer did seem like the sort of human to believe in and chase after legends. Perhaps he'd already tried to find proof of the Forbidden Attacks. There was no mistaking it now; they needed this human's help, as they weren't bound to find another like him. "We need to find out who created the Forbidden Attacks. When I met Articuno…I know that's hard to believe, but…well, he said he thought that only the ones who created the attacks could destroy or take away…"

She began rapidly explaining to Arien, not sure how much else he was going to believe, when she was interrupted suddenly as Katie cried out and pointed; Blazefang and Rosie were slowly creeping toward the group. Rosie looked terrified, but also seemed determined to see why the others were just standing around near strange humans. As they got closer, Rosie suddenly stopped, letting Blazefang walk on ahead. The houndour didn't look pleased.

"What's going on here?" he growled.

"These are my friends," Snowcrystal said hurriedly to the alakazam, in case he perceived them as a threat.

Justin looked up at the two approaching pokémon, giving Blazefang an uneasy glance. Standing up and putting one hand on Spark's head, he turned to the trainer who had brought Snowcrystal there. To Snowcrystal's relief, he didn't start yelling at the trainer about catching her again. "The poacher…won't be able to reach us for a while?" he asked. "He's far away, isn't he?" When the older trainer nodded and hesitantly replied, "He hasn't come after us yet, so I guess far enough," Justin just scowled at him. "What is your name?" he asked suddenly, giving the trainer a cold glare.

"Um…Damian," the trainer replied, looking a bit worried, as if he wasn't sure what Justin wanted from him.

"Well, _Damian,_ " Justin replied, a sneer on his face. "Just what did you want with that growlithe? You must not have wanted it very much, seeing as you just let it go like that. You can't object to me catching it now, can you?" Snowcrystal's eyes widened at these words; she had thought for a moment that she was out of danger.

Beside him, Spark tensed in alarm as Justin walked toward Snowcrystal with the poké ball in his hand. The jolteon grabbed Justin's sleeve in his teeth and tried to pull him back, but Justin hardly noticed. Snowcrystal started to back away as a few of her friends made threatening growls and stepped forward.

"Wait," Damian said, stepping toward Justin. "You can't…"

"Why can't I?" Justin snarled.

"She has a quest."

At this, Snowcrystal looked at the trainer in surprise. Arien must have been conveying him her message after all.

"What do you mean, a quest?" Justin spat back. "It's a pokémon! And I need it."

"You can't take her," Damian replied, speaking more strongly than before, but as he spoke, he was walking toward Snowcrystal. "But if she wants, I can help her find out what she needs to know." He stooped down and reached his hand out to the growlithe.

" _What?_ " Justin yelled. "What are you talking about? You're insane! Do you know how long we've been looking for-"

Katie, however, seemed calmer, though equally perplexed. "What do you mean?" she asked Damian. "…Help her find out what she needs to know?"

"She wants to find out about the Forbidden Attacks," he told her.

Justin paused, seeming like he was wracking his brain for something, as if the words sounded familiar, but Katie knew what Damian meant at once. "I've heard about those…" she said. "Well, I don't think anyone knows if they even exist…sure, a few people have supposedly seen one. I mean, it could be like how people used to not believe in Ho-oh, but…but why would a growlithe care about Forbidden Attacks?" She gave Damian a confused look, suddenly seeming doubtful about the whole thing.

"Snowcrystal?" Wildflame whispered as she edged closer to the growlithe. "How does that human know what we're searching for?"

"His alakazam," Snowcrystal answered. "They have some sort of psychic link…" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blazefang look at Arien with sudden interest.

"If the humans don't believe us," Wildflame whispered back to Snowcrystal, "we could always get Blazefang to show them the attack, right?" Blazefang shot her a look of horror, and she hissed, "I was joking!"

Snowcrystal turned to look at Damian, who was still holding his hand out to her, but she didn't move closer. "The growlithe told my alakazam," the trainer explained to the other two humans. "And he told me…she said that some of the Forbidden Attacks are on the loose, and she needs to find out what pokémon created them, so that they can stop them and stop more pokémon from getting hurt and killed." He said this as if it was the simplest thing in the world and that the two younger humans would have no problem understanding.

"Not to mention," Wildflame muttered, "Blazefang has one of the attacks himself." Damian's alakazam looked at her then turned to his trainer. A strange expression crossed Damian's face; Snowcrystal was sure that Arien had told him about Blazefang. However, he did not say anything aloud.

"You're making this up!" Justin growled at Damian. "I don't care what you do, I'm catching that growlithe." He stepped forward, but a yellow blur darted in front of him and stopped. Spark, blocking his former trainer's way, looked up at him pleadingly. Snowcrystal could tell that he wished he could speak to Justin in words, to tell him that Damian was right.

"Spark…" Justin said slowly.

Spark refused to budge. He turned his head toward Damian, then back to Justin, giving him the same pleading look.

"He wants you to listen," Katie pointed out quietly, still seeming unsure of everything she was hearing.

"Look," Damian told Snowcrystal. "Can you tell Arien…everything? I can try to explain to them. Maybe they could help." He turned to look at Katie and Justin, who just stared back at him. "But afterwards, we need to head to the city…you can't wander around here without a pokémon who knows fly." He looked around nervously, but relaxed a bit when there was still no sign of any poacher.

Justin and Katie were quiet at first, then began having a whispered conversation together as Snowcrystal talked to the alakazam. The other pokémon, even the ones who were still wary, stopped and waited. They knew that this human, if he could be trusted, had much better access to information than they did and could be the help they so desperately needed.

As Snowcrystal spoke, Damian told Justin and Katie everything she said. Every once in a while, one of the growlithe's friends would add something to tell Arien, until Snowcrystal felt that he and Damian would have pretty much the whole story, except for one thing.

She had been avoiding mentioning it, knowing that Blazefang wouldn't like it, but she had to tell Arien that Blazefang had used his Forbidden Attack a total of three times. "You see," she told the psychic pokémon, after she had mentioned that Blazefang had used it in the forest as well as on Articuno's mountain, "Blazefang first used his Forbidden Attack on Stormblade, a scyther we knew. He…he didn't know what it was, but…" She looked at Katie. "I think that trainer still has Stormblade. You can ask your trainer to tell her to let him out. You'll see what Shadowflare did…"

Arien turned to look at Damian, who seemed puzzled as he turned to Katie. "Do you have a scyther?" he asked. "An injured one?"

Justin gave Damian a look of pure loathing, and Spark looked up at his trainer, as if confused as to why. Katie simply looked baffled.

"What?" she replied. "How would you...I mean, how would that pokémon know?"

Damian shrugged. "She wanted me to ask you. She told Arien that she knows a scyther who was injured by the…the fire Forbidden Attack. Shadowflare." He stole a quick glance at Blazefang before looking at Katie again. "Can I see the scyther?" he asked.

"No," Katie told him firmly. "I'm not letting him out just to be stared at."

Justin's face was a mixture of relief and annoyance. He rolled his eyes at Katie but didn't try to argue.

Damian didn't seem to mind Katie's answer. "Did he have strange wounds?" he asked her. "Burns that won't heal?"

"Well…" Katie began, sounding distracted, like she was still trying to make sense of everything. "The staff at the pokémon center in Stonedust City said the wounds were unusual…but that doesn't mean much. It probably just meant they didn't get pokémon with these sorts of injuries often. And…and well, of course they haven't healed. It hasn't been that long!"

"Have the wounds shown any sign of improvement? Even a little bit?"

"Well, no…actually, yes…some of the more minor burns and injuries are starting to heal…"

Snowcrystal looked up at Katie hopefully. If Stormblade's condition was improving, even just a little, that made her feel much less worried. She longed to see Stormblade again, but it didn't look like the trainer was going to let him out of the poké ball.

"But not the strange-looking ones?" Damian asked.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Katie didn't argue. She glanced at Justin, who looked away. "Well…." she began. "No. Also, I once…came across a dead shinx. It had burns that looked like Scyther's. I did think it was kind of odd…"

"And that was in the forest he said that the houndour burned down," Justin said suddenly, looking up at Katie with wide eyes. "Katie, I think they're really telling the truth. They couldn't have just made all this up. It all fits."

At this, Katie simply stared, but Spark leaped up at Justin again, happily trying to lick his face. "Yes! Yes! We _are_ telling the truth!" Snowcrystal heard him say, and although Justin couldn't understand the words, he seemed to understand the meaning.

"We can talk about this more once we reach the city," Damian told them. "If you want, you two can help me search for more information about the Forbidden Attacks. Stonedust City has a huge library. I'm not sure if it will help us, but it's a start."

Katie obviously looked as if the thought of spending time in a library searching for something she didn't even fully believe existed was very unappealing, but Justin looked almost excited.

"Wait a minute," Blazefang muttered. "How are we supposed to get to the city? It's not like we can all ride on that tropius."

Arien must have overheard, because Damian almost immediately replied, "Well, the quickest and easiest way would be for me to catch you, and release you when we get there."

Each of the wild pokémon exchanged nervous glances, except for Alex, who looked perfectly fine with the idea. Snowcrystal had to admit that she was worried, but as the humans began talking again, she didn't try to speak, for Damian had addressed the pokémon.

"You can stay in the trees near the city," he told them. "The area is safe from poachers now."

"Not many trainers go there," Justin added. "And if they did, there's plenty of places to hide. It's the safest place for a wild pokémon near that city." Snowcrystal could clearly notice a certain excitement in the human's eyes. He seemed eager to help, to be a part of this…

"Justin," Katie began, "I don't know…"

"Katie, what they're saying makes sense," Justin told her, and from the look on Katie's face, it seemed like she had never heard anything that made _less_ sense. "You saw that shinx! You see that wretched scyther every day! You knew there was something strange about that forest that burned down. These pokémon know why all that happened. It couldn't have been a coincidence that they'd talk about the burned forest or that horrible scyther. They couldn't be making it up; they must have really seen what happened. Look," he added, seeing that she did not seem convinced at all, "I want to help them. I want to help them find out what they need to know. It's about time I was able to do something other than follow you around watching you be a trainer. I'm going to help them."

"But…" Katie seemed torn, as if she didn't know what to believe.

"He believes them!" Justin told her, pointing to Damian.

"Yeah, but he's…" Katie trailed off. She sounded as though she had been about to say 'crazy.'

"Okay," Justin sighed. "Do what you want. Keep training or something. But I'm going to help these pokémon."

"You mean you're not going to catch the growlithe?" Katie asked.

"No," Justin replied bitterly. "Not like they'll let me, anyway." He glanced at the group of wild pokémon around them. Spark licked Justin's hand, as if trying to console him. The human looked down at the jolteon, then took out the poké ball he'd been carrying around for so long, the one he'd been hoping to catch Snowcrystal with, and gently tapped it against Spark's head. The jolteon stood still for a moment, letting himself be absorbed into the ball. Then, after the red light on the button faded with a 'ping', Justin sent the jolteon out again.

"Justin," Katie began, "you aren't a registered trainer…you aren't supposed to-"

Justin ignored her and walked over to Damian's tropius, putting his hand on the neck of the pokémon, who nuzzled his shoulder affectionately with a soft tropius cry. Then he looked at Snowcrystal and the other watching pokémon.

"Let a human catch me?" Rosie shouted indignantly before any of the other pokémon could say anything. "No! I won't do it! I don't trust him! I don't trust any humans!"

"Be reasonable," Redclaw growled. "I for one am willing to be caught temporarily if it means helping Snowcrystal and getting further away from Master…" He sighed. "That is, if the poké ball Team Rocket captured me with was destroyed in the collapse, like Stormblade's must have been." He looked worriedly at Damian as if suddenly worried that his wasn't.

"I'm willing to be caught if it means getting closer to being rid of this attack," Blazefang said, stepping forward. He gave Damian a nod, knowing that the human would understand what he meant, and Snowcrystal watched as a poké ball was thrown and Blazefang was absorbed inside it.

"Is he mad?!" Rosie shrieked.

"The poké ball will be sent to the pokémon lab by the ranch," Damian explained as he hurriedly picked the poké ball up, but Snowcrystal didn't know what he meant. She thought, however, she saw the poké ball vanish as Damian made to put it in his pocket, but she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it. "Don't worry," he added. "As soon as we get to the city, I'll use the computer to switch you for my current team, then I'll release you outside the city."

Snowcrystal still had no idea what he was talking about, but Spark caught her eye and gave her a nod. She relaxed; if Spark was okay with it, it must mean that whatever Damian was doing was safe.

Most of the other pokémon didn't seem so sure.

"I'm NOT letting him catch me!" Rosie yelled. Beside her, Wildflame looked almost as uneasy.

"How can we be sure we can trust him?" Wildflame asked. "He just showed up! We can't know if he's trustworthy."

"He risked his life to save me," Snowcrystal told her. "No humans like Master would do that. Look, I know we're taking a risk, but this is our best chance to find out what we need about the Forbidden Attacks. I'm willing to risk it if it means helping Articuno and the other pokémon the Forbidden Attacks could hurt."

Wildflame sighed. "If you're sure…then all right. Not like I've got anything to lose…" she added bitterly.

"I'll let him catch me if it means helping you guys!" Alex stated, looking around to make sure the other pokémon had heard. "I want to help too, like that human wants to help." She looked over at Justin.

Snowcrystal was about to reply to the others in an attempt to convince Rosie when she noticed Redclaw turn around and look back the way he had come. She turned as well, and saw Nightshade peering at them from behind the rocks the others had emerged from, leaning feebly against one of the boulders.

Redclaw turned and ran toward him, and the trainers and their pokémon watched in surprise as the arcanine helped Nightshade limp over toward the rest of the group. Still very weak, he didn't get very far before he had to climb on Redclaw's back again.

Rosie looked relieved to see Nightshade arriving. "Oh, good," she said. "Nightshade's here. Maybe he can talk some sense into you all."

Once he reached the group, Redclaw lay down and allowed Nightshade to slowly crawl back on the ground. The heracross looked at the humans who were still staring at him in surprise, and then at Redclaw. "You found help," he stated simply, his voice still sounding very weak.

"Help!" Rosie hissed. "Nightshade, these are _humans._ You just got here! You don't even know what they-"

"I was watching. Redclaw and the others wouldn't have stayed so close to them for so long if they weren't offering help," Nightshade replied quietly.

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal told him, "these humans…or at least two of them, are going to help us find out about the Forbidden Attacks." To her relief, Nightshade did not seem worried. She wasn't sure how long he'd been watching them, but he seemed perfectly relaxed.

"Is…that heracross with them?" Katie asked, still sounding confused. Snowcrystal could understand why; a pokémon that ate sap and other sweet things traveling with meat eaters probably wasn't a common occurrence, even if the human was somehow used to the idea of members of different species journeying together.

The reactions of the pokémon gathered there gave Katie her answer. Rosie, Spark, Alex and Wildflame moved toward Nightshade in a concerned way. Snowcrystal saw Spark turn around and give Justin a hopeful look, but Justin didn't seem like he had any idea what to do with injured pokémon.

Damian walked slowly over to the heracross while reaching for something in his backpack. "Here," he said, holding out a small container of something that looked sort of like tree sap, yet smelled familiar.

It took Snowcrystal a few moments to recognize the scent. It was honey, like the honey they'd found in the combee hive. Nightshade turned toward Damian and began licking the honey gratefully, after pausing to tell him thanks in pokémon language. Rosie glared daggers at Nightshade, muttering something about it probably being poison.

"We have to get this heracross to a pokémon center," Damian said as he turned to Katie. "Are you going to come with us?"

Katie looked over at Justin and the tropius. "Okay…" she stated hesitantly, still not sounding very convinced about what the other two humans were going to try and do. Snowcrystal wouldn't have cared much, but remembering that she had Stormblade made her want this human to come with them.

"Let's go," Redclaw told everyone, but he addressed the alakazam in particular. "You can tell your human that we are ready."

"All right, then," Arien replied, seeming a bit annoyed with the way Redclaw had spoken like it was an order.

"You coming?" Wildflame asked Rosie, who was still staring at them all as if they'd grown extra heads.

"NO!" she shouted fiercely.

"Look," Wildflame sighed, "these humans aren't like the stupid poachers or Master. One of them could have died saving Snowcrystal. If you don't want to get left behind, I'd suggest you come. Besides, if they try to do anything bad to us, we'll defend you."

Snowcrystal watched the houndoom speak, wishing that Katie had let Stormblade out so that he could at least speak for the two humans who had been traveling together. Or Katie, at least, because she knew Stormblade would have nothing good to say about Justin, but there was Spark for that.

"Besides," Wildflame told Rosie with a grin as Damian began rummaging in his backpack for more poké balls, "if Thunder were here, she'd think the humans were bad too, and you wouldn't want to agree with her, would you?"

Snowcrystal winced at the mention of Thunder, but Rosie, although looking torn and frightened, did not argue. "You…you promise you'll stop them…if they…" the ninetales began in a frightened voice that sounded very unlike her own.

"Of course. All of us," Wildflame replied.

Snowcrystal didn't listen to what Rosie's response was. The mention of Thunder had brought her back to another important matter. "Arien!" she called, running up to the psychic pokémon. "Before we get captured…I need your trainer's help." She paused, wondering if the alakazam would be annoyed that she kept needing him to send messages for her, but he didn't seem to mind, nor had it seemed to be hard to communicate his thoughts to his trainer. "A friend of ours…" She felt odd saying the word 'friend' when referring to Thunder, and she was sure the other pokémon listening felt it was odd too, but she didn't have time to explain. "…She got captured by that human who was trying to capture me. Do you think…do you think your human can free her? She's a scyther named Thunder, and…" She broke off, for Damian had looked up from Nightshade and the poké balls he'd found to look at Arien, and she knew that the alakazam was using the psychic link. The look on Damian's face was horrified, and sad… certainly not a look that was hopeful to her.

"Aren't we supposed to be leaving?" Justin called from beside the tropius, looking annoyed that Damian and the pokémon were taking their time. Obviously he couldn't know what important things they had been trying to discuss.

"Yes…" Damian replied, walking over to Snowcrystal. "I think the pokémon are ready."

"But…" Snowcrystal whispered to herself.

Damian didn't look at her, but he seemed to know what she was thinking. "I'm sorry…" he said, "but we can't help Thunder now. There isn't anything we can do."

Snowcrystal knew he was right, but she couldn't help feeling miserable. Humans were supposed to be able to solve problems easily. They were supposed to be able to stop bad humans. She had suspected that Master was more powerful than even most good trainers, but it still managed to surprise her a bit when she really had to think of it as fact.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to have a white growlithe sent back to the lab?" Justin asked suddenly as Damian picked up a poké ball. "I don't think this is something…people should know about." He acted like he was choosing his words carefully, and he was looking at Damian with an expression that looked almost like jealousy.

"It'll be fine," Damian replied. "My younger brother used to volunteer at a lab. The workers there will be able to tell what species is inside the poké ball, but they won't notice an unusual color unless they let her out. I'll have gone back to the city and released her before they have time to let her out. The machine will probably notify them that the heracross is in bad condition…but when I get to Stonedust City, I can still ask for him back and request to put him in the pokémon center there."

"Or what's left of it…" Justin muttered.

"They had to have made some sort of temporary center," Katie replied, speaking for the first time in a while. "There are probably plenty of buildings they could use…"

"See?" Snowcrystal heard Redclaw whisper to Rosie. "They could heal your leg…make it work properly again."

Rosie looked down at her paws. "I don't know…" she whispered. "I'll come with you, but don't let those humans put me in a building when I haven't decided yet."

"All right," Redclaw agreed.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what he'd be able to do other than talk to Arien about it, but Rosie seemed satisfied.

Seeing that the pokémon had all stopped talking and stepped forward, Damian picked up the poké balls and set them down in front of them. Together, each pokémon stepped forward and touched one with their nose or paw. Snowcrystal felt a strange and familiar yet still foreign sensation as she was swept inside, then everything went dark.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was hard to tell just how much time had passed when the poké ball opened and Snowcrystal saw light again. It had seemed like a long time, and though being inside the poké ball had seemed strangely peaceful, she hadn't been used to it. Although she'd been able to convince herself that everything was all right, the fact that she did not know how to release herself from the orb, as Spark had told her some pokémon could do while in certain kinds of poké balls, unnerved her.

She didn't have much time to think about it though, for around her, she could see most of her friends; to her left, Wildflame's form materialized from the same red mist that had filled her own vision moments before. Rosie, Redclaw, Blazefang, and Alex had already been released, and Spark was standing proudly beside the human called Justin. Snowcrystal was happy to see Redclaw there; clearly his Team Rocket poké ball had been destroyed, since Damian's had been able to capture him.

Near Spark and Justin was the other human, Katie, who looked as though she had decided to stay around and help, at least for the time being. Though Snowcrystal didn't recognize the area, she figured they must be in one of the tree groves near Stonedust City.

"I'm going to go back and get my pokémon," Damian told the two humans before taking off running through the trees.

"He won't be gone long, will he?" Snowcrystal heard Spark asking. "We need to get into that library!"

"I don't think we will be the ones going into the library," Snowcrystal told him. "The humans will probably go themselves."

"Then who's going to protect us from other humans that might come here?" Blazefang asked worriedly.

"Ourselves," Redclaw growled. It was obvious that he found it odd, and annoying, that Blazefang was acting so paranoid. "But with any luck, we won't have to. They said this place was safe."

"Sure…" Rosie muttered, still clearly unhappy about the whole thing.

"He'll deactivate the poké balls when he gets back to the city," Spark reassured her. "Don't worry. He won't be able to return you to yours. You'll be officially released."

"Spark," Redclaw asked suddenly. "Did your human release you already?"

Spark shook his head. "No," he told Redclaw. "And he's not going to. I've found my home, and that's wherever Justin is." Redclaw didn't reply, and neither did anyone else, though it was clear that the others had mixed feelings about Spark remaining with a human.

Everyone waited in silence, a few of them casting nervous glances at Katie and Justin, who were giving equally anxious looks back at them. "Where's Nightshade?" Snowcrystal wondered aloud after a while.

Redclaw looked at her and shrugged. "Damian could only bring six of us. Maybe he's going to bring Nightshade back now."

"He's probably at the pokémon center," Spark replied.

"The destroyed one?" Redclaw muttered, but before anyone could reply, a shadow passed over them and Damian's tropius landed in the clearing.

Damian stepped off the grass type's back, looking around at both pokémon and humans. "Well," he began, obviously addressing the pokémon, "you're all free. Before we search, I thought we might get to know each other better."

Most of the pokémon glanced at each other in confusion. Snowcrystal wasn't sure how she and the others would get to know a human without really annoying Arien, which seemed pretty pointless when she thought they should be using the pokémon and trainer connection to convey only important information. But she soon realized that that was not what Damian had meant; for a moment later he had taken out four other poké balls, each of a different color, and flung them into the air in front of him.

Four more pokémon appeared; Snowcrystal recognized Arien and the absol who had helped save her in the canyon. Beside the absol stood a smaller, orange and yellow pokémon with pointed ears that resembled Spark's, and a large ruff of fur around his neck. She knew what this species was; it was a flareon. The pokémon beside him was a smaller yellow pokémon with odd looking structures on his head which Snowcrystal guessed might be his ears, and black stripes as well as a lightning bolt shape on his chest. It took her a moment to think of the name of this species, but it came to her when she remembered hearing about it in a story back on her mountain; it was an elekid.

"Well," Damian told the waiting pokémon and the two humans, "meet Dusk." He nodded to the absol. "Arien." The alakazam stepped forward. "Inferno." The flareon smiled shyly. "Fernwing." The tropius nodded. "And Todd." At the mention of his name, the elekid leaped up excitedly, staring around at the humans and pokémon gathered beneath the trees with a wide grin.

Looking at these pokémon, Snowcrystal didn't feel like introducing herself. She had much more important things on her mind. And first, she was going to ask the question she had been wondering about since she arrived here. "Where's Nightshade?" She hoped one of Damian's pokémon would know, or that Arien would ask his trainer, but she was pretty sure that Damian had Nightshade with him. After all, he had only let out five pokémon.

"Nightshade the heracross is in the temporary pokémon center," Damian answered, so soon after she asked her question that she wondered if Arien let Damian know everything he heard from other pokémon. "And yes, I released him. He is wild, but the nurses there are still taking care of him."

Damian's flareon and elekid gave each other confused looks. Snowcrystal heard the flareon whisper, "What's this all about?"

"And Stormblade? He's…the scyther she has." She angled her head toward Katie.

"In the long-term pokémon hospital at the other side of Stonedust City," Damian replied after exchanging a look with Arien. "She took him there before we came here. And…Katie," he added, looking up at the rather confused trainer. "I think your scyther has a name. It's Stormblade."

Katie kept giving him the confused look. Justin, however, seemed rather annoyed that he couldn't tell what was going on between the pokémon except for what Damian told them. "Stormblade's a horrible name," he muttered.

"Would you rather I just called him _Scyther?_ " Katie asked him. Justin said nothing.

Snowcrystal wished she could have seen Stormblade before he'd been taken off to that 'hospital,' whatever that was, but it looked like she wasn't going to get to see him after all.

"So, were these pokémon…friends of that scyther?" Katie asked Damian slowly.

"Yes!" all of the wild pokémon in the clearing, except for Blazefang, said at once. Katie didn't need a translator to understand. Luckily, Justin didn't seem to have noticed Spark joining in with the others.

"Well…" Katie began, as if she found it odd to be talking to a group of wild pokémon rather than her own, "he's being taken care of. I know I should have taken him to the long-term hospital first thing when I was at the city before…I mean, the pokémon center was closer…I thought they'd move him there eventually…" She stopped, realizing that the pokémon were just staring at her, understanding that they, or at least the ones that had always been wild, probably didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

"Who are these pokémon?" Inferno the flareon said quietly.

"Sorry," Redclaw told him. "We'll have to explain everything to you soon. I am Redclaw, and these are my friends." As he began introducing them as quickly as he could, Damian's pokémon watched silently, some of them still confused. Katie quietly let out a few of her pokémon, her azumarill and the aipom Snowcrystal recognized as Sid, who sat and listened with wide eyes, clearly in awe of all the strange pokémon around him. Damian watched calmly, seeming satisfied that the pokémon were getting to know each other. Justin simply looked annoyed.

"Aren't we going to the library?" he said loudly, fixing Damian with an accusing stare. "We're wasting time."

"I don't think we should go until tomorrow," Damian replied. Before Justin could argue, he explained, "It's already evening. The library will be closing soon. I think we should spend tonight planning how we could most efficiently search the library, and talking to the pokémon too. There could be ways they could help."

Justin didn't argue, but he still looked annoyed. "So…are these pokémon going to explain to you and your alakazam exactly what we need to be doing?"

"Yes…" Damian replied, looking over the group. "They can tell us anything else we need to know, and I'll tell you and Katie _everything._ " He paused to look at Blazefang, who crouched down and averted his gaze. "But first," Damian said, just as Justin was looking eager to learn more from the pokémon, "I think my newest pokémon needs to understand this as well." He took out another poké ball, which looked like the one Katie had caught Stormblade with.

"A luxury ball?" Spark blurted out. "No fair!"

"Shh!" Rosie hissed. "You're the one who wanted to be caught! Quit complaining!"

"Why didn't you just let that one out in the first place?" Justin growled, clearly growing more impatient.

"He doesn't like other pokémon much," Damian replied. "I wasn't sure how he'd react. But…" He shrugged carelessly. "I'm sure it'll be all right." Katie and Justin exchanged uneasy looks as Damian threw the poké ball in the air.

The pokémon that appeared brought Snowcrystal back to the previous night where she had seen the silhouette of a human and two pokémon near the canyon. She had been, unfortunately, right about two things that night. One, that one of the pokémon had been a scizor, and two, that that scizor was Scytheclaw.

"You!" Redclaw snarled as soon as the scizor finished forming.

When Scytheclaw first appeared, he looked almost calm, certainly not angry like he had always seemed before. She noticed that he had bandages around his waist and on other parts of his body, and she realized that Damian must have helped him. But _why?_ Scytheclaw's calm expression instantly changed to one of fury as he realized who he was standing in front of. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he shouted, in a voice that sounded as though he wanted to tear all the wild pokémon to shreds. Justin looked startled, even afraid, and he visibly flinched as the scizor cried out. Katie glanced at him anxiously.

"I could ask you the same question," Redclaw replied, mimicking Scytheclaw's exact words from the time they had encountered the scizor after coming down from the mountain. Snowcrystal noticed that all of her friends had assumed a battle stance.

"Tell me," Wildflame began, grinning slyly. Snowcrystal gave her an odd look, wondering why she sounded like she was taunting. Did Wildflame really feel like it would be wise to start a fight? "How did you feel being kicked out of your home? Didn't feel as good as kicking other pokémon out yourself, did it?" She opened her mouth, and Snowcrystal could see the red hot glow of a small, but still red hot fire attack about to be launched.

Scytheclaw's eyes locked on her, and he lunged. As quick as he could, Damian reached for the poké ball and returned him. The flames that had been forming in Wildflame's mouth flickered and died.

Once Scytheclaw was gone, Justin turned and glared at Damian. "You're 'sure it will be all right?'" he cried mockingly, still looking furious. "That thing could have killed us!"

"Actually," Damian pointed out, though he looked as shocked as everyone else, "he was only going to attack the houndoom, but…I don't understand why he did that. He's such a nice pokémon-"

"It's not _nice!_ " Justin yelled, and Spark shouted his agreement. "You can't trust any member of _that_ species." Damian seemed so taken aback by how his scizor had reacted that he did not reply. "Come on, Katie," Justin muttered, "let's go into the city and find a trainer's hotel for the night, since we can't stay in a pokémon center…"

"But didn't you want to hear what…" Katie began, looking at the pokémon.

"I can tell you everything they said in the morning…if you want," Damian told her.

"Fine," she muttered, not looking at him. She followed Justin and Spark, who had angrily begun to walk away through the trees.

"I knew the new guy had issues," Inferno the flareon whispered, and Snowcrystal knew he was talking about Scytheclaw. Dusk glared at him. "What?" Inferno asked.

  
**-ooo-**  


"I can't believe this!" Justin muttered as he and Katie walked through the grass toward the brightening lights of Stonedust City. The sky above them was growing darker, and Justin was glad they were close; it was getting hard to see where he was going. "He has a scizor. What…why…what sort of trainer keeps a pokémon like that? Granted, it's not as bad as scyther, but…"

"Justin, you owned a scyther once, and I do now," Katie pointed out from behind him.

Justin didn't reply. He looked down at his jolteon, who looked up and gave him a worried glance, clearly uneasy about something. Wishing he had a telepathic pokémon like Damian, Justin trudged on, Spark at his side.

"You know," Katie began again, "if we try to walk into a trainer's lodge and they see you have a pokémon, they're going to ask for your license."

"I'll hide the poké ball and say I'm with you," Justin muttered.

"I want to check on Scythe-...Stormblade, first," Katie replied.

Justin stopped in his tracks. "Oh, please!" he shouted. "Why do you have to do that? We have much more important things to think about now. Like stopping the Forbidden Attacks!" He felt Spark slowly lick his hand, trying to calm him down.

"Justin…we don't even know for sure if that whole thing is true," Katie replied. "Are you sure you want to believe a bunch of…wild pokémon who probably don't know what they're talking about?" She paused as Spark growled at her. "And you can go on alone and wait for me at the hotel if you want, but I'm going to visit Stormblade."

Justin kept walking, feeling like it was useless to argue. He hated the fact that she was still focused on that horrible scyther, the very reason he was going to have to hide Spark while in the trainer's lodges. He would have tried to ask the people at the pokémon hospital to just give up and put the bug type to sleep if he didn't find the idea of all that suffering to be ironically fitting for the scyther. Trying not to think about that anymore, he gave Katie an annoyed glance out of the corner of his eye. "Well _I_ believe him," he muttered, setting his hand on Spark's head. He walked on ahead, no longer caring whether Katie would be coming with him to the hotel right away or not.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal and her friends, along with Damian's pokémon, minus Scytheclaw, sat together in the clearing. Damian had set up a tent in the middle of it, which Snowcrystal had found strangely fascinating, but hadn't dared to try to go inside. A couple of fireflies flew lazily around them as they all sat in the dark clearing lit only by a small glowing device Damian had brought. Some of them, mainly Snowcrystal, Rosie, and a surprisingly willing Blazefang, told Damian's pokémon everything they thought was important. Rosie even launched into a quick description of some of the things they had encountered on their journey.

"I'd give anything to get rid of Shadowflare…" Blazefang sighed after everyone had finished explaining what they had encountered and learned of the Forbidden Attacks.

"Aww, don't worry!" Alex said, patting Blazefang on the back. "We'll help you learn how to get rid of it!" Blazefang glared furiously at her.

"Well, first thing in the morning," Redclaw said, "we _have_ to get into that library."

"The humans do, anyway," Dusk told him from where he was lying beneath a tree. "The city's no place for wild pokémon."

"We want to help too!" Alex protested.

"I didn't mean you couldn't," Dusk replied. "It's just that the humans can search the library for relevant books much faster and more efficiently than a pokémon can. I'm assuming none of you read human." He smirked. "If you really wanted to, I'm sure one of the smaller pokémon could go, but I'd be careful if I were you, growlithe."

"Snowcrystal," she stated.

"Right." Dusk smiled again and then lay down, closing his eyes.

Most of the other pokémon were settling down for the night; even Wildflame and Blazefang were getting ready to sleep. Though nocturnal, the journey had taken so much of a toll on them that they didn't think much of sleeping at odd times. Snowcrystal stood up and was about to walk over to Redclaw and Alex when she noticed Damian wandering off. Curious, she turned and followed him. She hadn't followed him far from the clearing when he turned and noticed her.

"Don't worry," he told her, "I'm not leaving. I'm just letting Scytheclaw out…away from the others, I mean. He likes sleeping outside. It's okay, he won't bother you. Go back and rest with your friends."

Snowcrystal turned and headed back toward the others. She was almost upon the clearing when she stopped in her tracks. A sudden thought had come to her. She had been too overwhelmed by everything to think about it before…

Running into the clearing, she found a spot to herself beneath a small tree, waiting for Damian to return. Redclaw glanced over at her, concerned, but she didn't want to explain why she was sleeping alone. She waited for what seemed a long while until she saw Damian stroll back into the clearing and climb into the tent; his shiny device turned off. After that moment, she stood up and began strolling away.

"Snowcrystal, where are you going?" Redclaw whispered.

"Uh…just for a walk," Snowcrystal replied. He didn't say anything, and she crossed the clearing and went into the trees. Once in the darkness of night without any pokémon surrounding her, and with nothing but the light of the moon and her crystal to see by, Snowcrystal suddenly became worried, remembering the last time she had tried to do something similar. "I have to do it…" she whispered to herself. "For Stormblade."

She came to a spot on the ground where she could smell Scytheclaw's scent; Damian had released him here. She kept walking, noticing the scent growing stronger as she moved through a grove of trees, then she suddenly emerged into a clearing.

"What is it this time?" a nasty voice hissed back to her. Scytheclaw was standing on the other side of the clearing, gazing at the sky.

Snowcrystal hesitated, then walked forward. "I have to ask you something."

The scizor turned around and fixed the tiny growlithe with a piercing stare. "Didn't you ask already? I only know as much as you know, or as much as you told Damian," he growled. "He just told me what you all said."

"We told him everything we know," Snowcrystal replied. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about it. You see, my friend, the scyther that was with us when…when we came to the canyon…he's hurt bad and he can't heal. Damian probably told you about him. I was thinking…that…you could…"

Scytheclaw's face betrayed no emotion, but he lowered himself down to her level and stared into her eyes. She felt even more unnerved now. "And what," the scizor hissed, "makes you think I'd do that?"

"You're the only one who can!" Snowcrystal replied, trying to feel brave. "You know he's been hurt by Blazefang's Forbidden Attack now, right? Spark says they don't heal, and it certainly hasn't been healing. Stormblade has nothing to do with what you have against Redclaw or Nightshade…or me…surely you wouldn't let an innocent pokémon suffer…" She wasn't sure how he would react.

"You don't seem to care that the healing power, or Forbidden Attack, or whatever it is, hurts _me,_ " Scytheclaw growled. "Why should I care about the pain of your friend when you clearly don't care about mine?"

"But-"

Scytheclaw's expression turned furious again. " _He_ gets to stay a scyther!" he yelled. "He should be grateful for that! I'm not going anywhere near a _scyther,_ " he spat bitterly, and it was clear to Snowcrystal that he did not want to be reminded of what he once was…what he lost. Scytheclaw had to have some major issue with evolution, or maybe he just really missed his scyther form. She had remembered him saying to Nightshade, during their battle, that he had been forced to evolve. She knew that some pokémon never wanted to; Scytheclaw had been one of them, one that had to have been particularly horrified with the idea, if it had affected him so much. But that was no reason to refuse to help…

"Look," Snowcrystal told him, "if there's anything I can do that will convince you to help him, I'll do it."

"There isn't," Scytheclaw snarled. "Get out of here."

"But there must be something I can-"

"What would I want from a filthy, fleabitten freak like you?" Scytheclaw yelled. "I don't want your help, and you certainly won't be getting any from me. Now leave, or else I'll have to explain to Damian why there are growlithe entrails all over this clearing in the morning."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure he really meant the threat, but she wasn't going to find out. She turned and left, feeling depressed and hopeless. How could she ever convince Scytheclaw to help Stormblade? Maybe she couldn't, she thought, but maybe…someone else could. Scytheclaw seemed to have a certain respect for Damian… That was it!

Breaking into a run again, she reached the clearing in no time. Looking around at the pokémon, she spotted Arien still awake. Walking up to him, she prodded his arm with a paw. "Arien," she whispered. "I need your help."

"What is it?" the pokémon asked, turning toward her.

"It's about Scytheclaw," she told him. "You know how I was talking about what he said…how he had that weird healing power?" She watched as the alakazam nodded. "Well, I think that could be the answer to curing Stormblade's injuries. If anything can, I'm sure Scytheclaw's power could." She waited to see what he would say, and for one frantic moment she felt a rush of panic, wondering if Scytheclaw had been lying and there was no power at all…

"I've seen Scytheclaw use this power," Arien replied, immediately putting her fears to rest. "He used it on Damian after he found the scizor injured and helped him. Damian had a minor injury from a wild pokémon, and although Scytheclaw managed to heal it, I could tell it caused him a considerable amount of pain."

Snowcrystal stared. She couldn't imagine Scytheclaw repaying anyone for helping him. She was also growing to doubt that the power was a Forbidden Attack at all, and she could tell that Arien felt the same way.

"Damian saved him, you know," Arien continued.

"What?" Snowcrystal replied, shocked, but then remembered that Damian had to have no idea about what Scytheclaw had done in the past; he had probably just wanted to help an injured pokémon. "Oh…yes, but…well, Scytheclaw doesn't seem like the kind of pokémon to be helpful. I mean…he's ruthless. Cruel, even. He…he tried to kill Nightshade before, in a battle."

To her surprise, Arien didn't seem angry that she had said such a thing about his teammate. He remained completely calm. "A horrible leader, I suppose," he began. "Yes, Scytheclaw told Damian that he was once the leader of a group of pokémon, though not a good one, from what I can tell." That, Snowcrystal thought, was an understatement. Scytheclaw had been the worst leader she had ever heard of. "But believe me when I say that unless provoked, Scytheclaw will not harm any of you anymore."

"What do you mean? We can't really trust him to just…you know, sit there and do nothing, especially when Nightshade comes back…"

"He won't harm Nightshade either," the alakazam replied. "Hate him, perhaps, but not harm him. He only tried to attack Wildflame because she threatened him."

"How do you know he won't attack Nightshade…or anyone else?" Snowcrystal asked. "How can you be sure?"

"You're going to have to trust me on this," Arien said calmly. "I know it's hard to believe, if you have been harmed by Scytheclaw in the past, but trust me when I say that you will not get any trouble from him if you leave him alone."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure why, but somehow, she believed him. After all, Scytheclaw hadn't wanted to fight them when they had met him in the wild; he had been beaten and alone, far from the group of pokémon he was used to ruling over. "Okay…" she said softly. "But there's something else…I talked to him tonight, and he said he wouldn't try to heal Stormblade…"

"You were asking a lot of him," Arien replied. "Healing injuries like what you said Stormblade has would take a lot of energy, perhaps even be more painful."

"So what?" Snowcrystal growled, forgetting for a moment to be silent. "Stormblade's in pain all the time, and he doesn't even deserve it! Scytheclaw's his only hope!"

"I'm not saying Scytheclaw made the better choice," Arien replied calmly, "only explaining why he told you 'no.' And seeing how hostile you and you friends seem toward him, that probably influenced his decision too."

"I wasn't being hostile…" Snowcrystal said softly. "Being nice sure didn't make a difference. Do you think…" She paused. "Do you think you can speak to Damian? If Scytheclaw has respect for him, and he's Damian's pokémon, Damian can make him do it."

"Maybe," the alakazam replied, "but I won't tell him."

"Why?" Snowcrystal whispered, but she really wanted to shout it out loud.

"Because I know Damian won't," the psychic pokémon told her. "Damian never makes his pokémon do anything they don't want to do, and I'm not sure any good would come out of him trying to force Scytheclaw anyway. I'm afraid this decision is Scytheclaw's alone. No one can physically force him to use his power."

"Then it's hopeless then," Snowcrystal muttered, and without waiting for a reply, she walked back to her tree and lay down. She saw the alakazam giving her one last look before she turned and faced the other way. There didn't seem to be anything she could do, no way to force or trick Scytheclaw into helping her. She started to wonder if there was any real hope for Stormblade to heal at all.

_To be continued..._


	50. Revisiting

The following morning, Damian told Justin, Katie, and their pokémon everything that they had missed the previous night. Snowcrystal hadn't been happy to see Justin return, but she was glad to see Spark, who, despite the drama of the previous day, seemed happier than she'd seen him in a long time. Ever since he had reunited with Justin, the jolteon hadn't left the human's side.

The wild pokémon were relieved that Damian had been right; no trainers had ventured their way, but they were near enough to the city that the humans didn't have much trouble going back and forth between their resting place and the buildings. All of Damian's pokémon, minus Scytheclaw, were out of their poké balls; Snowcrystal noticed that they all looked intensely interested whenever someone mentioned the Forbidden Attacks.

Now, Snowcrystal realized, they were going to be discussing how they were going to search the library. Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling a bit frustrated that she would be sitting out here with most of the other pokémon, unable to help. Sure enough, a little while later, Damian, Justin, and Katie had all decided they would go together, taking only their own pokémon.

"It's not fair," Alex muttered. "I could help. I'm sure I could help!"

"Can you read?" Blazefang replied sarcastically.

"No," Alex replied, "but I could help them look for book covers that had pictures of pokémon attacks on them…"

"I just wish we didn't have to stay here," Snowcrystal sighed. She stayed silent for a moment, watching the dancing light patterns that filtered down to the ground through the tree over her head, then sat bolt upright, a thought coming to her. "Do you think we could ask the humans if we could visit Nightshade or…or Stormblade?"

"You mean walk right into a city full of humans, with no trainer?" Blazefang replied, looking at her like she was crazy.

Before she could answer, Alex leaped up in excitement. "Yes!" she cried. "I mean, why not?"

"Well…" Snowcrystal began. Now that she thought about it, Blazefang was right. Even with the protection of the humans and their pokémon, it would be very risky to just waltz right into the city. She began to wish that she hadn't spoken her sudden thought aloud.

Before she could try and get her to reconsider, Alex had run over to Arien and began pleading with him to ask Damian to persuade the other trainers to let them go. Reluctantly, Arien nodded, leading Alex to cry out in delight.

"That heracross I brought to the pokémon center…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say suddenly to the other two humans after a few moments. "He was friends with these pokémon. I think we should take them to see him. The scyther, too."

"Huh?" Katie replied, still regarding Damian and his pokémon with the same uncertain look she had shown before.

"We don't have time for that," Justin muttered. "We have work to do."

"Actually," Katie said louder, before Damian could say anything, "I think it's a great idea." From the look of surprise on Justin's face, Snowcrystal was certain he hadn't been expecting that, though whether Katie was simply disagreeing with him on purpose or wanted a distraction from having to make a certain decision about the Forbidden Attacks, she didn't know.

"You're going to walk through the city with several wild pokémon who obviously aren't yours?" Justin scoffed.

"If the three of us go," Damian suggested, "and keep our pokémon in their poké balls, people will just assume the group of pokémon belong to us. They won't be trying to catch them or anything. Of course, we have to be careful about Snowcrystal…" He thought for a moment, and then went over to his backpack, which lay beside the tent, and emptied all of its supplies onto the ground. "Maybe she can ride in here," he said. "It looks big enough."

' _And cramped…'_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, but she didn't try to argue.

"We can go visit the pokémon and then head straight for the library," Damian stated. "They might even let the pokémon in there, so if we find anything, we can tell them right then." He looked over his own pokémon, his gaze resting on Todd the elekid and Inferno the flareon. "I want you two to stay here," he told them. "Watch the camp for me."

Todd immediately threw up his arm in a salute, but Inferno looked disappointed. "I want to go too…" Snowcrystal heard him whisper.

Either Arien was sending Damian a translation or the trainer had guessed what his flareon was thinking, because he replied, "I'm sorry, but if you came, you'd have to stay in your poké ball anyway. Only the wild pokémon can stay out, I'm afraid. But don't worry; you can come next time." Looking slightly happier, Inferno nodded.

"Er…I'm going to head off to the library and wait for you there," Justin muttered. "I'm not interested in visiting any sick bug types." Snowcrystal glared at him; she knew from what Stormblade had told her that he was terrified of scyther, and didn't want to go to see Nightshade in case the others dragged him along to the long term pokémon hospital too.

"Fine by me," Katie said. "Uh…Damian? Are you sure these pokémon will behave?"

"They will," Damian replied with absolute certainty. The doubtful look on Katie's face told Snowcrystal she was still remembering the Scytheclaw incident.

"They better," Katie muttered, "unless they want to be taken away by the police." She sighed. "Well, if we're going to take them, let's hurry and go."

Snowcrystal was placed carefully into the backpack, which wasn't as uncomfortable as she'd thought it would be, but there was still very little space. Damian left part of the top of the backpack open so she could peer out of it.

She was very grateful that Damian and Katie seemed to want to take an early morning walk to the city rather than ride on Damian's tropius. It was probably because of the pokémon following them, she realized, and she was grateful that they were coming. Redclaw seemed happier than Snowcrystal had seen him lately; he would often run on ahead, then double back to circle the trainers. She didn't blame him; they were just finally starting to gain real hope of finding the answers they needed, and they were, compared to what they'd just been through, safe. Alex plodded happily along behind them with Wildflame and a rather reluctant Rosie and Blazefang.

Blazefang had merely come along because he hadn't wanted to stay back at the camp with two pokémon who were practically strangers, and Rosie had finally been persuaded both by the desire to see her friends and the assurance that Damian wouldn't let any other humans near her.

The walk to the city was surprisingly pleasant; there were almost no signs that the area had once been ravaged by poachers. Bird pokémon fluttered from tree to tree and small pokémon scurried through the undergrowth just out of sight. A pleasant breeze picked up, ruffling Snowcrystal's white tuft of fur as she peered further out of the backpack.

Upon reaching Stonedust City, the mood of the pokémon changed. Each of them, even the confident ones, were eying the strange buildings warily. "Now remember," Damian told them, "don't stop, don't run on ahead. Just follow Katie and I. Don't wander into the street, don't bother other humans or pokémon, and don't eat anything out of the garbage."

The trainers and pokémon started to head into the city's outskirts; Snowcrystal immediately pulled her head back into Damian's backpack. As they walked further and further through the unnatural forest of tall, metallic buildings, Snowcrystal watched through the opening in the backpack, remembering the time she and Wildflame had snuck through the city's streets. It had been raining then, and the place had seemed terrifying. While the city was still intimidating, at least now she had protection, and it helped that the skies were clear. There were lots of other humans around, from what she could see, and pokémon too. Though she saw a few people give Damian and Katie strange looks, most of them didn't seem to find anything odd about the number of pokémon following them.

Suddenly Damian stopped. "Taking your pokémon out for a walk?" asked a human voice Snowcrystal did not recognize. "Seems like an odd place to do it."

"They like to walk places with us," Damian replied cheerfully. Snowcrystal tried to peer further out of the backpack but only saw Damian's hand as he shoved her back down.

"It's so noisy around here!" she heard Rosie complain as Damian and the other human were talking. "How far is this pokémon center place anyway?"

Snowcrystal wished Arien was around to ask Damian that very thing, but he was inside his poké ball, and Snowcrystal knew that the trainers probably didn't want more than five – excluding Snowcrystal – pokémon following them at once.

Damian had stopped talking with the human; they were moving again. Snowcrystal peered upward at the towering buildings around them. She didn't know what part of the city they were in, but these buildings were bigger than the ones around the library had been. She could hear several strange noises and see some of the large metallic machines Spark had called _cars_ rumble past along the black ground that the trainers were, wisely, not walking on.

When they had passed a few streets, each more overwhelming than the last, Snowcrystal heard footsteps – human footsteps –behind her and turned her body around inside the backpack to look. A young human child was running toward Katie, Damian, and the pokémon with an excited look on its face. "Ninetales!" she shouted, reaching out her arms. "Mommy, he has a ninetales!"

Snowcrystal saw Rosie freeze as if someone had paralyzed her. The small human was coming closer, and Rosie looked too panicked to do anything. Snowcrystal couldn't tell which, if any, of the humans were this little one's parents. Damian seemed to notice too, because he stopped and turned, and Snowcrystal got a glimpse of a sudden change coming over Rosie before she was turned around and her view blocked. Rosie then let out a battle cry that made Snowcrystal's blood run cold. _They couldn't attack the humans!_ Before she could think to say anything, Damian had run in front of Rosie, standing between her and the human girl. From what Snowcrystal could now see, Rosie looked like cornered prey; every hair on her body was standing up straight and her mouth was wide open, a glow forming in the back of her throat.

"Rosie," Wildflame hissed. "Quit it!" The other pokémon just watched silently, not looking like they wanted to intervene and risk, as Katie had said, the police taking them away.

But Rosie didn't seem to have any intention of 'quitting it.' She leaned to the side to be able to peer around Damian's leg, her snarling face pointing straight at the small human.

"Careful!" Damian told the human, sounding, Snowcrystal thought, a bit worried himself. "You shouldn't approach strange pokémon like that…I mean, my ninetales…she's not used to, um…"

Snowcrystal peered down at Rosie, trying to catch her eye, but Rosie wasn't looking. Instead, she tried to lunge toward the little human, but Damian pushed her back with his leg. Rosie replied by biting it.

"Ahhh!" Damian cried out, but quickly silenced his scream, focusing instead on talking to the girl. "Uh…just run along now…my pokémon…want to be left alone, it seems." He seemed like he was trying to sound cheerful, but he sounded in pain.

Snowcrystal hoped that the little human would decide to wander off before Damian's pants caught on fire, but it didn't seem like she wanted to move. "Damian…" she heard Katie say from somewhere ahead of them. "You said they were going to behave."

Damian took no notice, for another set of footsteps was approaching, the little human's mother or father, Snowcrystal guessed. She quickly realized that she was right.

"Abigail, what do you think you're doing?" The sound of an adult human, a female, came toward her. "I've told you, you can't go running off-"

"He has a ninetales!" the little human shouted excitedly.

When the adult human spoke again, her voice didn't sound pleasant. "What do you think you're doing?" she yelled at Damian, loud enough to make Snowcrystal wince. "You can't just let unfriendly pokémon walk outside their poké balls in the middle of the city! If your pokémon is dangerous, I could report you to the police…"

"Sorry!" Damian replied as he finally managed to dislodge Rosie. "It won't happen again. She's not dangerous…just…nervous around strangers. She'd never hurt anyone…I mean…" Snowcrystal wasn't sure how Damian was going to sound convincing after Rosie had just bitten his leg, and the other human seemed to think the same thing, because Damian replied, "She was only playing! I mean, she does that all the time!"

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in reply, but afterwards they started walking away briskly, ignoring the still excited squeals of the little girl. "Rosie," Snowcrystal hissed, "don't do that! You almost got us all in trouble!"

"Well if that human had just stayed away from me-"

"Rosie, please," Wildflame replied. "Try to act like you've seen a human before! If you don't threaten them, they won't harm you, but if you DO threaten them, they probably will." Rosie didn't answer, but didn't try to argue either.

"This was a horrible idea," Katie muttered to Damian. "I don't want to get questioned by the police because 'your' wild pokémon can't keep from trying to attack someone. They'd better behave around the injured pokémon in the center, because I'm not going to help you if the police come to investigate."

"Right…" Damian replied, sounding less sure of himself than before. Snowcrystal wished she could reassure him that Rosie wouldn't act like that again; she didn't want the trainers to turn around and go back without seeing Stormblade and Nightshade.

On the way to their first stop, which Snowcrystal soon learned was where Nightshade was staying, the rest of the journey went uneventfully. A couple times, humans would stop to pet Wildflame or Redclaw, a few of them noticing Redclaw's scars and asking Damian if he had gotten him from a pokémon rescue organization, whatever that was, but Rosie stayed by Damian's side and didn't try to start any more trouble.

"There it is," Damian finally said as they rounded a corner of the sidewalk and came across a new jumble of buildings. Damian was pointing to a tall, wide building in the center of the next street. Snowcrystal peered a little further out of the backpack to get a look. The building looked pretty plain, she thought, being the same dull brown color as several of the other buildings on its street, and with rows of dark, dreary looking windows. A large cloth had been put up just above the front doors. There were human markings across it and a larger red marking in the center. She thought that the markings must mean 'the pokémon center,' to tell humans where the new one was. The cloth fluttered in the wind, revealing some other human markings underneath, which Snowcrystal assumed told what the building used to be used for.

"It doesn't look much like a pokémon center," Alex muttered.

"It's the temporary one," Redclaw whispered back. He did not elaborate on why a temporary center was necessary.

Carefully, they crossed the street over to the other side (it took a while to persuade Rosie that it was safe) and walked along the sidewalk, which was much busier than any they had been on before. It made it difficult for the larger pokémon to maneuver, but they reached the building's entrance without incident.

Katie and Damian stepped inside, and Snowcrystal realized instantly that the building's interior was not nearly as bleak as it had looked from the outside. They had entered a large white room that looked spotlessly clean, maybe a bit _too_ clean, even, with several chairs around the walls where humans sat. Around many of them were pokémon, some of them sitting patiently by their trainers and others, mainly very young pokémon, occupying themselves with strange looking human made toys that were scattered across one section of the floor.

"Stormblade's not here, is he?" Snowcrystal asked the others. "It's just Nightshade?"

"Yes," Wildflame replied. "Stormblade's in some other building. I just hope it's not far from here. I don't like this city much." That, Snowcrystal could tell, was an understatement.

Damian handed the backpack to Katie, who held it carefully, and approached a human at a counter on the other side of the room, while Snowcrystal looked longingly at the pokémon playing with toys. She almost wished she could join them, but she knew she couldn't leave the backpack until she was safely wherever Nightshade was.

"I'd like to see the heracross I dropped off here before…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say faintly from across the room. "Well, me, my friend, and my pokémon…"

The noise in the room grew loud enough to drown out Damian's words, and Snowcrystal turned towards the pokémon playing with the toys again.

"Oh, come on, Blazefang!" Alex cried happily, nudging the annoyed houndour. "Let's join them!" The floatzel reached out and grabbed a short piece of rope with two knots at the end. "I know this game! You grab one end, I'll grab the other, and we'll pull, and then whoever lets go-"

"Get out of my face," Blazefang hissed between his teeth as Alex dangled the rope in front of his eyes.

"Quiet, everyone," Redclaw whispered. "He's coming back."

Sure enough, Damian was walking back towards them. "This way," he said. Everyone quickly followed him as he walked to the other side of the room, where they were led by a nurse through a door and down a hallway.

Reaching an odd looking door that Snowcrystal realized was made out of…not wood, but _metal,_ the nurse suddenly stopped. "It would be better if you recalled your pokémon," she told the trainers.

Snowcrystal made sure to keep as hidden in the darkness of the backpack as possible, but she could still see as Katie gave Damian a worried glance.

"Can they stay out?" Katie asked. "They won't be much trouble; they're well trained. They know the heracross…and well…they don't like poké balls too much, and…"

"Fine," the nurse's voice said grudgingly, and Snowcrystal heard a few odd sounds and then they stepped into what she realized must be the metal door. Suddenly she felt a horrifying sensation, like the floor itself was _moving._ She had no clue what kind of room they were in or if something was going horribly wrong, but she had the sense not to move or make any sounds.

Soon the odd motion sensation stopped, and they stepped out into what Snowcrystal realized was another hallway. Katie handed the backpack to Damian again and he put it back on his shoulders; now Snowcrystal could only really see the other side of the hallway as they walked further and further down it. Soon they turned into a smaller room. Snowcrystal couldn't see much of this room, but she wanted to get a better look. Not knowing if it was safe, however, she stayed put.

"Blissey, will you stay here, please?" the voice of the nurse asked. A pokémon agreed happily, and Snowcrystal heard footsteps again, which faded quickly.

"All right," Damian whispered. "The nurse is gone. There are just pokémon here. But we have to make this quick." He set the backpack down and opened it, and Snowcrystal gladly stepped out.

If any of the helper pokémon working at the center stared at her odd fur color, Snowcrystal didn't notice. She was too busy looking around at the room. It had an odd smell to it that Snowcrystal didn't like, but it was very clean. It was a long room with a lower ceiling than the first room they had walked into upon entering the building. There were several beds lined up near the opposite wall, most of them occupied by various pokémon. On the beds nearest to her, she saw a beat-up looking raichu with a bloodied bandage on its head, a victreebel with what she was pretty sure were burn injuries, and on the nearest bed, Nightshade.

The pokémon working at the center paid no notice as the visiting pokémon, minus Blazefang, approached Nightshade's bed. Snowcrystal felt herself being lifted up by Damian and placed on the edge of the bed, where she could see the heracross up close. With the humans' bandages all over him now, she couldn't tell how bad her friend's injuries were. However, she could see that there were a _lot_ of bandages. Nightshade's eyes were closed and he wasn't moving.

"Is he asleep?" Snowcrystal asked. Before anyone could answer, Alex reached up and shoved Nightshade – a bit too hard, Snowcrystal thought – and he opened his eyes wearily.

"Alex!" Snowcrystal hissed.

Nightshade blinked a few times as his eyes focused on the pokémon around him. He tried to push himself up off the bed a little, but quickly abandoned the attempt.

"Nightshade…" Snowcrystal began. When the heracross didn't reply, she glanced at the others, who simply looked back at her.

After a moment, Blazefang sighed and turned away. "Hurry it up," he muttered. "We need to get back to looking for a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks."

At Blazefang's words, Nightshade began to speak. "I am glad that you have all found help," he said in a weak voice, making the pokémon surrounding his bed turn their heads toward him. Even Damian and Katie leaned closer, though they wouldn't be able to understand his words. "Listen, Snowcrystal," he began, still sounding dazed but looking steadily into the growlithe's eyes. "I know that Blazefang is right and that we don't have a lot of time to speak to each other. I also know that these humans can help in your search more than any pokémon can. Don't wait for me to recover to keep searching, even if you have to leave the city, and don't spend too much time coming to visit me. You need to do all you can to find a way to help the legendaries."

"I…all right," Snowcrystal replied. She didn't like the idea of possibly having to leave behind the oldest and wisest pokémon in their group, but she knew that Nightshade wouldn't want them to delay for his sake.

"Will it take a long time for you to heal?" Alex asked.

"I believe so," Nightshade sighed. "I'm not sure how long. The nurses and pokémon haven't told me. It may be a long time."

Rosie growled. "If Thunder ever shows her face near one of us again, I'll tear it off!"

"Rosie…" Nightshade said wearily.

"Um, guys, you might want to stop chatting now," Wildflame began, and suddenly Snowcrystal felt Katie snatch her away from the bed and she was shoved rather unceremoniously back into the backpack.

From a small opening she could peer through, she saw a human nurse walk in just before Katie zipped the backpack almost closed and blocked her sight.

Standing beside Nightshade's bed, Damian turned to face the nurse, trying to act as if nothing unusual had happened, though not doing a very good job of it. The nurse gave him a funny look and walked over to the victreebel's bed.

"We'd better go," Katie said, watching the nurse and the wild pokémon standing around the bed nervously.

"Yeah, you're right…" Damian replied as he looked at Nightshade. "We still have to see Stormblade."

"Right…" Katie replied, giving the wild pokémon another worried glance.

"Well, goodbye," Damian told the heracross, reaching out to stroke his head. Nightshade looked up at him with what he was sure was a grateful look.

"Her-crroh!" the heracross told him in a weak but calm voice. Damian couldn't understand him without Arien's translation, but he was sure he understood what he meant.

He turned and followed Katie as she moved toward the door, checking to make sure that all the pokémon were following them. "Now remember," she said. " _Behave yourselves…_ " Behind Damian, Rosie snorted. Turning away from the room one last time, Damian followed Katie out of the door.

  
**-ooo-**  


_This was the forest where the scyther swarm was…the same place she and the others had traveled through before. Was Master going toward Articuno?_ She hoped he was. She hoped the bird pokémon guarding the mountain would kill him. But it didn't seem like that was going to happen. Master was only interested in the forest and the strong pokémon in it. She was, for the first time since being recaptured, allowed out of her poké ball for more than just a few minutes. Yet there was no escape.

Every time Thunder had been sent out of her poké ball so that Master could treat her wounds, he had ordered his magneton to paralyze her. Now was no different, and with Volco watching her closely and waiting for any excuse to get revenge on her for his lost eye and other past injuries, there was no way she could do anything in her weakened state even if the paralysis wore off early. As she lie on the forest floor, looking up at the leaves of the tree above her, she desperately wished the paralysis could wear off, not so that she could attack Volco, but because she wanted something, even if it was just the tree she was lying next to, to vent her frustration on. Everything had gone wrong. Everything. She had made a mistake in trying to attack Master and lost everything she had to live for.

She thought of the group of pokémon she had followed during her freedom. For just a short, short while when she had first been returned to the poké ball, she had expected them to come looking for her. Yet they hadn't, of course. They hated her more than she hated them. That much had been clear.

She also thought of the moment in which she had attacked Nightshade. She wasn't even sure why she had done it. She had simply reached a breaking point, a point when she couldn't take it anymore – the pain, the hunger, the sickness, the exhaustion, the stress of being around all those pokémon she didn't like, learning that they planned to go near a human city and she had to follow them or starve in the wild, the sheer frustration of everything – and lost control, or simply lost the ability to care. Looking back, however, she wished it had been someone else that she attacked. Not Nightshade.

In the days after heading back from Articuno's mountain, she had tried so hard to figure out why he would ever be so willing to help her that she had started to believe he was only using her for some purpose of his own. It wasn't until her capture that she really allowed herself to think about it, more so than she had before, and had begun to believe that maybe Nightshade wasn't there to manipulate her at all. She had started to believe she had been wrong.

Maybe Nightshade really did just want to help her. Maybe there really were pokémon out there that naive, or stupid, or whatever it was, to invest so much time in caring for another pokémon. She hadn't seen much point in it at first. She often remembered the pokémon she had befriended as a young scyther, only to watch them die at the hands of Master and his training methods. She had long thought that was a lesson taught to her not to rely on others, and that was why she had been so reluctant to tell anything to Stormblade or Nightshade at first. When she'd discovered that she liked talking about her plans to kill Master and Volco and about how horrible they were and how they deserved to die to someone who wouldn't tell her to be quiet about it, she had kept doing it, but she never realized what it meant to her until now, when she had no one.

She remembered Nightshade's insistence that he understood how she felt, or at least a little bit, he had said. She had thought he was crazy or just really stupid. When he'd told her why, she'd told him she didn't feel sorry for him and that he was an idiot. Now, she wondered if maybe he did understand in some way…but how could she ever know? It was too late. She was far away from Nightshade now, and his injuries had seemed very severe. He might not even be alive anymore. Thunder felt a sudden feeling of hopelessness as she realized that she had probably killed her only friend.

She heard Volco calling something to one of Master's other pokémon who was a little ways away. It was something about the forest and the pokémon in it. Thunder didn't know how many of the forest pokémon Master had captured so far, but she knew he wouldn't be pleased if he hadn't captured many. From what she'd heard Volco say, he had tried to catch pokémon in the canyon and did capture some – others he killed – but most of them had gotten away. She knew that the forest pokémon he did acquire would mostly likely be used as Redclaw had, not as actual fighting ring pokémon, but pokémon used to train those who would be. Though their job was mainly to be little more than a target that could fight back for Master's stronger pokémon, they didn't have to go through the type of hellish training that she had. They simply had to be strong enough to be able to dodge and fire a few powerful attacks. Some of them got killed during the practice battles, but even that was preferable to what the fighting ring pokémon had to go through…what she was going to have to keep going through. And she still had no idea how Master was going to punish her for running away.

Master was strange for a human, even among the other humans Thunder had seen and heard in the fighting arenas where Master earned much of his money. Most of the others were afraid to go near their pokémon. Most would never even dream of trying to hit them with a whip. But Master did, and he did it for no other reason than because he could, because he could get away with it. He loved to defy the stories humans talked about that told of masters trying to hurt their pokémon only to be killed when the pokémon found a way to turn on them. He loved being in control, and he controlled his pokémon well. The image of a cruel human with a whip was, as Volco had said, the image that came to most humans' minds when they thought about the ones like Master. Volco had said that he was simply living up to it. Why this was important to him, Thunder had never known nor cared to try to understand.

From what she could hear, Master's magneton was hovering near him, no doubt ready to paralyze her again if she showed any sign of movement. It was pointless, she thought, knowing that she couldn't go anywhere. When she had been recaptured and let out of her poké ball for the first time, she had been fitted with a new type of collar that the rest of Master's pokémon now had. Not only would this strange new collar electrocute her with the press of a button on the device that Master used to control them, but it would kill her if she moved too far away from him, or if she somehow managed to badly damage it. Master also needed to activate a certain button on the device that controlled the collars each day to prevent them from detonating. Even if she could run away, there was no hope of survival. The only time the collars would be taken off was in an actual arena battle, when there was a risk of an unusually powerful attack setting them off, and she couldn't escape the arenas. She had tried many times.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do now. Master and Volco were not alone against her. Some of Master's pokémon…even some of the ones who had been abused as badly as she had, were fiercely loyal to him. Master's pokémon did not work together. There was a hierarchy among them, and each and every pokémon was as vicious as they could be to those below them in the hierarchy. This behavior was highly encouraged and those who cooperated with Master and were vicious toward those ranking lower than them earned more food, more rest, and better sleeping places. Any pokémon stupid enough to try and make friends with another pokémon was punished and quickly abandoned the habit. Those who were the most vicious were awarded higher ranks, and better treatment as well as more power to do as they pleased to the lower ranking pokémon. They could take out their anger on them and get rewarded for it. Those at the top got there by not only being excellent fighters, but by keeping the other pokémon in line. Master's pokémon always sought to move up in rank or get more rewards, or simply keep from losing their rank.

It was easier for them to earn more rewards and keep from being the victim of the cruelty of the higher ranks than to try to fight back against Master and his other loyal pokémon, impossible odds. If one of the pokémon turned on Master, another pokémon looking for a reward would jump at the chance to put them in their place and earn Master's respect. That is, if the attacking pokémon even got far enough with their attempt. Some of the pokémon at the top of the hierarchy were even twisted enough to like Master and agree with his ways. These pokémon saw newcomers as simply new pokémon to break. They never thought of running away, nor did any of Master's fighting ring pokémon, who had been raised by him since they were very small, because they had no idea how to hunt or forage or survive at all in the wild, and running away would lead to them losing everything they had in the hierarchy.

Thunder had never had any place in the hierarchy. She was of the lowest rank in Master's group of stronger pokémon because she refused to play his game. In the past she had often openly defied Master, but after that had been beaten out of her, she obeyed him, but still refused to try to gain a place in his hierarchy. She didn't care about hurting the other pokémon; her hate was for Master alone. She did not want to please him any more than she had to. She had always chosen to forgo rewards and let the other pokémon abuse and insult her rather than do what Master wanted when she didn't absolutely have to. She knew that Master found this endlessly amusing, which infuriated her, but it did not infuriate her as much as his pleasure of having even more control over her would. But she wasn't going to concern herself with how she would escape again. That opportunity was gone. Escape was no longer possible.

As she was thinking this, she heard Master mutter something to himself. She caught the words 'white growlithe' and listened, but couldn't hear much more. If Master was going to go after Snowcrystal, there was nothing she could do, but she hoped he wouldn't find her. She didn't want Master to be happy with having a rare pokémon, and as much as she didn't like Snowcrystal, she didn't want Master to capture her either.

  
**-ooo-**  


After they were done resting and Master's other pokémon had been returned, Volco waited eagerly to see what Master would decide to do next. He had managed to capture quite a few forest pokémon, many of them strong ones. The typhlosion wasn't sure whether they were going to stay to find more or if they were going to move on.

"We're heading back to town, Volco," Master stated, answering the fire type's silent question almost immediately.

Volco watched Master turn to look back at the forest. Though the typhlosion could smell the scents of many dangerous pokémon that had passed through the area, he knew Master wasn't afraid, and he had no reason to be.

"Come on," Master told him after a moment. The typhlosion got up and followed his trainer and partner as they began walking back toward a forest clearing they had passed through earlier. From there, they could easily fly back to the town where Master had kept one of his old training facilities. He could no longer use it, now that the police had discovered it, but he needed to retrieve his other pokémon from the trainer he had left them with. If the trainer had any sense, or wanted to live, all the pokémon would be there in the condition Master had left them in. Enough time had passed since the police had investigated that Master thought it was safe to sneak back to the abandoned town, retrieve the pokémon, and leave.

What they would do after that, Volco wasn't sure. The next big fighting ring competition was a couple months away. As Volco watched Master release his drifblim – one of the few pokémon he trusted enough to ride on – into the clearing, he thought back to the white growlithe. That strange boy, who couldn't have been much older than twenty, had taken her with him. Volco promised himself that if he could find that boy, he would tear him and his pokémon apart until he found the poké ball he was keeping the growlithe in. That boy had taken what belonged to his master. Volco was going to make him pay.

  
**-ooo-**  


Compared to the other buildings in Stonedust City, the long term pokémon hospital the trainers had been talking about looked actually friendly, at least at first glance. It was a massive white building with many windows and several large outside enclosures surrounding it. Snowcrystal saw a pond with a small waterfall, a rocky area with large boulders, and a place with several tall trees she thought must be there to represent a forest. There were others behind the building that she could not see well, but what she could see with her limited vision from Damian's backpack looked peaceful and serene.

Yet as they got closer, there seemed to be a sense of foreboding and dread about the place that made Snowcrystal shudder. The pokémon in the enclosures were not playing happily, but limping slowly around their small spaces or lying unmoving. Several of them had recently lost limbs and many had bandages around their legs or heads and moved very slowly as they went for a drink of water from one of the pools or to the food bowls set out. Most looked too tired to move much at all. And these, she knew, were the healthier pokémon that were being kept there. The whole place had such a strong air of despairing misery about it that it made Snowcrystal feel depressed just looking at it. She could almost sense the pain and sickness and hopelessness coming from the pokémon unlucky enough to end up here.

As they passed the gate to the steps leading up to the front doors, an absol wobbled toward them on three legs from inside one of the enclosures. It had bandages around its head and looked unsteady, peering at them through glazed eyes. Damian stopped to look at it, but Snowcrystal couldn't see his face. He looked at it for what felt like quite a while before Katie pulled him away and they walked up to the building's front doors. The rest of Snowcrystal's friends followed in subdued silence, looking around nervously.

Katie pulled open the door and walked inside, while Damian held it open for the pokémon. "I don't like this place," Alex said loudly as she shuffled inside.

"Quiet!" Blazefang growled her.

Katie walked up to the human near the front desk, and Snowcrystal ducked down further into the backpack – or as far as she could in such a small space – as another human walked over.

"Excuse me?" the human said rather rudely.

"Uh…what?" Damian replied, sounding startled.

"If you're going to bring pokémon in here, keep them in their pokéballs! If you want to visit a pokémon here…since I'm sure that's what you're here for…then you must realize that there are many sick and injured pokémon here and they do _not_ need any illnesses brought in by yours."

"Oh…sorry…I'll just…take them…back outside." Damian hurriedly went back through the doors and the pokémon followed him, looking a bit confused.

"What do we do now?" Wildflame asked.

"I guess Katie will have to go see Stormblade herself," Redclaw muttered. "Though Rosie, you might want to think about letting these humans help you with your leg…"

"Are you crazy?" Rosie shouted. "I'm not letting a human lock me up in a place like this! And I don't need to be. I'm not ready to drop down dead like the rest of the pokémon in here!"

At Rosie's words, Snowcrystal felt like she had been stabbed with sharp claws. Stormblade was one of the pokémon in there, and now that she thought of it, he could very well end up like she was sure some of the pokémon in this building did and would…die…in spite of all the help the humans tried to give him. She realized, for the first time, that this could be her last opportunity to see Stormblade at all.

"I have to get into that building," she said in a determined voice, forcing open a large enough hole in the backpack's zipper to stick her head out. "I need to see Stormblade…to tell him what happened." She didn't emphasize further than that.

"You really want to see him, don't you?"

Snowcrystal was surprised to hear Damian's voice. She knew he couldn't understand her, but her eagerness was obvious. She stared back at him, hoping he'd somehow understand how much it meant to her.

"I'm going to go back in," he told the other pokémon, zipping the backpack mostly shut again. "Stay out here and wait, and don't cause any trouble or bother the pokémon in the enclosures, all right?"

Redclaw looked back at him and made a happy barking noise, then sat down on his haunches by the rest of the pokémon, who after a moment's hesitation gathered around him.

"We won't be long," Damian replied. "No one should bother you. I'll be right back."

He stepped into the doors again, and Snowcrystal caught a glimpse of her friends, Rosie, Wildflame, and Redclaw in particular, looking through the glass at her and wondered if they had wanted to see Stormblade as much as she had. She realized quickly that they had opted to stay behind and wait, without Damian's protection, so she could have a chance. Even Blazefang looked calm and not at all aggressive as he peered back at her.

The glass door which her friends were peering through vanished as Damian walked out of view of it and toward Katie, who was waiting for him uncertainly. "You sure this is a good idea?" she asked as they followed the human now leading them to Stormblade's room. "Leaving the pokémon out there?"

"No one will bother them," he replied. "Plenty of pokémon run errands for their trainers. People will think that they're doing that and waiting for us."

"I think I've already learned that I can't trust you when you say everything's going to be fine, you know," Katie muttered back. Damian didn't reply.

For a moment, it was silent until movement caught Snowcrystal's eye and she peered out to see a young eevee racing down the hall excitedly. The eevee bumped into Damian's leg and came to a halt. Snowcrystal looked down to see the little pokémon staring up at her, or what little he could see of her, with brown eyes.

"Hi!" he said happily, wagging his tail. Snowcrystal could see that he had what was once a very nasty wound on his forehead as well as his shoulder, but they both looked nearly healed now.

Snowcrystal didn't want to reply in case it gave her away. Luckily the eevee was distracted when Damian reached down to pet it. "I like your trainer!" he cried happily, giving a little bounce.

"Jake! What are you doing?" a human voice shouted from the other end of the hallway. A female human about Katie's age, presumably there to help out with some of the simpler tasks for the pokémon, appeared around a corner and ran past the startled nurse and trainers and scooped the eevee up in her arms. "You aren't well _yet!_ " she cried. "You need to rest more!"

"I don't want to rest!" the eevee protested, struggling in the human's arms.

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in response, for she was now carrying him back the way she'd come. Snowcrystal wondered if that was her eevee, or just one belonging to another trainer that she had decided to help out. It made her feel a bit better about the place, for now she knew that for some pokémon, there was hope for healing. That eevee, apart from a few scars, would be a perfectly normal and happy, healthy pokémon once he was completely well and able to leave. However, she knew that there were many others who weren't going to be so lucky.

They continued walking, not seeing any other humans and pokémon, just rows and rows of doors. "Here we are," the nurse leading them said, and opened one of the doors. They walked into another hallway, but unlike the one they had just come through, this one was much wider, and along the walls were little rooms with big windows taking the place of the doors that would have separated them from the hallway. In several of the small rooms were pokémon, each lying on a warm bed on the soft floor. Also in the rooms were food and water bowls and a small tray that Snowcrystal realized must be a place for the pokémon to relieve itself, seeing as they couldn't go outside. They passed a vileplume that was obviously badly burned, with very little remaining of its petals, a mightyena whose back and hind legs were also severely burned, and several other pokémon with the same types of injuries. Snowcrystal even saw a forlorn looking growlithe, its back turned away from the window, also with severe burns. Looking at its orange shape, Snowcrystal wondered how a fire type like herself had gotten in that state. She thought, for one horrible fleeting moment, that it might have gotten injured when Shadowflare had burned the forest down, but as they passed it, she got a closer look. From what she could see, the more minor burns that were almost healed and weren't covered by bandages were not Shadowflare wounds.

Snowcrystal understood that this was the place where the humans kept all the burned pokémon. None of them stirred as they walked by. Snowcrystal kept looking in each of the windows for Stormblade, but he didn't seem to be in any of them. They reached the end of the hallway and Snowcrystal finally saw the room that was Stormblade's. It was right near a pair of large doors leading to some other place, which Snowcrystal thought might be where the humans kept their supplies, whatever they were, that would help the injured pokémon. Stormblade's room was larger than most of the others, but he only occupied a small corner of it, the corner with the bed. He looked far too weak to move, and Snowcrystal wasn't sure he could. His food and water had been placed right next to his head, but they looked untouched. _'What's wrong with him?'_ She thought. Hadn't Katie mentioned he'd been doing better?

"Can we go inside?" she heard Damian ask the strange human.

"Yes," Katie answered for him, and Snowcrystal remembered that she had been there before.

Snowcrystal watched as the human who had led them there walked up to a place in the wall next to the room and pressed some buttons on an odd looking device, and the window – or what Snowcrystal had thought was a window – flickered and vanished.

Snowcrystal could see the nurse human watching them as they walked inside, and she didn't seem like she was going to leave. She saw Katie kneel down beside the bed, which was very low to the ground, and heard footsteps walking away. For some reason or other, the nurse had left.

Damian set down the backpack and opened it before kneeling down as well. Snowcrystal freed herself from it and walked over to Stormblade. She noticed some strange tendrils of human-made stuff going into parts of Stormblade's upper arm. She wondered if they were hurting him, but not knowing what they were for, she didn't try to remove them, as much as she wanted to.

As soon as he realized the humans were there, Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at Snowcrystal, a look of disbelief on his face. "S-Snowcrystal?" he whispered. "How did you get here?"

She could tell that it took him some effort to speak, and that he would have asked her more questions if he could. She looked at him and then glanced nervously back in the direction the nurse had been standing. Seeing her do this, Damian sat behind her, blocking her from view of the hallway. Not knowing how much time she had, she quickly told Stormblade some of the things that had happened since he'd left the group, about how she had found Articuno and what he had said, and what she had decided to do afterward. She also told him about how she and the others had met up with Damian, and how he was going to help them.

Stormblade listened but did not react much. Snowcrystal hoped that he believed her without finding everything too surprising, and that he wasn't simply too exhausted and weak for it to come as a shock to him. When she had finished telling him the vastly shortened version of the story, he asked her a question.

"What about Thunder?" he whispered. "Is she okay? With the humans? Is she getting better?"

Snowcrystal fell silent and avoided Stormblade's gaze. She hadn't wanted to talk about Thunder, but she knew as soon as he'd asked that he had a right to know. "Thunder…" she replied, thinking of what to say for a moment before realizing the human could come back at any minute, and she needed to tell him quickly. "Thunder got captured again…by her old master," she said quietly.

"What?" Stormblade's reply was weak but shocked. "What do you mean?"

"He found us by the canyon where…where Moonlight lived…she tried to attack him, but before she got a chance, he returned her…he still had her pokéball. We haven't seen her since." She didn't say anything else. She couldn't bring herself to look at the expression of alarm and horror on Stormblade's face any longer. She knew how he felt about Thunder. He knew more than anyone, apart from possibly Nightshade, what her life with her old trainer was like. What her life was going to be like again. Snowcrystal looked back at Stormblade, and seeing the hurt and disbelief in his eyes, she didn't have the heart to tell him what Thunder had done before she had been captured.

After a moment Stormblade looked away from her and closed his eyes. "Stormblade?" she whispered, but he didn't try to reply. Somehow she knew that he wasn't going to try and talk any longer.

"I think so," she heard Katie say. She had just barely noticed that Katie and Damian had been talking. "The nurses were saying that the infection's getting stronger and that's why…well, he's worse now. I did what I could when I was away from the cities, and it seemed like it was working for a while, but I guess the medicine wasn't strong enough…"

Damian didn't reply, but kept looking at Stormblade. He slowly moved the bowl of water toward Stormblade's mouth, but the scyther didn't attempt to drink out of it. After a moment, Damian gave up and set the bowl back down, looking helpless. Snowcrystal thought he looked just as sad as she felt, even though he didn't even know Stormblade. Maybe it wasn't just Stormblade, but all the injured pokémon he was thinking about, she thought. The whole place seemed enough to make anyone – human or pokémon – depressed. Katie, however, didn't seem nearly as affected by it. She regarded Stormblade with concern, but didn't seem overly worried about him. _'Of course…'_ Snowcrystal thought. _'She still thinks he's a murderer…'_

Snowcrystal's ears pricked as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Quickly she got back into the backpack and Damian closed it as the human approached. This time, as they walked back through the hallways, Snowcrystal did not try to look through the opening in the backpack at her surroundings. She did not want to see the place anymore.

When they reached the doors that led outside and to the other pokémon, Snowcrystal was surprised when no one asked her questions. She figured that someone, maybe Redclaw, had told them not to until they got back to the camp the trainers had set up.

To her relief, there were no incidents with humans during the journey back through the city. They made it to their camp safely, and Damian told Todd and Inferno to watch the camp and left with Katie to go to the library, promising the two once again that they would get a turn to go next time.

"Shouldn't we…have stayed with them?" Alex asked. "So we can hear any news faster?"

"No…" Wildflame replied. "I've had enough of that human city for one day."

"What did Stormblade say to you?" Rosie asked Snowcrystal, who really did not want to answer.

"She'll tell us later," Redclaw interrupted. "Now get some rest. You could use some after all that traveling. We all could."

Grateful not to have to answer questions for the moment, Snowcrystal wandered to just outside the camp, alone but not too far from the others. She couldn't help but feel that she was partially responsible for what had happened to Stormblade. If she hadn't agreed to join up with him and Spark…if she hadn't met him at all, it wouldn't have happened. He would be healthy and probably would have found a better home by now. And it wasn't just him. Other pokémon had suffered because they had wanted to help her. Nightshade and Rosie…even Thunder, though whether she had ever wanted to help or not, Snowcrystal wasn't sure. They had all been in danger many times because of the mess she'd brought them into, willingly or not. And now she wasn't even sure if this was something they could really make a difference in or not. They were just ordinary pokémon, searching for something the legendary Articuno did not even know. And how many more pokémon would suffer trying to find it? Cyclone wanted Blazefang's Forbidden Attack, and even though he had to be far away by now and there was little chance he knew where Blazefang was, she couldn't shake the feeling of terror she got when she thought of him. It was like she was prey hiding in a forest, desperately hoping not to be scented, followed, and found. She didn't think Cyclone would simply give up. He was out there, undoubtedly searching for other Forbidden Attacks, other attacks that would affect the lives of many pokémon, near and far.

She now understood, really understood, why Scytheclaw had refused to try and heal Stormblade. He wanted no part in all this, and she couldn't blame him. But despite that, she still wanted to try and convince him, for Stormblade's sake, because no matter how Scytheclaw, or she, felt about it, Stormblade deserved some sort of hope. And this was the only possible hope he had. She just hoped that somehow, she would be able to help make things right…not just for Stormblade, but for everyone whose lives her quest had changed.

_To be continued..._


	51. Searching

It was later in the evening when Justin, Katie and Damian returned from the library. All the pokémon waiting for them sat up eagerly, but Snowcrystal could immediately tell from the look on Damian's face that their search hadn't been successful.

"Nothing…" Damian sighed as he released his pokémon into the clearing and sat down on the grass.

"There's still a lot more left to search," Justin reminded him, sounding a bit more hopeful. "And some of the books we wanted were taken. We'll just wait until they're brought back."

"That was pointless," Katie muttered. "We only found the same stupid story over and over again."

"I guess we'll try again tomorrow," Damian replied.

"Well, Justin and I are going back to the hotel, then," Katie said with a shrug, starting to walk in the other direction.

"You are going to help us tomorrow…" Justin began, "...aren't you?"

Katie mumbled something in reply that Snowcrystal couldn't hear.

Snowcrystal didn't know how long they were going to be able to count on Katie's help, and though she didn't care much if the human left, she was worried that if she did, Justin…and Spark…would leave with her.

"Uh…Katie!" Justin cried, starting to run after her. Spark began to follow, but paused and looked back at the others.

"I can tell the humans you want to stay," Arien suggested to him.

Spark hesitated a bit more, but shook his head. "I'll see you guys tomorrow," he told them sadly, before hurrying into the trees after his trainer. Snowcrystal wondered if he was acting sad because he hadn't had a chance to see Stormblade.

Damian looked back at all the pokémon, who were gathered together in the clearing near the tent, watching him. Snowcrystal could hear some of the others talking and wondered if Arien was telling Damian everything they were saying through their psychic link.

With a sigh, she sat down near Redclaw. "I guess there's not much else to do but wait," she mumbled.

"We're making better progress than we were," Redclaw reminded her. "Now we have access to the human's knowledge."

"Yeah, but we can't do anything but wait around for them to find it!" Blazefang growled in frustration. "Those humans better find something tomorrow."

Snowcrystal was going to agree, when a flash of light filled the clearing and Scytheclaw appeared in front of Damian. The scizor gave the pokémon gathered there a venomous glare and turned and limped away into the trees.

"Hey!" Redclaw said suddenly, his ears pricked, like he had just noticed something exciting. "Do you think…if Scytheclaw has that healing power…"

Snowcrystal knew what he was going to say. "…Then he can heal Stormblade?" she finished.

"Yes, and Nightshade," Redclaw replied, a grin spreading across his face. A few of the other pokémon turned their heads in the direction Scytheclaw had gone, looking suddenly just as hopeful as Redclaw.

Snowcrystal sighed. "I tried asking him last night," she admitted to the others. "He…refused…"

"Then let's force him!" Rosie growled. "A few flamethrowers to the face and he'll do what we want! He'd have to listen to us or get his armor melted off."

"NO," Arien said firmly, causing the ninetales to look at him in shock. The alakazam stood up to his full height, looking very intimidating. "He is Damian's pokémon and I cannot allow you to hurt him. And don't you think your heracross friend and the wild pokémon have hurt him enough?"

"Nightshade-" Rosie sputtered, but seemed too furious to think of exactly what she wanted to say, until she yelled, "Nightshade had to beat him up! And he deserved it! He-"

"Well, then he paid for it," Arien said calmly. "Now you can all leave the past behind and move on, just as he is trying to do."

"Now look," Wildflame began, stepping up beside the fuming Rosie. "Who – besides Rosie – said we needed to hurt Scytheclaw? We just need to…find a way to convince him, that's all."

"Good luck with that," Blazefang muttered, rolling his eyes.

"You can ask him," Arien said calmly. "But you can't force him. And if you ask, please at _least_ try to be nice."

Wildflame glanced at Rosie, and then at the others. "Maybe just a few of us should go," she sighed.

Damian, who had been watching the argument curiously, but not seeming to understand what was going on, climbed into the tent after a moment's hesitation. Snowcrystal sighed. She knew she couldn't be one of the ones to go and try to convince Scytheclaw.

However, Wildflame, of course, didn't realize that. "Do you want to go with me and Redclaw?" the houndoom asked after a few moments, looking at Snowcrystal.

"I….I don't think so," she muttered.

"I'll go then," said Dusk the absol, standing up. "Scytheclaw seems fine around us. He might listen to me."

"Okay, good," Wildflame stated. She sounded worried, as if she was secretly as doubtful as Snowcrystal was that Scytheclaw would agree to help. "Do you think we should…give him something? Can someone hunt?"

"Why don't you ask him first?" Rosie muttered, sounding a little calmer. "That way you won't waste your time…"

"We can promise him something, I guess," Redclaw suggested. "But I…I don't know if we should hunt prey when Scytheclaw has plenty of human made food…"

"So what?" Rosie muttered. "Those stupid prey pokémon would kill us if they could. That's just the way nature works!"

Redclaw gave her a fierce glare. "I thought you said we shouldn't waste our time hunting for him…" he growled, but Rosie didn't say anything more.

"I…I don't know if…" Snowcrystal began, but stopped herself. She didn't think it was a good idea, but she couldn't try and stop them before they'd even had a chance to try. She wondered if it would be too soon to ask the scizor after what had happened the previous night, but she trusted Redclaw to keep calm.

"Don't worry," Redclaw assured her. "If he refuses, we'll leave him alone for a little while."

Snowcrystal was glad he understood that getting angry or trying to force the decision on Scytheclaw would only make things worse, and watched as the arcanine, houndoom, and absol walked into the trees.

  
**-ooo-**  


Wildflame wasn't quite sure why she was doing this. It seemed a bit hopeless, but she badly wanted to help somehow. Now that everything in her life seemed uncertain, now that she had nothing to bring back to her pack, and that there was no way she was returning to serve under Firedash again, her future, at least for the time being, lay with this group. Though they had started off as enemies, Stormblade was now her friend. She wanted to help him.

Her thoughts wandered to when she had taunted Scytheclaw, and she hoped the scizor would be calmer than he was then. She was prepared to apologize for what she had said if she needed to. Redclaw seemed wary as well, and she remembered what had happened when they had first encountered Scytheclaw away from the canyon.

' _Why did it have to be him?'_ Wildflame thought in frustration. _'Why not some other pokémon with a healing power?'_

They stopped as Scytheclaw's scent became stronger and the houndoom realized he wasn't far away. Dusk stepped forward.

"I think I should ask him," Redclaw told the absol. "After all, Stormblade is our friend." Dusk hesitated for a moment, but then nodded solemnly and let Redclaw lead them further on until they spotted the clearing where Scytheclaw was resting.

The scizor noticed them instantly. He leaped up, stumbling a little because of his injuries, but if he was embarrassed or angry at his weakness, he didn't show it. He held up his pincers threateningly as they stopped at the edge of the clearing. He was completely unafraid, as if he was facing a tiny prey pokémon and not two powerful fire types and an absol. "What do you want?" he asked warningly.

"We want to talk to you," Redclaw told him calmly.

"I know what this is about!" Scytheclaw snapped, his expression even more furious.

"Just listen to us," Redclaw replied. When Scytheclaw merely glowered at him in reply – Wildflame was surprised he wasn't screaming at them to leave yet – the arcanine continued. "We're all willing to put the past behind us. We-"

"Just because you want something from me," Scytheclaw snarled.

Redclaw decided to get to the point. "We want to ask you to try and heal Stormblade. At least…the Shadowflare wounds. He needs help badly, and you are probably his only chance. We are willing to do whatever you ask for this favor. We can bring you food, the best of our food, every day, and-"

"Damian gives me plenty of food!" the scizor growled. "Why would I want yours?"

Wildflame glanced at Redclaw worriedly. _What else did they have to offer him besides food?_

"I have everything I need," Scytheclaw told them smugly. "There's nothing any of you can do about it. And I haven't forgotten the way you attacked me…" He glared at Redclaw. "Or what you said after you found out Damian was my trainer!" He gave Wildflame an equally venomous look. "I'm loyal to Damian," the scizor said proudly, lifting his head as if he thought the intruders to his space were beneath him. " _Not_ to you."

"Scytheclaw, listen," Dusk began as he padded forward. "I know these pokémon have wronged you…"

Wildflame had to try to make herself look calm when she really wanted to snarl at the absol. ' _We wronged_ him? _'_

"But you are the only one who can help this scyther," Dusk continued. "I'm not saying you have to or we're going to force you, but…it would be very noble of you to do so. Damian could buy you any sort of food, or treats, or items you wanted. We'd all be grateful if-"

"The answer is _NO!_ " Scytheclaw shouted, and for a moment Wildflame thought he was going to fly at them and attack, but instead he turned and darted further into the forest. Her heart sank.

"I guess…we'll have to try again later," she said hopelessly as they turned to walk back to the group.

  
**-ooo-**  


That night, the pokémon slept in silence, most of them by themselves. For once, Snowcrystal didn't feel like sleeping next to the others. She couldn't help wondering how Stormblade and Nightshade felt, alone in those buildings without the sky above them as they slept. She lay down, feeling the grass prickle against her paws. She still wasn't quite used to not being around snow or hard stone, and for a moment she thought longingly of her home, wondering how much the growlithe's territory had shrunk, and what they were doing now. She wondered again if she should have left in the first place. What had her quest accomplished?

' _I'm doing something that's going to help now…'_ she thought to herself. _'It won't all be for nothing…I'm going to help the legendaries, and all the pokémon…It won't be for nothing…I'm sure…'_

Stormblade and Nightshade, she thought, would both want her to continue trying to learn about the Forbidden Attacks. Nightshade had even said so. Still, her little adventure hadn't done them any favors. Yet they had helped her so much…she wished there was something she could do to help them.

Suddenly she sat up. She _did_ know what she could do. For Stormblade, at least. Getting to her feet, she headed over toward where Damian's pokémon were getting ready to sleep. She needed to talk to Arien.

  
**-ooo-**  


"So…" Katie began, looking from Damian, to Arien, to Snowcrystal, "you're telling me the police were wrong all this time, and that Scyther – uh, Stormblade – was innocent?"

Snowcrystal looked at Damian hopefully and he nodded. It was morning, and Katie and Justin had just come back from the trainers' hotel. As soon as they had arrived, Damian began eagerly repeating Stormblade's story to them. Unfortunately, Katie just seemed confused, and Justin had been steadily backing away as if he didn't want to hear it at all.

Katie sighed. "Look," she said, "I know Stormblade is their friend, and they want him to seem like he was always a good guy…but how do they know the whole story? And more importantly, why does it matter? I mean, maybe it was another pokémon that attacked that girl, but we can't really know for sure, and-"

"YOU weren't there," Justin said suddenly, stepping forward. The look in his eyes made Snowcrystal crouch lower to the ground. He looked, in a way she couldn't really explain, _frightening._ "You weren't the ones the police came to. There was blood on the scyther's blades. Believe me, the stupid pokémon is making that up. If you're not going to drop this subject…for _good_ _,_ then I'm leaving."

Snowcrystal gave Damian and Arien an alarmed look. Justin had seemed so eager to help with their new quest, but the look in his eyes was so serious that she didn't doubt that he meant what he said. She didn't think Justin was that valuable an addition to their team; after all, Damian was far more helpful and he could do anything Justin could, but she knew that if he left, Spark might leave too.

"All right," Damian said reluctantly, looking over at his alakazam, making Snowcrystal think Arien had warned him telepathically not to try and argue with Justin. "We'll drop it."

Justin looked satisfied but still angry, and Katie just shrugged, as if the whole thing hadn't changed anything. Snowcrystal thought she probably had been skeptical because she hadn't wanted to have any false hopes about Stormblade, and before she could really think it over, what Justin had said must have felt like a confirmation of her beliefs. Snowcrystal felt helpless. She wanted them to know all the details Damian had left out in the quick version of the story he'd told Katie, which he'd stumbled over quite a bit, forgetting important details that Arien had to remind him of and making his story seem less convincing.

The other pokémon who were listening, the ones who knew Stormblade, looked disappointed as well.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Spark said sadly.

"Why don't _you_ try to get it through your trainer's thick head that it wasn't Stormblade's fault?" Rosie snapped at him.

Redclaw quickly put himself between the two before an argument could break out. "Look," he growled, "fighting's not going to help Stormblade. If we want to help him, we need to try to keep the humans together. The three of them can search the human's information stash faster than just one human can. Maybe after Justin has calmed down, we can try again."

"And hopefully Damian can tell it without sounding like a babbling idiot," Rosie muttered.

"Okay, so maybe explaining things isn't his strong point," Redclaw replied, "but he and Arien are the only form of communication we've got. It's better than nothing. It may take a while, but the other humans will understand."

Snowcrystal wished she felt as hopeful as Redclaw sounded.

  
**-ooo-**  


The next few weeks passed uneventfully, and things remained much the same within the group. Katie, after much thought and discussion with the other two humans, had chosen to stay. How long she would stay, Snowcrystal wasn't sure, but she hoped she had chosen to stay with them for the entire search. They needed all the help they could get.

So far, none of the humans had managed to find any useful new information on the Forbidden Attacks, and several of the books had stories with details that conflicted with each other. The humans weren't giving up yet, and insisted that there were many other books they could search through.

That day, however, Snowcrystal was going to go with them. Doing nothing but waiting day after day had, for a while, been peaceful, but her old restlessness had soon returned, and she could no longer stand being unable to help. She wanted to do something, even if that something was just tagging along with the humans for a day, watching them try and find information. She hadn't been able to go into the city with them much before, and had only been able to see Stormblade one more time since she had last seen him. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting much better. But he was alive.

This time, the humans had a new idea. If it worked well, it might mean that she would be able to walk the city streets freely alongside them.

It had taken a few tries, but Damian, Katie, and Justin had managed to die her fur to match the color of an orange growlithe's. It had at first been frustrating when Justin kept getting the wrong shade of orange, or the humans weren't careful and messed up, but at last they had succeeded in making her look passably like, as Katie had said, "a normal growlithe." Runty and with a few oddly shaped stripes, but pretty 'normal' looking overall.

"There," Damian said as he and the others stood back and admired her. "No one will tell the difference."

Justin frowned. "Some of the stripes look weird," he pointed out. "And the cream color is a bit too dark."

"No one's going to be looking at people's growlithe to see if they're actually white," Katie pointed out. "So she's small and looks a bit odd. So what? Some pokémon look a little different. No one's going to care."

Justin just rolled his eyes and muttered, "Fine." Without further discussion they were soon on their way.

Spark and Redclaw were accompanying them to the library that day, as well as Inferno the flareon and Todd the Elekid. Spark was used to the city, and it surprised Snowcrystal to see him walking down the sidewalk ahead of the humans, at complete ease with his surroundings. Seeing that Snowcrystal was nervous, he soon came back to join her.

"It's not so bad, once you get used to it," he told her.

"Then I wish I was used to it," Snowcrystal muttered back, scurrying out of the way of a human passing them from the other direction. Even though she was still nervous about being discovered, the human didn't give her a second glance.

"Just stick with me," Spark replied cheerfully. "You'll be fine."

As they neared the library, Snowcrystal realized that she didn't recognize anything. The place looked so different from the rain-slicked streets she had wandered through with Sid and Wildflame all that time ago. How long had it been? She wasn't sure. It seemed like ages.

As they walked through the massive library's front doors, Snowcrystal couldn't suppress a feeling of fear as she remembered the last time she had been there, running panicked through the halls as a human chased after her. Trying to ignore the feeling, she walked in with the others, sticking close to Spark's side.

Inside, the library was just as big and confusing as she remembered it being, though in the light of day and with the company of friends, it was a lot less scary. She paused to give the legendary pokémon portraits around the room a curious glance now that she could see them clearly in the light, then followed Damian and the others.

She wasn't sure if it was the room Sid had led her into the first time she was there; she remembered there had been pictures of legendaries, but not what they looked like. She let her gaze travel across each one and suddenly remembered that there had been an articuno painting in the room she had first entered. There was no articuno here; it must have been a different room.

She wondered which of the towering bookshelves they were going to look for information from, but the humans didn't even stop to look at them. They passed through the room without a glance at any of the books, down a hallway and into a smaller room with crude, brightly colored art plastering the walls along with other cheerful decorations. There were a few human children reading from large, flat books while a mightyena dozed peacefully in the corner.

They walked through that room and down a few more hallways, until they came upon a sight that Snowcrystal did remember.

Ahead of her, on the wall in front of them by where the hallway split into two paths, was the large circular mural of the Forbidden Attacks. Strangely, in the now well-lit building, it still looked foreboding, and she noticed that the others, even Inferno and Todd, had stopped to give it a nervous glance before tearing their gaze away and continuing on down the right hallway. Snowcrystal stared at the strange mural a few seconds longer before following them. A memory surfaced of her looking at the painting and hearing the human coming, then running down the left hallway, and she wondered what awaited them at the end of the right.

She followed the others down the hallway and past two wide open doors, and the room they arrived in next was the biggest one Snowcrystal had seen. It was truly massive, and the floor formed a round, even circle. The room had multiple stories, each story having rows upon rows of bookshelves around the circular edges of the room. The center of the bottom floor was a clear space with several chairs and sofas upon which a few humans and in some cases, their pokémon, were lounging upon. On the upper stories, this circular space was a massive hole, so Snowcrystal could see all the way to the ceiling far, far, above, the center of which was comprised of windows, which made up a sphere as big as the openings in the higher floors.

Up above, she could make out a few humans walking around by the rails lining the outside of the center of the higher stories, of which Snowcrystal counted four. She watched a flygon lift into the air from the second story to bring a book to his trainer on the third. Way, way up on the fifth story, a plusle and minun sat on the railing, peering downward and squealing something excitedly to one another. All along the walls on the bottom floor, and probably the upper ones too, were portraits, but in this room, they were not mainly of legendaries. Ordinary pokémon made up a lot of the subjects in the pictures here; she even saw one with a large group of stylized growlithe puppies playing in a field.

"See?" Spark said to her with a grin. "We pokémon are welcome here! Though I sure hope that moron up there doesn't fall off and get the humans all paranoid about us." He narrowed his eyes at the tiny shape of the plusle leaning over the rail.

The place was so massive that Snowcrystal could begin to understand just why the search was taking so long. The humans would be meticulously studying any book with even a chance of having something relevant to the Forbidden Attacks for any clue it might offer them, and as they had long since looked through the obviously relevant books, the search was getting harder.

"All right, you two," Inferno said in a cheerful voice. Snowcrystal knew that he always liked it when he got to accompany the humans. His fur fluffed up and his eyes were bright with enthusiasm as he looked around the room. "Let's get started!"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what the pokémon could do, and she didn't think they'd be able to do much other than offer the humans some moral support, but that seemed to be enough of a job for Todd and Inferno. They eagerly helped Damian, Justin, and Katie put away books or jumped up to the higher shelves to retrieve one for them. They were in the middle of searching the second story, working their way up to the fifth, Spark explained to her. This room was full of information about pokémon and the world they lived in. While they waited as the humans skimmed through the books, Spark told her of some of the things he had learned from the humans while being there. He told her that they lived in a _region_ called the Inari region. There were other regions too, places called things like Johto and Kanto, and they each had many human cities. Spark told her that by other regions' standards, theirs was a strange one. It had no species native only to itself, and was home to many species from all of the other regions. Snowcrystal found this interesting, and there were also many pokémon even Spark hadn't seen that he'd found pictures of in books and excitedly showed Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal found it all fascinating, but at the same time, it worried her that the library was so rich in knowledge, yet they hadn't been able to find any further information on the Forbidden Attacks outside of stories that were very likely fictional. Still, she did her best to help, which usually meant picking books up carefully in her mouth and plopping them back on the shelf, while the humans continued to look. Spark told her that none of the computers used to search for books had helped them, and they'd soon given up on that. He also told her that this was a very old and famous library that contained some very old books that might offer better insight than the more recent ones they had been searching through earlier.

It worried Snowcrystal how long it was all taking, but at the same time, she knew that her friends needed the rest. Rosie's leg was much better now, though she still had a limp, and everyone else was much happier and healthier, and very well fed. They now rarely needed to hunt. Katie was a good enough battler that between her battling tournament money and Damian and Justin doing random jobs for other humans with the help of their own pokémon, they had enough money to feed everyone, even the wild pokémon. Perhaps it was better if they waited for a while. At least here, they were likely getting closer to a discovery, and it would help each of them immensely to take a long, peaceful rest.

Snowcrystal spent the day helping the humans put away books, watching them as they turned the pages to reveal colorful pictures, or lying down and looking up at all the flying pokémon that occasionally crossed the open space in the middle of the tall room. Then sunset came, filtering through the windows and tinting the room a faint orange. It was time to leave.

After Damian's assurance that tomorrow would probably be the day they found something, which Spark told Snowcrystal that he said every day, they got up and followed the last lingering trainers through the hallways and towards the exit of the building.

"You were a great help," Spark told Snowcrystal as they made their way through one of the hallways. "Aren't you glad you got to come along this time?"

Snowcrystal knew he was just trying to make her feel better, so she nodded.

They walked into the small room where they had seen the human children reading. There were no children anymore, just a few adult humans putting away books and talking in a corner. The mightyena from before was also there, no longer snoozing but alert and awake with the coming of night.

As they walked through the room, the mightyena saw them and froze.

Snowcrystal paused, and so did the other pokémon, as the dark type walked over to them. She didn't bother to give them a greeting, but walked straight up to Redclaw with a look of concern in her eyes. "That collar…" she whispered. "You…you were there too?"

"What?" Redclaw stuttered, looking completely confused.

"The poachers," the mightyena continued, giving Redclaw a worried look. "The ones that took us from the forest?"

"You mean Mas-" Redclaw paused. "Wait…no. Poachers? Uh…you must be thinking about someone different. You're talking about a group of humans, right?"

"Yes…" the mightyena replied. "So you weren't one of us?" She eyed his collar, and Snowcrystal could tell that she longed to ask him about it, but thought better of it. "The humans can remove that, you know," she continued after a moment's hesitation. "It's difficult, but they found a way to do it without setting it off. If yours has an electrical device, I mean. Go to the pokémon center and they'll tell your trainer who to look for." She looked over at Katie, Damian, and Justin, who had all stopped to wait while Redclaw talked to the mightyena. "You see," she went on, "the police rescued us from the poachers who captured us. I have a new trainer now. He works here. He's very kind. The first thing he did was take me to the humans who got rid of that awful collar. It was so nice to finally be rid of…." Her voice trailed off as her eyes wandered toward Snowcrystal. She stared at her a moment, and Snowcrystal shrank back. The mightyena kept on staring, her eyes narrowed. "You're not a normal growlithe," she whispered.

Snowcrystal's fur stood on end. "W-what? What do you mean?" _Had Justin been right about the fur dye?_

"Your fur is dyed," the mightyena continued. "I recognize that sort of dye. The poachers used it to color pelts sometimes…to trick other humans into thinking they were the pelts of shiny pokémon. But it's okay," she added quickly, seeing Snowcrystal's worry. "If you don't want anyone to know, it's not that noticeable. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been around that sort of stuff. But are you…are you normally white?"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure why, but she nodded. No use trying to lie now.

The mightyena's eyes widened. "Rosie…" she whispered. "I knew Rosie. She said she knew a growlithe with white fur. Snowcrystal was her name. Is your name Snowcrystal?"

Numbly, Snowcrystal nodded.

"Where is Rosie?" the mightyena asked, a worried look clouding her face. "Did she…did she make it? Did she find you again?"

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied. "She's safe." Seeing the relief on the mightyena's face made her forget her worries of being discovered by other pokémon.

From the other side of a room, a human called to the mightyena. "I have to go," the dark type whispered. "When you see Rosie, tell her that Eve is no longer with the poachers…that I found a new home."

Snowcrystal nodded. "I will."

Eve returned to her trainer and Snowcrystal's group turned to leave. All the way back, she thought about Eve, remembering a joyful Rosie, who, upon being reunited with her friends, told them a story of how a mightyena named Eve had helped her, but had been unable to escape herself. So Eve had at last found freedom and peace here in Stonedust City. Snowcrystal would make sure to tell Rosie everything when she got back.

  
**-ooo-**  


Stormblade longed to see the forest and trees again. He wished he could go outside to feel the sunshine, and the cool breeze he knew would be blowing at this time of day. And what a lovely spring day it was. From what he could tell.

He was tired of lying there, helpless in the hospital, either in a daze or too bothered by the pain to sleep. Of course, it was much more bearable now, not like his days traveling while injured, which were all one pain-filled blur to him. But he still felt some of the pain; medicine couldn't take it all away.

And then there was the loneliness, which was much worse.

Stormblade wasn't used to being so alone for so long. He was a scyther, a pokémon meant to live in groups, meant to hunt and travel with others. Sure, the nurses and doctors and their pokémon came in multiple times a day, but only to treat his wounds, then move onto the next pokémon. They never had much time to talk to him because of the sheer number of pokémon in the hospital, and the volunteer trainers were only allowed to work with the healthier pokémon. And Stormblade greatly missed his friends.

Snowcrystal had only been able to sneak back in once, and he hadn't been able to see any of the others. Snowcrystal insisted they were all fine and doing better, but he wished he could see them himself. And Thunder…he could never stop worrying about her. It was terrible, not knowing what was happening to her but knowing that it was something horrible. And there was nothing that any of them could do about it.

He hated the helplessness. Hated that he needed help just to eat, that he had such a large room but he couldn't even move freely in it. He knew how hard it was for them to care for him, and he was grateful to the humans and the pokémon at the hospital for their help, and everything they did for him, yet at the same time, it deeply saddened him that he needed to have help with these things at all. He was a scyther. He was a fierce apex predator, a strong and noble warrior. Or at least, he used to be.

He wasn't any of those things anymore.

Though he knew there was nothing he could do, he couldn't help wishing that he could go back, before the battle with Blazefang's pack that resulted in his injuries from the Forbidden Attack. Or even back further, so he never would have found that girl and ruined Justin's dream of being a great pokémon trainer, or maybe still further, so he had never been captured.

And he had made many mistakes even before those ones. In the hospital, he was often alone, simply with his own thoughts. Maybe it was his longing to be wild and free again, or even just to go outside for a little bit, but his thoughts, when they weren't focused on Thunder and what could be happening to her at that moment, often drifted back toward his days in the wild with Spark…or his swarm days.

Stormblade had tried to put his swarm life behind him. Even when being sent back into the wild after Justin lost his trainer's license, he hadn't tried to join another swarm. It was partly because Spark needed him at the time, partly because it would be hard to find a strong swarm with a good leader, as the way scyther swarms were run tended to vary depending on who the leader was and the tradition of the swarm itself, and partly because he didn't want to relive the memories.

Though now, there wasn't much else to do, apart from thinking of Thunder, but relive them.

Stormblade's own swarm had been a very good one for the majority of the time he was a member of it. He was one of many scyther born there, but unlike the other young ones, who were strong and healthy from the start, he had been very sickly when he had hatched. Many swarm leaders would have had him abandoned in the forest, and the kinder ones would have killed him first, but not Bloodscythe. Though many of the swarm scyther believed that a sickly young one would either die soon, and therefore wouldn't be worth taking care of, or would only weaken the swarm by using up food resources while being unable to hunt himself, the leader refused to have him sent away.

Instead, Bloodscythe himself assisted in bringing Stormblade food, encouraging him to try and overcome the sickness. It was Bloodscythe's belief that abandoning the weak was a foolish and cowardly thing to do, and that made the swarm weaker rather than stronger. "If we cannot rely on each other in times of hardship," he had said, "then why are we a swarm at all?" And the weak, Bloodscythe took care to remind the other scyther frequently, would become strong, and serve the swarm diligently when they became so. How could the swarm throw that potential away because of weaknesses such as illness or injury which would most likely be temporary? Scyther were brave hunters and warriors. Abandoning the weak was not something a warrior did.

Some members of the swarm didn't agree with him, but they obeyed. The injured and sick were taken care of as best as the scyther could manage. Stormblade was, as well, and in his case, Bloodscythe couldn't have been more right. To everyone's astonishment, he had grown from a weak and feeble hatchling into a large, powerful fighter, who was bigger and taller than any other scyther in the swarm, and with the strength to match. He had overcome his sickness and proven to be a valuable member of Bloodscythe's swarm.

Though even still, not all the swarm members were convinced that Bloodscythe's way was right.

There had been a few scyther who had caught a very terrible disease during the winter, and though Bloodscythe had allowed them larger portions of food than the rest of the scyther got, they didn't last the winter. One of the scyther in the swarm, Silverbreeze, and a large scyther called Boneslice, who had recently joined the swarm after becoming mates with Silverbreeze, were angry at Bloodscythe for wasting so much food on the ill scyther when they believed it should have been saved for the strong.

They tried to convince Bloodscythe to change the swarm's law, but he refused, saying that it was still a swarm's duty to care for all its members, and only then could they be truly strong.

Though many scyther agreed with Bloodscythe, they were forced to change their ways when Boneslice challenged Bloodscythe to a leadership battle and defeated him. When a leader was defeated, the new leader was to choose whether or not the old leader would leave or be allowed to stay. Boneslice had gone further than punishing the old leader with exile, and chased Bloodscythe beyond the boundary of the swarm's territory, telling him that he risked being killed if he ever again set foot near the swarm.

They never saw Bloodscythe again.

Boneslice, with Silverbreeze right at his side as his second-in-command, changed the swarm's laws. Sick scyther were left to fend for themselves until they recovered and could return to the swarm, or they succumbed to starvation.

Many of the scyther longed for Bloodscythe to return, but since that was impossible, a few of them challenged Boneslice for leadership. They were failed attempts, and each loser was punished with being sentenced to the lowest rank in Boneslice's new order. The other scyther became afraid to challenge him, and a few were even talking of deserting when Stormblade decided to challenge him.

No one had expected him to; even Stormblade himself would have never guessed he would be driven to do such a thing. He was no leader. But he was the only scyther who could match Boneslice in size and strength, and then some.

The battle was fierce at first, but then Stormblade quickly overpowered Boneslice, who was no match for him. Stormblade, being furious with Boneslice for what he'd done to the swarm and the fact that he was willing to leave his comrades to die, exiled him permanently from the swarm.

Boneslice's mate, Silverbreeze, was furious. Although she hadn't been as against Bloodscythe's ways and beliefs as Boneslice had been, she tried to rally the other scyther against their new leader. Her efforts were futile; most of the swarm was glad to see Bloodscythe's ideals returning through Stormblade.

Stormblade ignored Silverbreeze for the most part, and though he didn't show it, it made him angry to think of her idea of how a swarm should be run, knowing that she would have sent him to die if she had been in charge when he hatched. Stormblade didn't know how to be a leader, but he did well enough, doing the same things Bloodscythe had done.

Until a new threat came to the forest.

When humans began to cut down the forest, Stormblade had not heeded the warnings from the older scyther who told him they should leave. Instead, he declared that they should drive out the humans, for no one had the right to take a scyther swarm's territory from them. The result was disastrous, with three scyther captured and several more injured, including Stormblade himself. After their terrible defeat, Stormblade led the swarm to seek new hunting grounds, and almost the moment after they found them and decided on boundaries, several of the scyther, including Silverbreeze, rebelled against him. Silverbreeze herself was the one to challenge him in a leadership battle, and in his injured state, he couldn't do much to defend himself.

After a humiliating defeat, he was exiled immediately. He staggered around the forest for a few days, in a daze after what had happened and too injured to hunt properly, until he stumbled upon Justin and his pokémon and was captured.

Stormblade knew that Justin had only kept him because he recognized that a pokémon that could fight back fiercely even when injured was a strong and valuable asset to a trainer's team. And probably, Stormblade thought, because he recognized that Stormblade was bigger than a normal scyther. Justin would have noticed that. Stormblade realized that he must have seemed terrifying to the boy.

He had often wondered what became of Silverbreeze, and now he knew. She must have been overthrown, hopefully by a fair and understanding scyther who would make a good leader, and wandered around until joining up with Cyclone and his army. She must have wanted revenge for what the humans did to the old forest.

Stormblade wondered what his old swarm would think of him now. Bloodscythe would have tried to keep him alive even with Shadowflare wounds, and even if all the others believed him as good as dead, as Blazefang had…like _he_ had, before being captured by Katie.

He'd wanted for so long to go back and fix his mistakes, to make it so that he never challenged the humans, that those scyther had never been captured, but there was no way to do that. The only thing he could do was to move forward. But how could he do that, trapped in a hospital?

He had to find a way. He had to fight his hardest to survive, not just for himself, but for his friends. He wanted to help them, to try and repay them for all they'd done for him while he had still been traveling with them, struggling just to rise every day, and he wanted to help prevent any pokémon from being hurt by a Forbidden Attack again. Those were the thoughts that kept him going, as well as the hope, the probably futile hope, of being able to help them rescue Thunder from Master. It was probably nothing more than a wild, crazy dream, but it was more bearable than thinking of her being trapped in that horrid life forever.

After all, he thought as he closed his eyes, trying feebly to get comfortable enough to sleep, the others had to be trying to come up with a plan to rescue her even as he lay there…

They had to be…

_To be continued..._


	52. Secrets of Stonedust

Despite her worries, Snowcrystal found herself enjoying her time with Damian and the others. It was a peaceful life compared to the one they had been living while on their journey, and seeing her friends grow healthier by the day brought Snowcrystal much joy. Stormblade's Forbidden Attack wounds had not gotten worse, and some of the injuries not caused by Shadowflare were slowly healing. Rosie had been overjoyed to hear that Eve had finally found a peaceful life, and despite not being much closer to finding the information they needed, the ninetales seemed much happier, especially after being able to meet and talk with the mightyena again herself.

It had now been almost two months since they had arrived at Stonedust City and although Snowcrystal was worried that they were taking too much time, the humans continued to search for information, even though they had probably searched every book in the Stonedust City library. Without wanting to leave for another location without any leads on where to find anything about the Forbidden Attacks, Damian, Justin, and Katie diligently searched over books they had already read or skimmed through, hoping to find some detail they'd missed, or searched other sources, such as the library's computers or even stories from other humans. They weren't willing to give up on Stonedust just yet, and neither was she.

Snowcrystal had come to be quite used to looking like an orange growlithe. Damian, Katie, and Justin had perfected the look, and Justin had proudly told her that she looked exactly like a normal growlithe.

As Eve had suggested, Redclaw had gotten his collar removed, and luckily there were no questions asked as to why Redclaw wasn't in a poké ball at the time. Free of the constant reminder of Master, Redclaw had grown to be happier than Snowcrystal had ever seen him.

Rosie, after much persuasion, and insistence that Eve herself had been given help from humans and trusted them, had gotten treatment for her leg. Her limp was much better now, and she was a much better fighter, too. During the times they were waiting while the humans went to search for information or buy food or battle, the pokémon trained with some of Damian and Katie's pokémon, learning new techniques from the much more battle-savvy trainer's pokémon. Damian had bought Rosie some new TMs, allowing her to use moves like flamethrower and fire blast, which she normally wouldn't have been able to learn after her evolution. They passed a lot of their time in practice battles, sometimes by themselves and sometimes with one of the trainers directing them. Then they talked with each other or simply just relaxed and enjoyed a time when they did not have to worry about traveling or about where their next meal would come from.

Arien and Damian had still been unable to make Justin understand Stormblade's story, and whenever they brought it up, he refused to talk to them about it and sometimes threatened to leave. They eventually gave it up, although Katie, who had often listened while they tried to explain it, seemed to believe it, or at least was rethinking the idea of Stormblade being a murderer.

There had also been no luck convincing Scytheclaw to heal Stormblade, but there was no more trouble with him attacking the other pokémon. Everyone made a great effort to be as nice to him as possible, and brought food to him even though his wounds were nearly healed, but he still largely ignored them. He obviously suspected they were just being kind to try and get him to agree to heal Stormblade, but in Snowcrystal's case, the kindness was genuine. Scytheclaw's behavior showed none of the unfair and cruel leader he had once been; even the arrogance and anger he had constantly displayed toward them in the first few days they had teamed up with the humans seemed to be dwindling. Though he still made no effort to be friendly toward the other pokémon, he showed kindness to Damian and, sometimes, his pokémon team, and he really acted as if he did want to put his old life behind him and start anew. He tolerated the presence of Snowcrystal and her friends, even Nightshade.

And that was the best part. Nightshade was back.

The heracross was nearly fully healed; he only had a slight limp now. He had been able to go back with them a while before, when his wounds had still been healing, but he had been well enough to live outside with the other pokémon as long as he slept in a clean place in Damian's tent and came to the pokémon center for more medicine and check ups to ensure his wounds had been healing correctly. When he had first arrived, it had shocked the others all over again that Thunder had done so much damage. Though Snowcrystal had felt angry at Thunder all over again, she was glad Nightshade was trying not to encourage the others' negative thoughts about her.

During the time Snowcrystal wasn't accompanying the humans at the library or practice battling with the others, she often went off into the forest alone with Nightshade. It was partly because she suspected he was lonely; Thunder may have been rude and awful to him at times even before she attacked him, but she knew Nightshade still considered her a friend, something Snowcrystal wasn't sure she would be able to do in his position. She also knew he had talked with Thunder about things he hadn't told anyone else, though what those things were, she had no idea. He had to have been close to her, in some way. Another reason she spent time with him more was because she wanted to talk to him. He was the sort of pokémon she could tell anything to, about how she missed her home, the random, silly things she did as a puppy, the stories she was told by flying pokémon visiting the mountain, or even more serious things such as how she was worried about Stormblade. Nightshade had even told her how much he worried about Thunder, caught by that terrible human again. She had known he would be worried, but she hadn't known he'd be worried so much. Then again, it did make sense. Nightshade knew of the horrors Thunder had gone through more than anyone else, even Redclaw, and it helped both of them to have someone to talk to. She and Nightshade had spent much of their time together, and were quickly becoming close friends.

He was also, she knew, becoming close friends with Damian as well, and before the constant searching for information had taken its toll on the trainer and what little time he had was spent resting or battling for money, he had also spent a lot of time with Nightshade. However, now that he was becoming so busy and exhausted, Nightshade's loneliness had seemed far stronger, so Snowcrystal had decided to help him in whatever small way she could.

During their aimless wanderings together, they often went somewhat far from the group. They were confident enough in Snowcrystal's new trainer-taught fighting techniques, and the fact that Nightshade was experienced enough to be a skilled fighter even without the humans' training, that they didn't worry about the wild pokémon. Most of them weren't aggressive, and they had never had any need to fight, but it was comforting to know that they would be able to if it came to it. The poacher traps had long been cleared out, so they explored the forest in peace, Nightshade sometimes pointing out certain herbs or flowers or berries to her and telling her what they were.

On one such day, when they had walked further than usual, they reached a strange place near the city that looked odd and out of place compared to everything else. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize why it struck her as so odd. The trees were lined up in a very unnatural way; only a human could have planted them like that. The grass and other plants looked precisely placed as well, and there were odd looking human made things scattered about the area. They were a little more than twice her height, and they had strange openings in the top. She could smell a delicious smell coming from the nearest one, and was about to move closer to investigate, when she noticed that Nightshade was acting strange.

"Come on," the heracross told her in a voice that faltered a bit. "Let's go." He quickly guided her away from it, urging her to move toward a different area. She asked him if there was any danger, but he did not reply. As they walked away, Snowcrystal looked back at the strange place, noting how serene and pleasant it looked, even in the shadow of Stonedust City's buildings. But she trusted Nightshade and tore her gaze away; if he suspected there was something sinister about it, there probably was.

A few days later, as Snowcrystal sat with the group on a warm night lit by hundreds of stars, she watched Wildflame and Spark play fighting at the edge of the clearing. The rest of the pokémon sat around a small fire where Damian was cooking some sort of human treat; cooking was one of the many odd human things she'd learned about since being there. Justin and Katie had already left, but Spark had stayed behind with them for the night. A few of Damian's pokémon were talking excitedly with Redclaw, and Blazefang was muttering to Dusk the absol; the two of them had seemed to become friends, or at least as close to being friends as Blazefang would allow, over the past few weeks. Scytheclaw just watched the fire with a forlorn look in his eyes.

Snowcrystal looked past the others and noticed Nightshade by the edge of the clearing, looking up at the stars. It was too early to sleep, and Snowcrystal was feeling restless, so she got up and walked over to him. "Want to walk around the forest?" she asked him.

She was expecting him to say no; he hadn't wanted to explore the forest near the edge of Stonedust City much at all lately, and they rarely walked through it at night, but to her surprise, he nodded, and they set off through the trees.

"There doesn't seem to be much hope left for that library anymore," Nightshade said as they began walking. "Sooner or later we're going to have to find out where we want to go next."

He seemed distracted, and Snowcrystal had a feeling that wasn't what he wanted to talk about at all. "Are you worried about Thunder?" Snowcrystal asked as they walked under the starlight with only the sound of crunching leaves beneath their feet.

"Yes…" Nightshade sighed, obviously not caring to bring up the subject of the library again. "I don't know what's happening to her now, but…unfortunately, I have a good idea."

"Do you think we could rescue her somehow?"

Nightshade looked back at her with a sorrowful expression. "…I don't know."

Snowcrystal didn't know either. It would take a miracle for Thunder to escape again, especially since Master would be extra careful not to let her. And even if they could bring her back, would the rest of the group allow her to stay? Would she be in an even worse state…and would she attack any of the others? They walked on for a while, Snowcrystal lost in her own thoughts while Nightshade stayed alert and watchful.

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal began after a little while longer, "do you think the humans could do something? About Master, I mean."

"I'm not sure," Nightshade replied. "We don't even know his name. I'm not even sure the police know he's one of the humans who's a part of that circle of pokémon abuse. We have no idea."

"I wish Thunder never tried to attack Master," Snowcrystal said uselessly. "I wish she never attacked you." Nightshade didn't reply, and she continued, "I know some of the others hate her, or at least they act like it, but I don't think they all do. Rosie saw her rescue Stormblade from the mud. She must remember that. And Redclaw knows some of what she's been through. And Wildflame…" She paused, for Nightshade had stopped walking. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Nightshade was staring straight ahead, unmoving.

Snowcrystal walked forward and peered into the dark, but she couldn't see anything that would have made Nightshade stop. She was looking about wildly when she noticed lights above the tree tops. A building. "We're really close to Stonedust," she pointed out. Slowly she took a few steps forward, and when Nightshade made no move to stop her, she passed a group of trees and came upon, once again, that eerily perfect area with the all-too-straight rows of trees. She hadn't noticed it up ahead in the darkness. With a jolt of surprise she quickly backed up until she stood beside Nightshade again.

"Nightshade…" she asked, "what is that place? Why is it bad? Is it dangerous?"

"It could be," Nightshade replied quietly. "But I don't think so. At least not now."

"Then what is it?" she asked, smelling the sweet smell coming from the human made things, but no longer having the desire to go closer to them.

"It is a protected area," Nightshade told her. "A pokémon sanctuary. Trainers are not allowed to come here. I heard some humans talking about it while in the pokémon center. It's mostly used for helping to bring back species of plants and pokémon that have become uncommon in these parts of the region. But…that isn't all I heard. That is a dark place, Snowcrystal." He didn't elaborate, and she didn't question him.

Snowcrystal realized, not for the first time, that this part of the wilderness around Stonedust was much more lush and full of the signs of pokémon having recently passed through than the other nearby areas. The place where Damian and the others had set up camp didn't have nearly as many healthy trees and plants as this area did. And the place didn't seem as rocky, either, as if all the rocks had long since been cleared away. "Oh…" she replied quietly. "It must seem peaceful to the pokémon here, though. And they must know that the people from Stonedust are in charge of the place." She looked at Nightshade. "Are you sure it's not dangerous here? Maybe we should warn some of the pokémon, if it is…" She glanced back at the moonlit area, her gaze fixated on several massive trees that looked quite out of place in a long line next to the smaller, more spindly ones that grew in random places near them.

"I don't believe they're in any danger now. And even if they were, there's not much we can do," Nightshade replied. "Most wouldn't leave…some simply can't. For some species, their only suitable food source is grown right here. And any pokémon who has been put here by the city will not likely have much to worry about. Those who travel here…should be wise enough to not rest here long. But yes…" he added after a moment, "it is safe now."

Slowly, Snowcrystal ventured out onto the smooth grass. It was odd, planted in blocks, and even though it was overgrown and wild looking, she could still see that it had been put in specific places. Some of it looked recent too, as if the humans had decided the grass was too wild and torn it out, then planted new grass in its place, in that same strange, orderly way. Why a human would do that, she couldn't begin to guess. She walked up to one of the blocky human things with the sweet smell, and stretched up on her hind legs to try and look inside. She was too short, but the smell was familiar. It was pokéblocks, a human treat she had seen Justin giving to Spark sometimes. Damian had even offered them to her once, but she preferred the normal pokémon food, or, on the occasions the humans brought some back from the city, fresh meat.

She noticed that she couldn't hear much of any other pokémon, except for a quiet scampering in the tops of the large trees. She turned around to look and noticed Nightshade staring at them, but unwilling to go closer.

"Nightshade?" she asked, walking closer to him. "Is something wrong?" She glanced around quickly to see if any sort of threat had come near, but detected nothing. "Maybe we should leave this place," she stated in a whisper. "You're right, there's something wrong with it…I'm really sorry. We shouldn't have come. I know you didn't want to…"

"No," Nightshade replied. "I did want to come here. I just didn't expect to come across it tonight." She noticed that he was staring at one large tree in particular.

"Nightshade…?" Snowcrystal whispered nervously.

"There is no danger, Snowcrystal," he told her calmly. He paused for a moment. "Do you want me to tell you something?" he asked her, his look calm but serious, with a hint of some other emotion she wasn't quite sure of. She nodded. "This place…is where I once lived."

"You used to live by Stonedust?" Snowcrystal asked, surprised. "How long ago?" she questioned, having a bad feeling that whatever Nightshade remembered about this place wasn't good.

"Many years ago," he replied. "When I was a lot younger. It's funny, but it hasn't changed much since then. It's as if Stonedust City wanted to keep it looking exactly like a neat and clean human's park all this time. I didn't live here for very long, but I still remember what it looked like."

"Why did you leave?" Snowcrystal couldn't help asking, but something in the pained look Nightshade gave her told her that she probably shouldn't have asked.

Nightshade, however, just sighed. "We had to," he replied. "Those of us who were left. The rest of our group…" His voice gained a more serious tone. "The humans killed them."

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in horror. The humans in Stonedust City…the city that had helped her friends so much…had slaughtered innocent pokémon? That had to have changed by now; it was so long ago. Surely the humans were no longer a threat. "What?" Snowcrystal cried, astonished. "How? Why?"

Nightshade looked away, looking as if he was trying to decide whether or not to tell her. He started to walk away from the tree.

"You can tell me," Snowcrystal told him. "I mean…if…if you want to." After she said that, she had the horrible feeling that she'd made things worse.

"The humans chose to do it," Nightshade replied after a moment, his voice icily cold. "No, they were not the sort of humans who wanted to destroy wildlife for their own gain. They…well, I didn't find this out until later, but they attacked our group of heracross because…because there were too many of us in one area. We were destroying the trees."

Snowcrystal listened with wide eyes, wanting to say something, but thinking that she shouldn't interrupt in case Nightshade wanted to say more. She had a feeling that she had been very wrong to ask that question, and was all the more wishing she hadn't. But Nightshade didn't seem angry, just lost in memory. Whatever had happened, it had happened long ago, and she had a feeling that Nightshade didn't often dwell on that part of his memories.

"We didn't know we were destroying the trees," Nightshade continued, his calm tone suddenly vanishing as his voice started to shake, and Snowcrystal thought she saw the hint of tears in his eyes, but he looked away before she could be sure. "We just came here because it looked like a better home than the one we'd left. There was plenty of food, or at least…we thought there was. But the humans…they knew we were disrupting the balance in their newly-built reserve…we weren't supposed to be here, especially in great numbers. So they…they poisoned us.

"I'm still not sure how, exactly, they did it. But they waited until most of us were gathered on our favorite trees, then…they released their poison. They must have made sure it only lasted long enough to poison the heracross there and not any pokémon they put on the reserve after…because when I came back…"

"When…you came back?" Snowcrystal repeated.

Nightshade was silent.

"You don't have to tell me anymore," Snowcrystal told him, still in shock over the whole thing. "I understand."

Nightshade suddenly began to talk again, acting as if he hadn't heard. "Yes, when I came back," he said quietly. "I only survived because I had been gone at the time. Usually we all gathered together in the evening, but I had gone off to ask a nearby beedrill swarm for some honey. I wanted some…to give to my children. My mate, Treeflower…it was her turn to watch them at the time. When I came back, they were all lying on the ground. Along with most of the others from the group. Treeflower wouldn't wake up, and then some of the humans came back.

"I did not yet know the others were dead, so I attacked the humans. They must have been surprised…a heracross attacking them, when we're normally so peaceful, but they sent out pokémon to fight me. They were not very strong, and I took a few of them down; I don't remember how many. Then when I was wounded they sent out a pidgeot. I was fighting so fiercely that they considered me a real threat, and their pokémon was no longer using the sort of restraint pokémon usually did for trainers' sport battles to ensure that the attacks did not seriously injure. No, that pidgeot was doing his best to make his attacks as strong and damaging as possible. And so was I. I didn't care that I was getting wounded; I was too angry. Then, during the battle, I got close enough to Treeflower and my children to see them closely, for longer than the few brief seconds I'd had to see them the moment I first came back. When I looked closely at them during that the battle, it was then that I realized they were dead. And I gave up.

"The pidgeot realized I wasn't going to attack him anymore and there wasn't any risk, so he came closer, and used aerial ace…" He ran a claw along the scar over his left eye. "It knocked me out, but only for a minute or two. When I came to, the humans were gathering all the heracross and moving them away, including Treeflower and both of our children. They came for me, but I didn't try to fight anymore; I ran off. They told the pokémon to leave me alone, that I'd just die off. I didn't realize until later that they must have thought I'd been poisoned too and that it was just affecting me slower than the others. For a while I just stumbled around through the trees and rocks, having no idea where I was going. I found the survivors after a few days, and we traveled further away as soon as we could. One of them, a heracross named Rosethorn, took care of me. I learned most of the healing skills I have from her. The others told me what they saw happen…with the poison…most of them hadn't seen much, but it was enough for them to understand what had taken place."

The whole time Nightshade had been talking, Snowcrystal had sat in stunned silence, but now she couldn't help crying, "What? Why would they do that? How could they…Nightshade, I'm so sorry…" Her voice trailed off. She really didn't know what to say. When she and Nightshade had talked alone all those days before, she thought Nightshade had been telling her everything that was wrong. But he hadn't told her this. She couldn't imagine what she would do if such a thing happened to her growlithe tribe. She didn't want to imagine.

"I don't know," Nightshade replied before she spoke again, his voice sounding weaker than ever. "They could have had trainers come and catch them…but they didn't. Maybe they didn't think that enough of them would…that most trainers would want a pedigree heracross from one of the breeding centers in the city. Or maybe they thought what they were doing was the quickest, easiest solution. But no, I don't know why they would choose that either."

"I'm sorry," Snowcrystal whispered. "We shouldn't have come here."

"It's all right," he replied. "I did want to come here…to remember the happy times in this place."

' _But we didn't talk about the happy times…'_ Snowcrystal thought miserably. She was sure she had just made things a lot worse. For a while the two of them sat together. Snowcrystal wanted to help him, but she didn't feel like anything she could say would do any good. For a while they just sat in silence, Snowcrystal wishing she knew what she could do for her friend, and Nightshade with his own thoughts.

Finally, Snowcrystal said, "I think I understand now. I think I understand why Cyclone is doing what he is."

But when Nightshade looked at her, she saw that the look in his eyes was almost like the look she was used to, before they had come to this place. "No," he said firmly, standing up again and looking almost offended at what she'd said, his eyes suddenly gaining a cold look that seemed so unlike him. "What Cyclone is doing is _wrong._ He's not only acting under the misguided idea that all humans are selfish and evil, but he is dragging other innocent pokémon into it, and they want to harm countless humans and pokémon who have done nothing wrong. I don't think I'll ever understand why Cyclone is doing what he is."

"But…" Snowcrystal began, taken aback. "Those humans you told me about…they did horrible things. Cyclone probably had horrible things done to him by humans too. I mean, I can understand why he'd want to fight them, considering the things they do."

"Those humans may have done a bad thing," Nightshade replied sadly, "a very bad thing, but they did not choose badly because they are humans. Most humans, just like most pokémon, are not like them. Most of them are trying their best to do good. Being a human doesn't change that. There will always be bad pokémon and bad humans; it's not what you are that determines whether you do good or evil."

Snowcrystal realized he was right. What Cyclone was doing was the equivalent of a pokémon trying to eradicate all growlithe because the ones he'd known had seemed to only do harm to other pokémon. It wasn't right. Cyclone might think that he was doing the right thing, in some twisted way, but his hatred of humans, whatever the reason for it, blinded him to the reality of just what his actions would cause to befall upon both humans and pokémon.

"You're right," she said in little more than a whisper. "Cyclone is wrong…even if I can understand why he might be angry." She looked up at Nightshade. "Why did you want to tell me this?" she asked. She hadn't thought this would be something Nightshade would want to tell anyone, let alone some silly growlithe like her who was completely useless when it came to being helpful.

"Because you are my friend," he replied. "And… I guess that's what I'd been trying to tell Thunder. That there is value in having friends, and talking to them about things that are hurting you. I hope she understood that…she would have understood it, had she been with us longer. She's a smart scyther."

"I…I think she would have too," Snowcrystal replied, though truthfully she wasn't sure. The image of Thunder finally snapping and attacking Nightshade was still too firmly ingrained in her mind. There was something truly wrong with Thunder, and she wasn't sure it could ever be made right.

"I'm sorry if I upset you," Nightshade said quietly.

Snowcrystal looked back at him in surprise. She felt that, if anything, she should be the one apologizing. "No, it's okay. If talking to me helped, then I'm glad you did."

"Thank you," Nightshade replied with a small smile.

The growlithe smiled in return.

"We should go back," said Nightshade, in a voice much more like the one she was used to, but still with a hint of sadness. He didn't wait for her answer, and simply walked away from the human's protected area without looking back.

Without a word, she followed.

  
**-ooo-**  


The next morning, Snowcrystal offered to go with the three trainers to the library once again. She was eager to do something to help, even if all she could do was to try. Though Justin had grown extremely impatient and was constantly demanding they find some other place to look for information, and fast, Damian had insisted that there must be something at the library they had missed and that they should look again.

So, after a brief argument, they decided to go, and Snowcrystal went with them. During the journey to the library, she was so busy thinking about what Nightshade had told her, and about Cyclone, that she didn't speak to any of the other pokémon until they walked through the library's doors.

"The library is so boring," Spark complained as they walked down a hallway. "I wanted to do battle practice today!"

"Why didn't you stay with the others, then?" Wildflame, who had chosen to come along too, asked.

"Justin wanted me here," Spark told her. "I'm his pokémon. If he wants me to be here, I'll be here! I just….really think this is boring."

"You could have just made it clear you wanted to stay," Wildflame muttered. "Justin isn't right about everything. Look at how he still won't stop thinking of Stormblade as a murderer."

"Hey!" Spark cried. "You…you can't judge him just because of that! He-"

"Drop it, Spark," Wildflame snapped. "Let's do what we came here for." She turned and sped up to catch up with Katie, who was leading the way down the hallway. Spark slowed down and trailed behind everyone else.

Snowcrystal waited until he could catch up. "Don't worry about it, Spark," she told him. "I…I think it was nice you wanted to keep your trainer company."

Spark acted like he hadn't heard the compliment. "I don't know what to think!" he almost wailed. "Stormblade is my friend, but Justin is too, and he's the friend I've known the longest…ever since I was an eevee! He did so many things for me, but…but I don't know. I mean, I can't blame him for being angry about losing his license, even if it wasn't Stormblade' fault. I…"

He paused, for they had both heard someone calling to him. The growlithe and jolteon whirled around to see Eve running toward them. They had seen the mightyena a few times since meeting her, but she usually stayed in some other part of the library with her trainer or, occasionally, the child humans, and had only really made an effort to meet any of them when Rosie was there. Snowcrystal looked at Damian, who told her she and Spark could catch up later if they wanted. As the humans left, Eve stopped in front of them.

"Back here again?" she asked, and there was a curious look in her eyes. "You come here a lot, don't you?" she added, glancing at Wildflame and the humans as they walked out of sight.

"Yeah," Snowcrystal replied. "We're…we're trying to look for something." She took a deep breath. No point in keeping it a secret. "We're looking for books that mention the Forbidden Attacks. Do you know of any?" There wasn't much of a chance the mightyena would know of a book they hadn't looked through already, but she figured it was worth a shot.

Unsurprisingly, Eve shook her head. "I don't know what any of the books say," she admitted. "I hear them being read aloud in the children's room sometimes, but that's it. And no, no Forbidden Attacks there. I'm sure they're in the stories for older humans, though."

"We've looked," Spark told her, trying to sound normal, though his voice shook. "We haven't found anything that's helped us."

"You've looked in all of them?" she asked.

"We had to have searched every book in this whole stinking library!" Spark growled in frustration.

Eve looked thoughtful for a moment. "Why do you want to find out about the Forbidden Attacks so much?" she asked.

Snowcrystal didn't know what to say. Where would they begin? Would Eve even believe them? She opened her mouth, but it was Spark who spoke first.

"Because they exist!" he told her. "We need to find out everything we can. You know that forest that burned down near here? A Forbidden Attack did that! No ordinary fire would have done that much damage. It was a Forbidden Attack! We _need_ to see any book that could tell us _anything!_ "

Eve just stared at him. Snowcrystal was sure she hadn't believed one word that had come out of the jolteon's mouth. She probably even thought he was crazy. But when she spoke, she didn't even mention Spark's outburst.

"There are…other books in the library," she said slowly, keeping her voice down as if she was afraid someone – though there was no one in the hallway but the three of them – would overhear. "People aren't allowed to look at them or check them out; they're too valuable. You see, Stonedust City's library contains some very, very old books. My trainer says that most of them are one of a kind. Only certain humans are allowed to read them, humans that study those old times, I think, and then only with certain permission."

"Books older than the ones on the fifth story we were looking at a little while ago?" Spark asked, his anger temporarily forgotten and the light of excitement in his eyes, which brightened when Eve nodded.

"Much older," the mightyena said.

"Are there copies of these books anywhere?" Spark questioned excitedly. "You know, have humans rewritten them?"

"No," Eve replied. "The Stonedust City library doesn't want them reprinted, at least not fully. I don't know why for sure; it might be because they want them to stay more valuable or they want the humans who study things to come here. And I'm sure they don't think they're important enough to most people for it. To most humans they're just old stories."

"Could we get permission to read them? Our trainers, I mean?" Snowcrystal asked.

"No," Eve replied. "They'd never let a couple of teenagers and some twenty-year-old in the place where they're kept. I've never even been in there myself. But I know where it is."

"Where?" Spark asked.

"I…" she paused, hearing a human voice calling to her. "I can't tell you now," she whispered. "But tomorrow evening, meet me in the big circular room. I'll explain then. Bye." She hurriedly ran toward the voice.

Snowcrystal and Spark stared after her in stunned silence. _Secret books? That no one but a few were allowed to read? And they were very old…_

Snowcrystal was suddenly seized with a brilliant, fleeting hope. Books that old…could have something none of the other books had, even if they were only stories. They could be stories that had some truth to them. They could find what they were looking for at last in those mysterious books…right here in the library they had been about to give up on.

But she also knew it was likely that none of them had any information at all, and she felt that brilliant hope fade. She was probably getting too excited over the idea of the old, all but forgotten books hidden in the massive Stonedust City library.

But even still, as she watched Eve turn a corner and join her trainer, a bit of that wild hope still lingered.

_To be continued..._


	53. Meetings

It was decided, after Snowcrystal and Spark revealed everything that Eve had told them, that they would go to the library in the evening to see what the mightyena had to say. What they would do afterward, no one was quite sure yet. Most of the pokémon were very willing to sneak in to take a look at the books hidden in secret, and so were Justin and Damian, but Katie was unsure. It was morning now, and as soon as Justin and Katie returned from the trainer's hotel, they began discussing the matter once again.

"Well, Snowcrystal did manage to sneak in there once," Justin stated. "I guess it wouldn't be too hard."

"There were still people in the building when Snowcrystal was there," Katie replied, obviously remembering what Damian had told them about Snowcrystal once having snuck into the library. "There'll probably still be janitors, or other workers…and that had to have been before they closed it down for the night. They must have alarms, or…or some other type of security system…"

"Maybe we could find a place to hide in there until late at night," Justin suggested. "Then we could open a window if we needed one of the wild pokémon's help, or just use our own pokémon, or-"

Katie sighed. "I…I don't like the idea of sneaking around at night. We should at least try and explain things…"

"Who's going to believe you?" Justin told her with a glare. "From what that mightyena said, there's no way they'd let us-"

"I really think we could pull it off," Damian began, "if we-"

"Look, Justin," Katie told him, cutting Damian off. "We shouldn't sneak around the library…unless we have to," she added with a sigh. "We should try and explain things first. Maybe they'll let us look at the books."

"I don't see why you're so worried," Justin muttered. "We've got pokémon! We were in that library almost every day for two months. The only cameras they had were at the front where you first walk in the doors. They seem to only care about people trying to steal books while they're walking in and out of the front doors all day…"

"If what the mightyena said was true," Katie said with a glare, "the place with these rare books has got to have some sort of protection. Do you really think it wouldn't? And you don't know for sure that the library doesn't have any other ways of catching intruders. It's one of the biggest, oldest, and most renowned buildings in the _entire_ Inari region. Surely it can't be easy to just-"

"Why don't we wait until the mightyena tells us more about it?" Justin asked. "Her trainer works there, so she should know what happens at night."

"Why don't we just try _explaining_ to them?" Katie retorted. "We'll figure out what to do after that."

"We should all go today," Damian said before Justin could reply, picking up his backpack. "If Katie wants to, we could try talking to all the workers we see in the library, and-"

"What about the pokémon?" Katie asked. "Should we just leave the wild ones here?"

"I guess so," Damian replied.

Rosie growled. "I'm tired of waiting around here!" she shouted.

"Yeah!" agreed Inferno with a shake of his yellow mane. "Why don't we go and battle?"

The rest of the pokémon murmured something in agreement at the flareon's words, but they didn't loudly protest. As tired as they were of being stuck in one place, they knew that what the trainers were doing was important.

The previous night, they had moved their camp to a different area further away from the city after the wild pokémon had spotted a couple of trainers close by and became nervous. Their new camp was a small, rocky ravine with little plant life, and though it seemed more hidden and therefore safer, most of the pokémon didn't like it.

Snowcrystal sighed as she glanced along the dusty walls of the ravine that sloped upward, gently enough for even small pokémon to climb with ease, but high enough that they wouldn't be noticed from a distance. They had chosen the spot for that reason; it was hidden enough that trainers wouldn't be able to see that there was anyone sheltering there unless they were close. At first, moving to a new camp had seemed like a welcome change of pace, but now that they were there, the brown boulders and dusty walls surrounded by a flat rocky plain were bleak and uninviting.

"I want to go to the city," Alex sighed in frustration as she drew patterns with her claws in the dust. "I hate it here."

Many of the other pokémon were more vocal in stating their agreement, some asking Arien if they could go with the humans to the library. Damian, who obviously knew what they were talking about through his link with the psychic pokémon, looked thoughtful. "I know!" he said in a cheery voice. "I know what to do. I can't believe I didn't think of it before!"

"What?" Justin asked, looking excited. "You know how we can get the books from the library?"

"No, not that," Damian replied, not noticing the disappointed look Justin gave him afterward. "I know where the pokémon could go for the day! The Pokémon Park!"

"Damian…that's not for wild pokémon," Katie pointed out. "That's why we didn't use it before."

"Nobody has to know!" he replied. "They'll behave themselves. Trainers drop pokémon off there all the time. There's always someone watching in case any trouble happens, and the people who work there will make sure the pokémon are safe!" He turned to the pokémon, who were looking at him with either interest or boredom. "Who wants to go to the park?" he asked them.

Several of the pokémon gave excited cries. Snowcrystal had no idea what the park would be like, but she knew that whatever it was, it had to be better than the place they were resting in now. To her surprise, Nightshade also looked eager to go.

"Damian, I don't think this is a good idea…" Katie began.

"It'll be fine," Justin shrugged. "Just let them know they can't eat any pokémon there and it will be okay."

"Don't worry, Katie," Damian assured her in a calm voice. "We can leave some of our pokémon there with them. They've been there before. They'll look after them."

"Okay," Katie sighed. "But you're going to be the ones answering to the park workers if something goes wrong."

 

  
**-ooo-**

After being absolutely sure that Snowcrystal's orange growlithe markings were spot-on, the three trainers and the wild pokémon who had decided to go to the park – Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Alex, Nightshade, and Redclaw – headed toward the facility. Snowcrystal had never been to this area of the city before, and when she saw the park itself, she was amazed.

The Pokémon Park sat in the center of a wide ring of buildings, an absolutely huge grassy field littered with large boulders and several strange structures which many pokémon were climbing on. There was a vast pool to one side, where she could see water pokémon playing. There was also an area with a cluster of trees, where pokémon were climbing or running around cheerfully.

She was still staring at it in awe when Damian and the others approached the part of the large gate where the entrance was. Snowcrystal figured that the gate was more there to look nice than to serve any sort of function, because she was sure pretty much any pokémon could find a way over, under, or through it. Near the open part of the gate, a human sat at a table.

"We'd like to let these pokémon in," Damian explained, gesturing toward the five wild pokémon who had followed them on their journey. "And a few others, we-"

The person sitting at the table looked over the edge of the book she was reading and at the pokémon until her gaze rested on Nightshade. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize that she must have noticed his limp. "Well…" the strange human began in a monotone voice, picking up a small sheet of paper lying on the desk and staring at it. "If your pokémon is injured, you need a note from the pokémon center before entering the Poké Park. You should also-"

"He'll be fine," Katie said after a quick worried glance at Damian. "He just wants to climb the trees. He'll stay up in one the whole time. He won't get himself injured worse. Could he just-"

"Sure, whatever," the human said carelessly with a shrug. She threw the paper back down on the table and went back to reading her book. "Just send out the pokémon you want, and if you're leaving, please sign here and tell us when you're coming back…" She slid another paper toward Damian, who began writing something on it with a pen he took from a cup on the edge of the table. The worker human droned on. "Your pokémon are not allowed to take food out of the Poké Park. Your pokémon are not allowed to attack or eat other trainers' pokémon. Don't abandon your pokémon at the Poké Park. Ill-behaved pokémon will be kicked out and forced to wait in the park building for your return…oh, just read the rules over there." She gave an annoyed sigh and pointed to a sign.

None of the trainers bothered with reading the rules – Snowcrystal assumed they knew them already – and the human working there didn't seem to care. Katie sent out her azumarill and shinx, Justin sent out Spark, and after Damian finished signing, he sent out Todd, Inferno, and Scytheclaw.

"Uh…" Katie began, staring after the scizor as he walked through the gate once the other pokémon had excitedly run through it, but instead of finishing her sentence, she just shook her head and sighed, muttering, "Let's go."

Snowcrystal turned to watch the humans leave, when the voice of the book reading human made her jump. "Hey, puppy," she muttered, waving a rolled up piece of paper at her. "Either get in or leave."

Nervously, Snowcrystal followed the others, seething. _'I am not a puppy!'_

As she walked through the gate, she noticed a few pokémon with blue collars patrolling the edges of the gate and watching the playing pokémon carefully. She thought they must be there to make sure the other pokémon behaved. She glanced at one, a tall mienshao who was watching near the gate, and he returned her glance before nodding toward the open field where her friends were heading. She hurried to follow them.

As Scytheclaw veered off from the others toward one of the areas with trees, Snowcrystal caught up with the rest of the group. "So what are we supposed to do here?" she asked. "Do we…just do whatever we want?" She looked at the other pokémon cluelessly.

"Look at this!" Spark cried in delight. "Food!" He bolted over toward a group of small stands that held containers full of pokémon food. He wasted no time in shoving his head into one of them and gulping down as many of the brown pellets as he could.

"Uh…that's nice," Snowcrystal replied, not feeling very hungry. She turned to look around, wondering what area to explore first.

"I'm going to go over toward those trees," Nightshade told the others, a hint of sadness in his voice. When he was sure they had heard him, he turned and limped off toward the nearest tree group.

"Hey, Spark! Look at this!" Alex cried in excitement, pointing toward a strange construction that had several large tires hanging from ropes. A group of pichu were swinging back and forth on the nearest one, squealing excitedly. Without waiting for an answer, Alex bounded over toward the tires. Katie's azumarill and shinx glanced at each other and followed.

Inferno looked around at the remaining pokémon. "I think we can trust you guys to do what you're told. Go wherever you want. Just don't fight, be kind and respectful, don't leave the Poké Park, and you'll be fine." He and Todd then gave excited yells and bounded off toward one of the play structures.

"Well…" Wildflame muttered in annoyed voice, "so much for showing us around."

"Well, that means we get to explore the place," Redclaw replied.

"Great," Wildflame grumbled unenthusiastically.

Spark walked over to them, licking food crumbs from his mouth. "Do you think I'd get in trouble if I zapped the pokémon in the pool?" he asked mischievously.

" _Yes._ " Redclaw gave him a cold stare. "Don't try it."

"I was only joking!"

"Well," Wildflame began, "I'm going to go over there." She angled her head toward a group of boulders. "I'll see the rest of you later."

"All right!" Spark called back, before turning and running toward where Alex was swinging on one of the tires, nearly knocking over a baby squirtle in the process.

Snowcrystal looked at Redclaw. The arcanine sighed. "If it's all right with you, I want to take a short nap first," he said tiredly. "I'll come and find you when I wake up if you want."

"It's all right," Snowcrystal replied. "I'll be fine by myself."

She left Redclaw as the arcanine went to find a place to sleep and headed toward the tree covered side of the park. Up close, she realized that there weren't as many trees as she had first thought, just several big ones for pokémon to climb on. It seemed a bit more inviting than a real forest. She couldn't see any snow covered place in the park, and the only ice type she saw was a glaceon who seemed to be in a race that involved leaping across boulders with a couple of other eevee evolutions. She also noticed, for the first time, that there were a few trainers there, playing and interacting with their pokémon and any random pokémon who happened to pass their way wanting human attention.

She headed toward a place near the trees that seemed to have the biggest collection of boulders, for that reminded her most of her home. As she walked, she heard a human shout toward her.

"Hey, look at that growlithe!"

She froze, and then slowly glanced down at her fur, but it still looked convincingly orange. She turned around to see two young male trainers. One of them was pointing at her.

"It's really small, isn't it?" the other trainer asked. Snowcrystal relaxed a bit.

"Yeah…" the first one said, narrowing his eyes at her, not in a hostile way, but merely a curious one. "Wonder why her trainer didn't get a quality one bred…"

She started to walk away from them, and barely heard another trainer beginning to argue with the two that it didn't matter where a trainer got their pokémon from. As their voices faded away, she wondered if that was what Nightshade had talked about, how many of the humans in Stonedust City wanted pokémon from breeders. It wasn't of much concern to her, but it still struck her as a bit strange.

She still hadn't reached the clump of rocks when another trainers' conversation reached her ears, but this time it wasn't about her.

"…As usual there are eevee everywhere," one of them was saying. Snowcrystal stopped to listen, not sure why, but thinking of Spark as the humans continued talking.

"Pretty much every trainer has them now," the trainer's friend agreed.

"And they're breeding so many of them that there's still some on the streets. Of course, most of them get picked up by trainers, but it's still a nuisance. Some of the breeding centers just produce too many."

' _Humans breed pokémon without knowing if they'll be wanted?'_ Snowcrystal thought, bemused. Of course, she didn't know much about how humans bred pokémon at all. Damian had told her that some trainers raised their pokémon's offspring and found new trainers for them, but this sounded like something different. Something more like whatever Nightshade had hinted at when she'd talked to him. Spark had told her a little while ago that he had come from a breeding center, and that Justin picked him out himself. He had told her that the center he'd come from had been nice, and eevee who weren't picked out were sent to pleasant pokémon ranches, and she wondered if there were other centers that weren't so nice. If anything, she thought, those two humans should be focusing on trying to stop the humans who were abandoning eevee in the streets. They were humans themselves, so why didn't they do something?

Turning away from the trainers, she headed on toward the rocks. Upon reaching them, she noticed that the area was a lot bigger than it had seemed. There were several groups of pokémon there. She spotted a graveler talking to a gloom by one rock close to her, and a few marill hopping about on another. And beyond them…was Scytheclaw.

Snowcrystal stopped in her tracks. She hadn't expected to find the scizor here, and she knew he probably wouldn't want to see her around. After a moment's hesitation, she decided to stay, but to keep her distance from him.

Snowcrystal spent the next few minutes climbing about on the rocks. Some of the pokémon stopped what they were doing to watch, a few congratulating her and telling her they'd never seen a growlithe jump like she did. She enjoyed the attention; it was nice to not have to hide all the time, but soon she grew tired of it, so she climbed down and began idly walking among the rest of the boulders, watching the other pokémon.

As she wandered, she noticed Scytheclaw again, standing beside a boulder not far from where she was. She was about to head in the opposite direction, when she noticed that he was looking at a trainer. Standing beside the trainer was another scizor. This scizor was a female, and unlike Scytheclaw, she looked healthy and well groomed. Scytheclaw was looking at her warily, and when her trainer walked away toward where a lucario – presumably one of his other pokémon – was sitting, Scytheclaw approached her.

Now that Snowcrystal could see Scytheclaw compared to another scizor, the only other scizor she'd ever seen, she noticed that he looked a bit different. He was a somewhat darker red than the female, who certainly didn't have that odd sharp looking edge on the insides of her pincers. She had known that Scytheclaw was different in that respect; he would often spend hours a day making the inside edges of his pincers as sharp as he could.

The strange scizor looked up as Scytheclaw approached. When Scytheclaw spoke, his voice sounded surprisingly gentle and kind.

"So it happened to you too?" he asked.

The other scizor seemed confused. "What?"

"Your trainer forced you to evolve," Scytheclaw replied.

"What? Oh, of course not!" she replied, looking more confused than ever. That was probably nothing, Snowcrystal thought, compared to how confused Scytheclaw would look. She couldn't see his face, as his back was turned towards her, but her suspicions were confirmed with Scytheclaw's reply.

"You mean you _chose_ to evolve?" he replied, his voice filled with disgust.

"Yes…" the scizor replied.

"Hey," a voice from near the two scizor cried, "believe it or not, not everyone wants to stay in their first form forever." Another pokémon had apparently heard Scytheclaw's outburst.

Scytheclaw didn't seem to be listening. As he began asking, or more accurately, yelling, at the other scizor about why she would choose to abandon her scyther form, Snowcrystal decided that she'd had enough of his nonsense and decided to go see if she could find any of her friends. A few seconds later, she noticed Scytheclaw storming away, looking both confused and angry. She had no idea why he wanted to go screaming at random pokémon, and part of her wondered where the calm, collected leader she had seen in the canyon had gone. She watched the scizor head toward a group of trees before she turned back toward where she was pretty sure Redclaw had gone.

All at once she realized that there was another commotion happening on the other side of the park. She wasn't close enough to hear what it was about, but several pokémon were fighting and a few trainers, including one of the ones that had been talking about eevee in the city, were shouting orders to them. A few humans and pokémon ran toward the trainers, telling them that battling in the park was not allowed, and Snowcrystal started to walk the other way.

"Hey, Snow!" a cheerful voice cried, and she turned around to see Spark. Before she could even reply with a greeting, he said, "All the workers are distracted by those fighting pokémon over there. We can do whatever we want! But we have to hurry!"

"Hurry for what?" she asked, perplexed.

"We can have battles on the rocks!" Spark replied happily. "Or around the trees! I used to play this great game with Justin's other pokémon. It'll be even more fun with lots of us. You see, we split up into teams…"

Spark went on with his description of the game, but Snowcrystal wasn't really listening. She was starting to wish she were back in the dusty new camp, instead of around all these strange pokémon and humans.

"And then we all try to attack each other!" Spark said loudly. "If a pokémon makes it to the other side without getting hit by an attack-"

They were both suddenly interrupted by the sound of some sort of powerful pokémon attack nearby, as well as an angry shout. "You leave him alone!" the pokémon screeched. "You hear me?"

"I heard you!" an equally angry voice shouted back. It was Scytheclaw's. Snowcrystal and Spark gave each other a curious glance and then ran toward the noise. It didn't take long for them to reach the scene.

Scytheclaw stood facing a furious looking feraligatr, while a scared totodile hid behind the branches of a tree. "The little brat walked right in front of me!" Scytheclaw snarled. "I nearly tripped over it. Really, do you think I wanted to touch that disgusting pokémon on _purpose?_ "

"Scytheclaw has such a way with words," Spark said in a mock admiring voice, a huge grin on his face.

"Uh…maybe we should go…" Snowcrystal began to back away. Several other pokémon were now approaching the scene; some of them looked like friends of the feraligatr, and others like merely curious bystanders.

"Stop lying! You hurt my son on purpose!" the feraligatr growled. Scytheclaw only responded by calling him a very rude name. With a roar the water pokémon lunged forward.

Snowcrystal expected the powerful pokémon to slam Scytheclaw into the ground, but before he even got close, the scizor darted away, and Snowcrystal was suddenly reminded of how he had moved so quickly during his battle with Nightshade. Even after a while of wandering in the wilderness and an even longer time recovering from injuries, Scytheclaw was still a formidable battler.

Without losing any speed, the scizor turned and rammed into the feraligatr, knocking him off his feet and sending him plowing into the ground several yards away. A few of the watching pokémon cried angrily, and some of them stepped forward.

Suddenly several of them – all fire types, Snowcrystal noticed – leaped into the clearing and flung their attacks at Scytheclaw, who dodged the whirling arcs of flame and tried to fight back, only for several more onlookers to jump into the fray.

Snowcrystal watched in complete horror, wondering why Scytheclaw was still so determined to attack. The scizor fought whatever pokémon came in reach, slashing at them with his sharp pincers, but he was quickly tiring, and the other pokémon showed no such fatigue. Still, it seemed like he was doing a fine job of holding them off until one of them managed to score a direct hit with a fire attack and knock him off his feet. The pokémon, a female typhlosion, pinned him to the ground. "I saw what you did, you bully," she snarled. "Tell the truth and apologize!" Scytheclaw's only response was to spit in her face. Enraged, she threw him across the ground and launched another fire attack.

Scytheclaw leaped to his feet and managed to avoid the worst of the blast, but by then, several more pokémon had come in to defend the ones he'd been fighting. Scytheclaw struck out at several of them, but they kept him turning around by attacking him while they had him surrounded. Once he tried to strike at one pokémon, several more would attack him from behind. Scytheclaw suddenly didn't seem to be able to fight as well as Snowcrystal remembered. Maybe he was still injured, or maybe it had simply been too long without practice; Scytheclaw had never joined in when she and the others mock-battled each other. Nevertheless, he stubbornly struck out at the other pokémon regardless of his disadvantages. Snowcrystal noticed the female scizor from earlier watching the battle with an alarmed look.

"Stop!" the bug type tried to yell at the pokémon. "Stop this!"

"This wasn't the sort of battling I had in mind…" Spark muttered beside Snowcrystal. "We're supposed to be having _fun._ "

There was no longer any way for Scytheclaw to dodge or defend himself without putting himself in range of more attacks. He looked almost panicked now, but he kept on fighting.

"Just give up!" one of the pokémon shouted to him.

Scytheclaw's gaze hardened. " _No,_ _"_ he hissed. He continued to battle hopelessly against the mob of pokémon surrounding him. Snowcrystal had no idea why the park humans and pokémon hadn't come to stop the fight yet. Were they still too distracted?

When Scytheclaw wasn't paying attention, an electrike, who had been waiting for his chance, ran up to the scizor and touched a paw to his leg. Sparks leaped over Scytheclaw as his whole body went rigid, and Snowcrystal realized that the electrike had used thunder wave. Then the whole tide of the battle changed. The pokémon were no longer trying to subdue the scizor, but were simply taunting him with small attacks while he desperately tried to swipe at any of them that came close enough whenever the paralysis could wear off for a second.

Spark glanced at Snowcrystal, a somewhat alarmed look crossing his face as the battle neared them. "Well, I'm not sure this is-"

"Stop this!" a voice cried, loud enough for several of the watching pokémon to whirl around and see who had spoken. Others however, continued to attack, just out of the furious Scytheclaw's range.

Snowcrystal had turned as well, seeing that the speaker was Nightshade, and he was looking over all the fighting pokémon – Scytheclaw included – with a stern glare. A few of the attacking pokémon backed away once they realized their foe was not moving, leaving Scytheclaw paralyzed on the ground and glaring at them menacingly.

Some of the others surrounding the scizor seemed ready to turn on Nightshade when a slowking and a houndoom suddenly arrived, both wearing vests that told Snowcrystal that they must belong to those helping to keep peace in the park.

"What's going on here?" the slowking asked, and immediately, nearly every pokémon in the area pointed their hands, claws, and paws at Scytheclaw.

"He started it!" one of them exclaimed.

"He attacked my son," the feraligatr accused, still pointing at Scytheclaw.

The houndoom stepped up to the scizor, who glared at him through narrow eyes. "Is this true?" he asked.

"Yes," Scytheclaw replied with a hiss.

Snowcrystal couldn't help but give the scizor a shocked look. She had expected him to deny it, to put the blame on the other pokémon, but instead he had admitted to it, and was now staring at the houndoom as if he was daring him to do something about it.

The houndoom gave a frustrated sigh. "As if that other fight wasn't bad enough," he muttered, before lifting his head in a howl.

The slowking stood behind Scytheclaw as if waiting for him to make a run for it, but he didn't move, and probably couldn't, due to the paralysis. The houndoom ordered the gathering pokémon to go back to whatever they were doing, and about a minute later, a few humans and more pokémon arrived, presumably to take Scytheclaw to the park building like the trainer at the entrance had stated. Snowcrystal didn't see much else, as she, Spark, and Nightshade had turned and left, baffled by the events that had taken place.

They spent the rest of the afternoon wondering what would happen when the trainers returned and if Damian would be held responsible for Scytheclaw's actions. Spark was sure that none of them would be allowed to go to the park again, leaving them to spend their days in the dismal, rocky new hideout from then on. Near the end of the afternoon, Snowcrystal and the others who had been dropped off had gathered together near the entrance, waiting for the return of the trainers.

"I knew he shouldn't have brought that idiot along," Wildflame muttered. "Now we're going to have spend our time in that rotten hole in the ground, waiting for the trainers to-"

"Not if we find something in the library," Alex replied. "If we find something about the Forbidden Attacks, find out how to stop them, we won't have to wait here anymore. We can move on."

Snowcrystal was grateful for the floatzel's optimism, as hopeless as finding anything soon seemed at the moment. The rare, locked away books in the library were still a chance they could take, and if they did manage to find something, to find out who or what had created the Forbidden Attacks and if they could stop them, or even if there was another way to stop them, they could continue to move forward again instead of simply spending day after day looking for a lead.

"That's if we can get into the library at all," Wildflame replied. "We don't know what Eve's going to say or if it'll even be much help to us."

"Yeah," Alex started, "but-"

She was interrupted as Spark leapt to his feet, facing toward the entrance to the park. They all saw the trainers approaching and hurried to meet them. As soon as they stood beside their human friends, they could hear one of the park managers sternly talking to Damian about his scizor. Scytheclaw was soon returned, guarded on both sides by some of the working park pokémon, and Damian was told that his pokémon were banned from entering the park in the future. Damian hastily tried to apologize, making a big show of it, which only irritated the park workers further until they were all told to leave.

"That went well," Katie muttered sarcastically as they walked through the city streets, the sun beginning to set and tinting the sky with bright orange and yellow.

"At least he didn't kill anyone," Damian replied without thinking, earning him a glare from the two younger trainers. "Wait…no! I didn't mean that he would!" he quickly said, and the other two simply turned away and kept walking.

"We're going to go to the hotel for an hour or two," Justin said after a few moments. "You can keep walking to the camp."

Damian only nodded in reply, and Katie and Justin, along with Spark and Katie's two pokémon, walked off, leaving the rest of them standing there. It was clear to the pokémon, without having to ask, that the humans had had no luck being granted permission to look at the books. After a moment of silence, Damian turned to the remaining pokémon, seemed to realize that it would look odd with him walking around with more than six, and returned Todd and Scytheclaw. He stood silent for a moment, his flareon moving to stand by his side, before he looked back at the others. "I don't want to go back just yet," he said. "Do you want to go for a walk? See parts of the city?"

Inferno leaped up in excitement, nudging Damian's legs with his head as if wanting to get going right away. Alex nodded her head, as did Redclaw and Nightshade. He then looked to Snowcrystal and Wildflame, asking them if they minded, and in answer they shook their heads.

"Eh, if it makes him happy," Wildflame muttered. "I guess I could use some time to think before we try sneaking into the library."

" _If_ we end up doing that," Redclaw reminded her, and followed Damian as the trainer set off in a random direction.

Snowcrystal was surprised to find that in the fading light, the city streets looked almost…beautiful. She had never thought she'd think such a thing about human buildings, but there was something about them that captivated her in a way. She almost felt wrong for thinking so, after hearing what humans had done to Nightshade, but she quickly reminded herself that not all humans were bad. Some were capable of great good, like the ones who were helping her, and like pokémon, each one was different.

After a little while, she realized that they had wandered to an even more beautiful area. The houses were cleaner, more intricate, and most of them very large. Many had beautiful plants in front of them, and when Alex tried to dart into a garden, Damian stopped her, explaining that they had to be careful not to damage anything belonging to the owners.

"What is this place?" Snowcrystal asked, hurrying up to catch up to Inferno.

The flareon looked at her and smiled. "This is one of the upper class neighborhoods," he explained. "It's very pretty."

"A what?" she questioned.

"Where rich humans live," he said simply.

"Oh," she replied. "What makes a human rich?"

"Beats me."

They continued to walk, the sky now beginning to get very dark. Suddenly, Snowcrystal leapt in surprise as, in the nearest garden, dozens of multicolored lights turned on, transforming the garden into a luminous paradise like something out of one of the fantasy stories Damian sometimes read to them at the library. "Wow, that's beautiful!" she exclaimed, and for a moment she was reminded of the glowing crystals in her home cave, but she pushed the thought from her mind.

"I love coming here," Inferno was saying. "Lots of humans have gardens like that. It's been such a long time since I…"

He trailed off, for in one of the gardens, a bush rustled, and a sleek black pokémon walked out. The markings on its body gave off a glow that matched that of the lights that were starting to turn on in the lush garden it had just left.

But something was very different.

The pokémon was, quite obviously, an umbreon, but its rings weren't yellow. They weren't blue either; it wasn't even a _shiny_. They were a bright, royal purple.

The pokémon turned toward them, and Snowcrystal could see that its eyes were different too; they were a bright ice blue. The pokémon's face lit up as he saw them, and he bounded over, Damian and the rest of the group looking at the newcomer curiously as he arrived.

"Hey!" the umbreon cried as he stopped in front of Redclaw and Wildflame, his tail weaving back and forth almost like that of an excited houndour puppy. "I haven't seen you around here before. Where're you from?"

The two looked momentarily confused about the odd umbreon, but quickly shrugged it off, figuring, Snowcrystal assumed, that he must be from another land, like she was. "We're just visiting," Wildflame told him, sounding annoyed. "We don't live in the city."

"Just visiting?" The umbreon seemed, if possible, even more excited by this. "Do you travel a lot? Where are you from? What sort of places have you been? Have you-"

"That's enough questions, thank you," Wildflame muttered before anyone else could reply. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'd better be going." She walked on ahead past him, and Redclaw followed, giving the oddly colored umbreon an apologetic look.

The stranger didn't seem to mind, and was quite content to sit there as Damian petted him and Inferno and Alex eagerly began to reply to his questions. Snowcrystal and Nightshade stood off to the side, watching as Redclaw and Wildflame waited up ahead for them, and after a moment, they told the umbreon that they had to get moving, he said his goodbyes, and they left.

"That's odd," Snowcrystal said to Inferno as they walked on, glancing at the umbreon as he stared back cheerfully at them. "I didn't know there were odd-colored umbreon. The humans don't think it's weird?"

"No, of course not," Inferno replied. "The humans created them. You see," he continued, noting her look of shock, "he's one of those genetically modified pokémon. Rich humans here pay quite a lot for one. There aren't many around, as it's still a fairly new practice, but there's bound to be a lot more sooner or later and there's certainly a strong demand for them."

"Genetically modified?" Snowcrystal repeated. She'd heard a little about that sort of thing from the books Damian and the others read, but she was still clueless about what it meant.

"Yeah," the flareon replied. "Human scientists can do all sorts of strange things. They've cloned prehistoric pokémon. They even cloned _mew._ And recently, the ones in Stonedust City began breeding these modified pokémon to sell. They've created umbreon with all kinds of different colored rings. They have other species too. Like I said, there aren't many of them yet, but you see them around in these parts of the city sometimes."

"You mean, these humans could create their own white growlithe?" she asked hopefully, wondering whether she would be able to walk around with her natural fur colors and not attract too much attention.

"Yes, they could," Inferno replied, as if knowing what she was thinking, "but they haven't done that yet. There are no modified growlithe at all yet as far as I know. And _naturally_ strange colored pokémon, like shinies, are sought after even more than the modified ones. If they saw you with your normal colors, and there was no proof that you came from a lab, you'd be in big trouble."

"Right," she replied, disappointed.

"Only a select few are allowed to sell these types of pokémon," Inferno continued. "They keep track of what new colorations they create and they aren't allowed to pass them off as natural. So…yes, I'm afraid you've still got to be careful."

Snowcrystal sighed as they carried on, and after a while they turned around and started heading back to more familiar parts of the city, calmly enjoying the cool night air as they passed the brilliantly decorated buildings. They soon arrived back at a place with towering skyscrapers, and as they passed a street corner, a couple of adult trainers and their pokémon sneered at them. Wildflame sneered back, and Alex did a much less intimidating imitation, and they continued on.

"I don't like this," Wildflame muttered quietly after a moment.

"Huh?" Snowcrystal responded, looking at the houndoom in confusion.

"Staying in this city," she whispered back. "We've already had to move our camp because someone came too close. If we don't find anything in the library's hidden books, I say we go somewhere else."

"Where?" Redclaw asked, striding forward to walk beside her. "To another city?"

"I don't know," she muttered irritably, turning away from him and picking up speed until she was further ahead.

Redclaw looked confused, and was about to follow when Nightshade, who had been walking behind him, placed his claws on the arcanine's leg. "Don't," he told him, "this isn't the time to…" He trailed off, looking to the side at the opposite street, where the two trainers they'd noticed before were watching them.

Redclaw noticed them too, and looked to Damian, who was walking blissfully, completely oblivious. The arcanine felt the fur bristle along his neck as he bared his teeth and glared straight in the trainers' direction, and the two trainers, as well as their pokémon, a vileplume and a ninetales much older looking than Rosie, glared back but sauntered away. They did not encounter the trainers again, but Redclaw stuck protectively close to Snowcrystal until they reached their new camp. He had not liked the way those trainers had looked at them, and he wondered if their pokémon had noticed Snowcrystal's fur was dyed, as Eve had. He was starting to think that it was likely far more dangerous than they realized to take Snowcrystal into the city, and he wished they had simply gone back to camp. He was beginning to understand how Wildflame felt.

Once they got back to camp, the pokémon waited near the ravine for Justin and Katie to return, whispering excitedly amongst themselves about what the library could have in store. Redclaw's unease had rubbed off on Snowcrystal, and she was starting to have a bad feeling about returning to the city. Regardless, her desire to help her tribe back at the mountains made her determined to help out, despite how she might feel.

Damian had let the rest of his pokémon out while they waited, knowing that it wouldn't be long before they were meant to meet Eve in the library's circular room. It was decided that only a few of them would go to speak with her, and Snowcrystal felt lucky that Damian and Arien had agreed to let her go.

Looking around the slopes of bare rock, Snowcrystal spotted Scytheclaw a ways away from the others and tentatively padded over to him. "Scytheclaw?" she asked as she approached the scizor, looking up at him warily.

He turned to give her a sharp glare. "This isn't about healing your scyther friend again, is it?" he asked, his bright eyes narrowing.

"No," she answered truthfully. "It's…I just thought it was brave of you to stand up to those pokémon in the park."

"Brave?" he responded icily, giving her a suspicious look.

"Yes," she replied, feeling a bit silly as she noticed his reaction, but continuing anyway. "I think you are brave. You don't back down even when you know you can't win. I mean, I think those pokémon thought you were just a coward who would run away if someone stood up to you. But you aren't. You still stood up to them."

Scytheclaw just stared at her. "You know, believe whatever you want, but I didn't hurt that totodile on purpose," he said icily. Then before she could reply, his annoyance came snapping back, and he rolled his eyes. "This is ridiculous," he muttered. "I'm not going to do _anything_ for you, understand? I'm only helping you with this Forbidden Attack quest to search for answers for myself and help my trainer. I am not your friend, growlithe, so stop treating me like I am." With that, he turned and stalked away, heading out over the rugged rocky ground. Some of the other pokémon saw him go, but did not try to stop him. They knew that he would be back before they would make their plans to go into the library after hearing Eve's words.

Snowcrystal felt a bit disappointed. She hadn't wanted to ask him anything this time. She had only wanted to be more friendly, maybe try to help some of the pokémon be more of a team, but she realized how silly that seemed, and she had to admit, some small part of her had still been hoping he would help Stormblade.

"Ah, give it up," a voice muttered from behind her, and she turned to see Blazefang walking towards her. "He's not gonna do it."

"I wasn't-"

"Oh, please," Blazefang muttered. "Why else would you have been nice to a pokémon like that?"

"I…I don't know," she replied, suddenly feeling a bit puzzled herself. "I just thought…well…I'm not sure. But I really did think he was brave. Don't you think that's the sort of bravery we need to-"

"Ah, I see," Blazefang responded. "You just want him to do things for us. It's not much different."

"I…I didn't mean it like that!" she cried, but even as she said it, she began to wonder if she had. She didn't like to think she expected every pokémon she met to help her, but what if she did? "I mean, I thought-"

"Don't worry about it," Blazefang replied. "I know what you mean. That'll be all that useless bug is good for."

" _Scizor,_ " she corrected.

"Yeah, whatever," the houndour said with a shrug. "You know, you're always looking at the good in others. And I don't mean that as a compliment…no offense. Some pokémon are just, well…not good. Take Cyclone for example."

"I'm sure the bad things Cyclone's done certainly outweigh the good," she stated.

"Well, that's a start," Blazefang muttered. "But who cares whether Scytheclaw is brave or not? We could do without him if we had to. Please, Snowcrystal, stop thinking that every pokémon we come across is going to be some great help. We can't be too careful who we trust these days." He turned and walked back toward the edge of the ravine, near where the others were waiting.

Snowcrystal realized that he had a point, and that she couldn't blindly trust any pokémon who seemed helpful. Yet Scytheclaw was a different story. He had a Forbidden Attack, if a strange one, and that made him a part of everything they were searching for. Still, Blazefang's words had unsettled her, and she decided to put it out of her mind for the time being.

It wasn't long before Justin and Katie returned, and Katie only hesitantly decided to come with them, curious to know what the mightyena would say, but still not liking the idea of sneaking into the library. She had her azumarill by her side, Justin had Spark, and Damian had Arien. The only other pokémon who were coming with them were Rosie and Snowcrystal, Rosie only coming because she wanted to see Eve again.

The library was almost ready to close as they walked through the doors, heading to the massive circular room where they knew Eve was waiting. As they'd hoped, there were only a few people and pokémon around. They quickly made their way to the massive room they had spent so much time in over the past several weeks, and as they'd expected, the mightyena was waiting for them in the center of the room, sprawled out on one of the chairs.

"Good," she stated as they arrived, leaping down from the chair and running over to them. "You're here."

"Eve!" Rosie cried, racing ahead of the others to meet up with the mightyena, whose eyes lit up with joy.

Snowcrystal watched the two as they excitedly exchanged words and ran circles around a group of chairs, talking rapidly back and forth as they play-fought each other, just as if they had been friends for far longer than Rosie had described. Beside her, Arien folded his arms impatiently, while the trainers and Spark all watched with much happier expressions.

"So, where are the books hidden, Eve?" Rosie asked as the two walked back toward the main group.

"Shh…not so loud," she replied. "There are still pokémon here. Look, let's go in one of the hallways. It'll be quieter. I only told you to come here because it would be easy for you to find me."

"Hey, we've been coming here for weeks!" Spark interjected. "I think we know where everything is!"

The mightyena only shrugged, and they followed her into one of the side hallways, and then to a secluded place near a turn in the narrow passage. Eve sat down in front of a painting of Ho-oh rising from a writhing mass of flames. "Okay," she began, "listen carefully." She needn't have asked, because every pokémon present was listening, and the humans were impatiently waiting for it to begin so they could get a translation from Damian. "All right," Eve continued, satisfied that their attention was on her words, "the books are hidden in a very small room. You must first go to the room where the battle strategies books are. There's a door behind the large lugia painting there. It's locked, but it won't be hard to open with a pokémon attack. They aren't exactly too worried about anyone finding it. They assume no one knows and they're busy worrying about protecting the rest of the library. Go through the tunnel that winds through the walls and you should come into another room. It's small and has a low ceiling because it exists between a room on the first floor and a room on the second. You'll probably see a lot of old books there – the workers in the library like to take them up there to read in private sometimes – but they're not what you're looking for. Look around and you'll see a door that's somewhat hidden, but there isn't much in the room and it's not hard to find. Open it and there will be a short hallway, then you'll reach the door that leads to the hidden room with the books. I'm not sure how hard it is to open without a key; I've never seen the door to the room itself. But that's how you get to it."

"Hm…" Spark began to muse as Damian relayed the information to Katie and Justin. "There aren't any…high tech security devices guarding this thing, are there?"

"In the secret rooms?" she replied. "Only the locks. You see, like I said, they know that only a few people know about them, so they won't be expecting that. Your problem, however, is going to be the rest of the library. You see, they _are_ worried about books in the main library being stolen. They take it seriously…because if a book isn't checked out normally, they can't find the person who has it if it isn't returned, and there are many books here that are very valuable, even in the normal sections of the library."

"So, are there humans patrolling the library at night?" Snowcrystal asked, remembering her terrifying experience in the library months before.

"The janitors used to," Eve replied, "though recently they've started cleaning during the evenings when there are still visitors. It's unfortunate, as they'd be much easier to avoid, but you won't have that window of opportunity. You see…something else guards the library at night, and now, they do it immediately after closing."

Spark and Snowcrystal gave each other uneasy looks. "And that thing that guards the library would be…" Spark began.

"Ghost pokémon," Eve replied. "There's only one camera near the library entrance but they have eyes everywhere else. You're going to have to find a way to distract them before you try to navigate the library."

"Yeah, sounds _real_ simple," Spark muttered sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you," Eve replied.

"Thank you," Snowcrystal told her, and the mightyena smiled.

"I wish you good luck," she replied, standing up. "I must find my trainer now. Remember, sneak in through a side window…have the pokémon who will cause a distraction go first. You can't be caught on the camera. But at the same time…don't make the mistake of thinking that being caught by the ghost pokémon is any better."

With that, the mightyena trotted out of the hallway, and the group was left with her ominous warning. Snowcrystal looked up at Damian after he finished explaining to the other humans. Katie looked back at him in shock, while Justin looked on with eagerness. They waited for Damian to speak, and as he turned and led them toward the end of the hallway, he said, "Let's get back to the ravine. We need to make a plan fast."

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The purple ringed umbreon and other genetically altered pokémon in Stonedust were actually inspired by a conversation a friend once had with someone on DA. This person was talking about people's pokesonas and insisted that umbreons that had colors other than blue or yellow rings were "breaking the rules" of pokémon. Disregarding the fact that she was completely missing the point (as pokesonas aren't always meant to be realistic or serious, and in the end, they don't have to be), it got me thinking about these "rules of pokémon" she seemed to be talking about. Were these boundaries really where she insisted they were? I decided to think about it and find out. I soon thought of the idea of having human-created altered colors. The pokémon world has shown that scientists can do pretty crazy things with pokémon, such as cloning them from fossils, creating Mewtwo, etc. So why not create ones with weird colors? When I thought of this, I assumed this would – in the timeline of most stories I'd write – be a fairly new practice, probably with several pokémon who ended up with weird colors in the wrong places or mismatched rings after they evolved before the humans could perfect it, and scientists would need a good incentive to do it, such as a lot of buyers who would pay large sums of money for one. It then suddenly occurred to me that Stonedust City from The Path of Destiny would be a perfect place for these hypothetical scientists to sell these altered pokémon, and I thought it would be an interesting subject to explore, possibly as a separate short story or in PoD itself. Either way, I thought it would be an interesting thing for the characters to come across to show them a bit more of what the city is like.


	54. Burning Ambition

Night had fallen upon Stonedust, but the city still shone brightly beneath the night sky. However, the building the group stood in front of was completely dark, and because the structure was so massive, it looked eerie as it towered over every other building around it. No light shone from the windows; the library was definitely closed for the night.

Damian and Justin stood in front of it, glad that there were only a few pedestrians around. There weren't even many cars passing by. The vehicles were not of great concern to them anyway; there was a pathway leading alongside the right wall of the library that people often took during the day, and it was from there that they planned to sneak in through a window. No one would think it odd for them to be taking a walk down a less-used path should they happen to be seen before sneaking in.

"Damian, are you sure about this?" Justin asked, giving the older boy a worried look. He had been confident about the plan earlier, but now that they were actually close to implementing it, he found he was growing increasingly nervous, and hoped Damian wouldn't notice.

"Yes," he replied, a smile on his face. "We've got it all figured out." He tried to give Justin a reassuring look, but Justin didn't find it comforting. Damian seemed to be completely oblivious to his nervousness, which didn't surprise him.

"I wish Katie would have come," Justin muttered under his breath, thinking of how Katie had gone back to her trainer hotel, wanting nothing to do with their risky nighttime excursion.

"Don't worry," Damian reassured him, "we have the pokémon with us."

"Uh-huh," Justin replied half-heartedly, giving Damian's pokémon an unimpressed look. However, as Spark rubbed his head against his leg, he felt a bit of his fear retreating and reached down to pet his jolteon, running his fingers through fur that was silky smooth, without a hint of the dangerous spikes it could become if he was angered. Sometimes Spark's fur would bristle a little if one of the other humans touched him unexpectedly or took him by surprise, but Justin knew that his pokémon completely trusted him.

Damian had brought Arien, Scytheclaw, and Inferno along with him, and each of them, even Scytheclaw, were calm and collected as they waited for orders. Scytheclaw, although sporting wounds from his battle in the pokémon park, held his head proudly and avoided the gazes of the other pokémon. Snowcrystal stood beside Alex. The floatzel had been the only other wild pokémon who had been both fit enough to travel and willing to go, aside from Redclaw, but it was quickly decided that an arcanine was too large to maneuver through the library easily.

"Are we going now?" Inferno whispered, the flareon's tail lashing in agitation as he looked up at the massive old building of brick and stone.

Snowcrystal turned her gaze toward it as well, and instantly remembered her first experience with the Stonedust City library. Now, however, it seemed even more sinister, knowing what lurked inside of it during the late hours. The growlithe scanned the windows, but she could see no sign of any ghost pokémon.

"Come on," Damian called to the pokémon, who padded forward after the two humans as they walked into the pathway running along the library's side. Snowcrystal didn't recognize this side, and she felt a bit agitated. She was more nervous than she normally would be, knowing what her role in the plan was. Stopping beside a window, Damian examined it, his arms folded as he looked at it thoughtfully.

"Come on," Justin muttered beside him. "Let's get on with it."

"These windows are being watched," Arien suddenly stated as he looked at the other pokémon. Snowcrystal was sure he was communicating with Damian through his psychic link as well. "But there's one near here that isn't. Follow me."

The alakazam made his way along the path, turning once he reached the back of the library and ducking into a narrow space between it and another building. The rest of the group did the same. There were windows here, and they had obviously been built before there was a large building behind the library to block them. At the moment, the curtains behind the windows were drawn. Arien walked past several of them until he came to one that looked a bit more secluded from the others.

"I can't sense anything here," he stated.

"Why is that?" Scytheclaw asked, his yellow eyes narrowing.

"I don't know," the alakazam replied. "Whoever was guarding it probably moved to another window for the time being. But it likely won't last long. Are you ready?"

Snowcrystal realized he was talking to her, and with a jolt she looked at him. "Y-yes," she stammered.

"Good," Arien replied before turning back to the window.

Damian leaned down toward her, and brought out a water bottle from his backpack. Together, he and Justin washed off the orange dye disguising her. It had been decided that Snowcrystal would lure the ghost pokémon away in her natural colors, for the library guard pokémon would be less likely to associate her with humans, based on what Inferno had said about there being no human-altered white growlithe. That way, the ghosts wouldn't be as likely to search for other intruders. It was incredibly risky, but Snowcrystal herself had readily agreed to the idea. She very much wanted to help her friends, and this was a way she could.

The dye, which had been a quickly applied, easily washable type, came off quickly and Snowcrystal stood on the street, shivering a bit before she shook herself dry, her white fur puffing out.

"All right. We are ready," Arien said in a serious tone, turning toward the window and lifting his hand. There was a click, and it slid open.

Justin's eyes widened, a surprised look clouding them. "Don't they usually have something to prevent pokémon doing that?" he asked, feeling that it was all a bit too easy.

"In newer buildings, yes," Damian replied. "But the library's old, remember?" He sounded so casual about it that Justin couldn't help rolling his eyes.

Snowcrystal readied herself to leap up to the windowsill, but before she could make the jump, a blue glow surrounded her body and she was lifted into the air and through the window space by Arien, who then deposited her on the carpet floor.

Taking a moment to regain her balance once the glow faded, she shook herself again and looked around. The hallway was dark, with no sign of any pokémon. She found it hard to recognize anything; they hadn't often gone this way on their trips to the library, or at least not the ones where she had come along.

Knowing time was precious, she sprinted off down the hallway, distancing herself from the others in the direction they'd told her to run. The humans knew the layout of the library, and if all went as planned, the ghosts would follow her, and the others would be able to sneak much more easily to the place the secret books were kept.

  
**-ooo-**  


"They're following her," Arien said in a worried voice as his eyes scanned the darkness.

"Can you tell where they all are?" Spark asked.

"No…but I could sense some passing by. We need to be careful."

"Are we going to go now?" Alex whispered as she hopped from one foot to the other in excitement.

"Hey, this is serious!" Inferno whispered to her.

"Oh, _right_ _…_ " the floatzel responded, changing her demeanor to something closer to calm and giving the flareon a knowing nod.

"They'll notice the window if we don't hurry," Justin hissed to Damian through gritted teeth.

"Wait…" Damian replied, his gaze locked on Arien.

A few moments passed and the alakazam nodded. "Let's go," he said.

Carefully, the humans and pokémon all slipped inside, leaving the window open a bit to allow for Snowcrystal's escape.

"This isn't exactly a top security place," Justin noted as he looked around the hallway and then at the pokémon. "But I doubt it'll turn out being that easy. Keep your wits about you." He gave a glare first at Alex, who was looking around in excitement, and then at Scytheclaw.

"Gotcha," Alex stated, more to herself than to the human who couldn't understand her. "We'll be careful."

"This isn't a game, you know," Scytheclaw snarled under his breath at her.

"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood," the floatzel whispered back. She still seemed completely unafraid, and Spark, who was beginning to feel nervous, especially for his trainer who, along with Damian, would carry most of the blame if they were caught, couldn't help but admire her a bit for it.

Alex turned around and peered down the hallway, pointing with her paw. "Let's go."

To Spark's surprise, she was pointing in the exact direction they needed to go, and it occurred to him that Alex actually did understand a lot more about their mission than he'd given her credit for. While she seemed to treat it like a big adventure, at least she knew what she was doing.

Now that their eyes had adjusted to the light, they crept along the hallway, keeping alert. The paintings of legendaries and other pokémon looked strangely spooky in the darkness, and after they passed the row of windows and turned into a new hallway, it was completely dark.

No one dared produce any sort of light with the thought of ghost pokémon around, but Spark and Alex led the way purely by scent and the feel of the carpet and walls, the humans and other pokémon keeping close behind. The jolteon's heart was beginning to hammer in his chest as a shiver raced through his body. He'd been in dangerous situations before, but as familiar as he was with human buildings, the thought of having to sneak around an enclosed space where he couldn't use his speed to his advantage unnerved him.

"Stop," Arien's voice hissed to them, but he needn't have said anything. Up ahead, in a small room full of bookshelves, they had noticed strange purple-blue flames.

The flames were at a considerable distance, and as they watched, they circled lazily around the room before eventually moving out of sight.

"Chandelure," Alex hissed to the others, waiting for a signal from the two trainers.

"We should go a different way," Spark stated, and Arien nodded.

They followed a side hallway, taking a longer route toward the room dedicated to books about battling strategies that Eve had told them hid the secret door. They knew that Snowcrystal should be leading most of the ghost pokémon to the other side of the building, but they would still have to go out of their way to avoid the chandelure, and it was possible that they would need one of the other pokémon to be a distraction. Spark narrowed his eyes firmly as he walked. If he had any say in it, it would be him. The twisting hallways might slow him down, but he was still the fastest of the group, and he wanted to help Snowcrystal. However, the growlithe knew exactly what to do, and he tried to reassure himself that she would get out through the window again just fine.

  
**-ooo-**  


The library was dark and eerie as Snowcrystal raced through the hallway, not entirely sure where she was going, but at least knowing that she could find her way back, as she had been making a mental note of the paintings she passed by so she could track her way back to the window. Thoughts of her first excursion into the Stonedust City library, what seemed now like eons ago, filled her mind as she ran. The library had seemed creepy and hostile then, but now it was exponentially so, as she knew what now lurked in the building during the night.

Moving her head from left to right as her paws thudded dully against the carpeting, Snowcrystal wondered how fast the ghosts would be able to move and follow her, and how long she'd be able to keep up the chase before she was driven out of the library. Trying not to think about how well she would do, she focused instead on the others, who were relying on her, and threw back her head in a howl, trying to sound as if she were a lost and confused wild or stray pokémon. Surely, she thought, that would attract the attention of any of the-

Without warning, something darted into her field of vision from her left side, and she had barely begun to turn her head in surprise when a ghostly fist shrouded in dark energy hurtled her way. With a yelp of shock she jumped to the side, and for a split second she thought she would avoid the attack, but then the punch landed harshly against the side of her head, causing her to lose her balance and skid into the wall.

Shaking her head frantically after the impact, she ignored the dull throbbing pain and her own terror as she kicked off the wall and launched herself forward again, hearing nothing behind her but knowing her foe was right on her tail. In the back of her mind, she wondered if the attack the pokémon had used was shadow punch, and if that was why she hadn't been able to avoid it.

Fear leant her strength as she powered forward, avoiding the temptation to steer herself into a side room or a branching hallway, as she knew making a turn would only slow her down. As she continued to run, sheer terror of the unknown prompted her to take a quick glance behind her, seeing that her pursuer was a haunter, and he was closer than she'd feared. As she saw this, the haunter released some sort of strange, barely visible beam toward her, and she quickly ducked to the side, feeling an odd chill race down her spine as it whisked past her and struck the floor, though from the lack of an impact sound, she figured the move hadn't damaged it. The beam must have been confuse ray or something similar, which made sense to her, as she knew the pokémon would not be allowed to damage the library. At the same time, however, the possible nature of the attack made her worry grow. Above all things, she needed to keep a clear head.

The hallway reached an end up ahead, forcing her to turn, so she raced into a room off to the side. She felt glad for all the running and traveling she had had to do to survive in her mountain home. It had given her plenty of stamina, and she did not yet feel like she needed to slow down. As she continued to frantically bolt through the room and into another, much larger one, she was glad that she was fast enough for the pokémon to have at least a bit of trouble aiming another beam at her.

As she darted between two towering bookshelves, barely visible against the rest of the room in the low light, she thought of darting up the next staircase to attract the attention of any pokémon on the second or third floors that hadn't heard her call. The battle strategies room that the others were heading to was on the third floor, and though she was sure her howl had to have reached the ghosts there, she wanted to make sure they'd be distracted when Damian and the others neared that room.

As she emerged from the bookshelves into a wider part of the room, which had doorways leading to several hallways, she was suddenly met with the forms of two other pokémon – a misdreavus and a shedinja. With a cry of shock, she veered to the right, but the haunter tailing her merely sailed through the bookshelf without having to turn around it and struck her with another dark energy punch.

This time, she completely lost her footing, and tumbled tail over snout into the wall near one of the openings to the doorways. Her head hit the wall and for a moment her vision faltered. Through the daze, she could see all three pokémon closing in on her. In a panic, she staggered upright, swinging her head around toward her attackers and releasing a flame wheel at their blurry forms.

All at once the whole room was washed in a warm glow. The ghost pokémon seemed to forget about her as they turned their horrified gazes toward a book shelf. The top corner of the shelf was on fire, but the flames leaped quickly from book to book, beginning to eat up the wooden structure they were resting on.

Snowcrystal stepped back in horror. She had not meant to set fire to anything in the room. The thought that the fire might spread to the area her friends were sneaking through horrified her, and in spite of the seriousness of her situation, she couldn't help also feeling a twinge of remorse for the books she had just accidentally destroyed. Her time with the trainers had taught her just how valuable they were, not just to the humans but for the welfare of pokémon as well.

Tearing her gaze from the sight as the misdreavus hurried out of her line of vision with the other ghost types just behind her – presumably to get something to put out the flames – Snowcrystal sped into the hallway. If anything, she hoped that some small measure of good would come from her mistake, and it would be a big enough distraction that the ghosts would leave her friends alone for a few minutes or so.

She saw a set of stairs up ahead, and her eyes brightened, glad that she had a clear shot to the second floor. Preparing herself to run up the stairs and immediately search for the next set, she forced her muscles to move faster, her eyes focused on the dim sloping shape in the darkness.

As she neared the bottom steps of the staircase, she was suddenly met with the hulking form of something huge floating above it in the darkness. At first she couldn't make out what it was, other than that it was large and round and its eyes, small and red, were the only thing visible outside of its basic shape. Her glowing amulet did not allow enough light for her to see anything more. She frantically tried to change direction, but the large shape moved closer and from the corner of her eye, she caught a better glimpse of its form, realizing that the pokémon was a drifblim. She knew this only because she had seen one in a book; she had never come face to face with one before. The pokémon's massive frame dwarfed her as it approached with an almost unnatural-looking floating movement. As she tried to turn into a small room to her right, a gust of wind blew her off her feet and she slid across the floor, her body tumbling over and over until the wall halted her momentum. Only after she recovered from the initial shock did she realize that the pokémon was not using much force, and she remembered that it was there to protect the library without damaging it, and it likely wasn't trying to seriously harm her, either.

The growlithe leapt to her feet, taking off again, but she had hardly gone a few paces before another pokémon, one she also recognized from a book, zipped in front of her. This one was a rotom; unlike the drifblim, she could see its form clearly, as it glowed in the darkness. Its oddly shaped body sparked with electricity that lit up its surroundings before a small bolt was launched at her.

She dodged, feeling the fur on her back stand on end as the attack zoomed over her. She gasped for breath as she charged around the rotom and further down the hallway, knowing that if she was paralyzed, the chase would certainly be over. A few more bolts of electricity zipped past her head, the sudden bursts of light making it all the more difficult to see in the darkness once they had passed.

"Go after it!" a voice called out behind her, which she knew was one of the pokémon. His companion shouted something back that she did not catch. "I'll help the others with the fire. You take the growlithe and make sure it doesn't leave!"

Snowcrystal's eyes widened with horror. _'Make sure it doesn't leave?'_ She had thought the ghosts would simply chase her out of the building, or knock her unconscious and drag her out. She had assumed it was clear that she was a wild pokémon, but she now knew that these ones intended to capture her. If they did, and she was turned over to their humans, she knew she would never see her friends again, at least not without Damian and Justin admitting to what they did and possibly getting arrested by the police. This thought alone was enough to spur her onwards, but even as she did so, she could see more shapes emerging from the darkness out of the corner of her eye. _Lots of them._ Her plan to lure the ghosts to her section of the building had worked.

She ignored the tiredness that had been building in her muscles since she'd left the room where she'd used the fire attack, and put on an extra burst of speed, hardly believing that she had only just realized how dire her situation actually was.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Right. We're on the third floor," Damian said triumphantly as he watched the others creep quietly up a staircase. They had found the means to sneak up from the last two floors undetected. Arien had done a good job of keeping alert for enemies for a stretch of time, but the alakazam's psychic abilities were not unlimited, and mentally searching around for pokémon was quickly sapping his strength, especially as he had been required to focus on many at once. They had quickly needed to resort to relying on the eyesight and hearing of the other pokémon instead, and having Arien search only when they were about to cross an open area or a staircase.

Alex surveyed the area at the top of the staircase, her gaze traveling to the hallway Arien pointed out as the correct path. "Haha, we've got this!" the floatzel whispered as she crept ahead.

"No, wait!" Damian hissed between his teeth, but nothing appeared to attack Alex as she strode into the next hallway, looking around intently.

"It's all clear," she replied. When the others hesitated, she added, "Well, if they were gonna attack me they would have done it already. Come on!"

"Just stick with the plan, okay?" Inferno whispered, lashing his fluffy yellow tail. "We need to be more careful."

"I got it, I got it," Alex replied with a roll of her eyes. "Do you think that if I thought there was any danger, I would've walked in here like that?"

"I don't think you want me to answer that," the flareon said with a sigh.

"Guys, quiet down!" Justin snapped, unable to understand what the pokémon were saying, but knowing they needed to be silent all the same. The boy motioned to Spark, who had been diligently guarding the rear of the group, and the jolteon came up beside him and padded into the hallway after Alex.

Damian turned to his three pokémon, who looked at him with varying expressions. Inferno seemed nervous and wary, and he held his body low to the ground as he hurried after the others. Arien walked calmly and with confidence, and Scytheclaw just gave the other pokémon a sneer before striding beside his trainer after the others.

"The room isn't far from here," Arien announced quietly. "I'll lead the way. Be careful."

The journey went without incident, and the guard pokémon on the third level of the building did seem to have already moved to the lower floors. Or perhaps, as Justin thought nervously while they continued on through the darkness, they had just had good luck not running into them so far. When they emerged into the large room they recognized as the battle strategies room, all of them immediately felt relieved when they saw windows bathing the room in a faint, dim glow, the space devoid of ghost pokémon, and their eyes were all drawn to the large lugia mural hanging on the opposite wall.

In the dim light of the windows on the wall to their right, which flooded the room with enough light that they could see the work of art clearly, the painting looked more majestic and mysterious than it had when they'd seen it in the daytime. The lugia in the painting was flying above a calm ocean beneath a star-strewn sky, and something about it seemed almost melancholy. The group had never paid the picture much attention before, but now that they knew what was hidden behind it, there was something about it that struck a sort of awe in them.

Looking at a shelf resting beneath the painting, which held some antique-looking candles and other decorations, Spark frowned. "So…is there a special way to open it?" he wondered.

"Whatever it is, let's hope it doesn't make any noise," Inferno whispered back nervously.

"Oooooh, maybe it requires a secret lock or a key!" Alex whispered almost excitedly, causing Inferno to shoot her an annoyed look.

"Um…well…" Damian muttered, walking up toward the painting. Though his footsteps echoed loudly in the room, there were no signs of any approaching enemies. He put his hand on his chin as if trying to appear thoughtful, though to the others, he merely looked confused. "How should we do this?" He turned to the others as if he expected them to begin showering him with suggestions.

"I don't know. You're the oldest, you figure it out!" Justin hissed at him, causing Damian to flinch.

"Okay, okay," he whispered back, eyeing the items on the shelf warily as if afraid his movements would knock them off. "Maybe, we could…take those off before we try to move the painting?" he stated hopefully, looking to Justin for support, but the younger boy only sighed impatiently.

"No, why don't we just throw them on the floor and see if the ghost pokémon notice!" he shot back sarcastically.

Alex tilted her head as she eyed the picture. "Well, maybe we should just push it gently to see which way the painting swings?"

"Well, someone else should do it," Inferno replied, his voice still showing a hint of irritation. "Not you."

"What makes you say that?" Alex replied. "After all this time we've-"

"Move aside," a low voice growled, and both Inferno and Alex were pushed unceremoniously out of the way as Scytheclaw moved past, his yellow eyes on the painting. His wings shot out of their protective casings, and without a word he launched himself upward toward the lugia portrait, sliding it upward along the wall until it clicked into place, revealing a door. Scytheclaw took one look at it, and, still using his momentum in the air, slowed by his buzzing wings, he prepared a metal claw attack and swiped his pincer at the small padlock hanging from the door, severing it with only a small clinking sound. The door swung outwards and a large but clean hole was revealed in the otherwise flawless-looking wall. He then landed back on the ground beside the others, his clawed feet hardly making a sound as they touched the floor, the padlock held in his other claw.

Alex stared at him in wide-eyed amazement. " _Wow!_ " she gasped. "How did you _do_ that? And-and how did you know the painting would-"

"Well, if the library workers wanted to enter, the painting wouldn't have been designed to move downward toward the shelf," Scytheclaw spat back. "Having it swing to the left or right would have been problematic as well due to all this junk being in the way." He motioned his pincer toward the items displayed beneath the painting. "And the shelf is probably only there so the workers can stand on it before climbing into the hole. You really think it was there because they thought the room wouldn't be complete without those stupid candles?"

"Wow…that was so cool," Alex stated in an awed voice, hardly seeming to care about Scytheclaw's tone. She leaned toward the scizor, gazing at him as if she was looking at a legendary. "You have got to be one of the most awesome pokémon alive."

"Flattering," the scizor muttered sarcastically. He turned to Arien while the floatzel continued to gaze at him in admiration. "Now, are we going or not?"

"I'd appreciate it if you dropped the attitude," the Alakazam said disdainfully, before turning to the others. "And it would have been better if you had let me open the painting myself. The pokémon here might have heard that, and-"

"Then you should have thought of it sooner," Scytheclaw sneered back.

"Hey, hey! Guys!" Damian whispered worriedly, coming to stand between his two pokémon. "Stop arguing. Look, Arien, can you lift us up into that hole? We don't have a ladder, and I think after all we've been through, getting a ladder would be _too difficult_ for us." He then gave a small smile that seemed randomly out of place.

"Oh, you think we'd want to waste time for that?" Justin muttered.

"I was…trying to make a joke," Damian replied, sounding a little confused at the others' reactions.

"I'm not even going to ask," Justin sighed.

One by one, Arien lifted the humans and pokémon into the opening, and then carefully climbed up himself using the shelf, managing to make it through without causing any of the items to topple to the floor below.

The passage was wide enough for each of them to comfortably fit through, but the ceiling was so low that the two trainers and the taller pokémon had to bend over. It was also completely dark, and after a short while of scrambling into each other or into walls during turns in the passage, Damian allowed Inferno to walk ahead of the others, lighting the area with a small flame.

"See anything up ahead?" Damian whispered as he crawled on his hands and knees after Justin, who was in the lead behind Inferno.

"No," the boy muttered in irritation, "all I can see is flareon butt."

" _Excuse me?_ " came Inferno's angry reply. As he spoke, his flame flickered.

"Hey, just focus on giving us light," Justin muttered, knowing, although unable to understand the flareon's words, that the pokémon was obviously annoyed with his comment. "How long does this stupid tunnel go for anyway? Did that mightyena mention it? If so, someone remind me."

"Well, she-" Damian began.

"I was talking to the pokémon. You're just the translator," Justin retorted.

"Sorry," Damian mumbled. "But…she actually didn't mention much. Just that the tunnel winds through the walls for a while."

"Perfect," Justin growled. "Just who would build a secret passage like this in a library? Whoever constructed this place all those hundreds of years ago had to be insane. Or was this not even intended to be a library at first? Was there some other sinister purpose to it that I should know about? We've already got cursed attacks that create irreversible damage and make pokémon lose their minds, so not much else is going to surprise me at this point. I just want to know we're not going to run into any ancient booby traps or anything."

"What's your human going on about?" Alex whispered to Spark as Justin continued to ramble under his breath.

"I dunno," Spark admitted. "I think he's just nervous. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."

"What?" Alex remarked, clearly surprised, and sounding even a bit unnerved herself at Spark's lack of confidence. "But I thought you-"

"Everyone…quiet," Damian interrupted, coming to a halt. "Arien thinks he hears something."

The entire group froze, Inferno's flame quickly fizzing out as the flareon shuffled backward toward Justin, who grunted in irritation and shoved him away as the fire type tried to huddle against his arm and shoulder. They waited in silence, wondering just what the alakazam had detected and fearing they would have to battle or make a run for it while in the confined space of the tunnel.

Then, as they waited, the pokémon with the sharpest hearing began to pick up a sound as well.

Spark's ears twitched as he angled them toward somewhere beyond the left wall of the tunnel. "It sounds like…something burning?"

"Arien!" Justin hissed in fear. "What's going on out there?"

"I…I don't know," the alakazam replied, and Damian gave an equally perplexed translation to the frightened boy. "I can detect several pokémon, but I don't know what…"

"Are they after us?" Alex asked. "Should we keep going?"

"Might as well before they find out we're here," Scytheclaw growled, shoving past the floatzel and then Spark and the two humans.

Inferno quickly produced another small flame and trotted at the scizor's side as he hurriedly maneuvered through the tunnel. Up ahead, the two could see the small room with a low ceiling. They recognized it from Eve's tale as their cue that they were almost upon the door to the hidden books.

But something was wrong.

The two pokémon stopped in their tracks as they noticed that the room wasn't just shrouded in darkness; it was filled with thick, black smoke. Neither of the pokémon were sure where it was coming from, but judging by the fact that there were no flames to light the area, they knew it had to be creeping in from a vent somewhere. Some part of the library was _on fire_.

The rest of the group, coming up behind them, realized the exact same thing. "We've gotta go back," Justin cried, stumbling backward into Spark as he tried to retreat. His jolteon, just as alarmed, slipped aside to allow him to pass before following along with Damian, Alex, and Arian.

"But…the books! We won't get another chance!" Inferno responded, whirling around to face the boys and the other pokémon with wide eyes.

Arien stopped, turning to face the flareon, who was still standing beside the equally conflicted and frustrated Scytheclaw. "If they close down the library for repairs we might," the alakazam responded, and the flareon looked at him in disbelief. "This entire tunnel is going to fill up with smoke; there's no way we'd have time to get to the room the books are in." The flareon continued to look desperate, and he continued, "We will _die_ if we stay here. Even a fire type like you would only last a bit longer than the rest of us in that much smoke. Don't be stupid; come back!"

The flareon cast Scytheclaw a distraught look before following Arien and the others who had begun scrambling to retreat. Even as they hurried through the tunnel, they could feel smoke creeping up on them, the air becoming harder and harder to breathe. None of them were sure which part of the library had caught fire and how fast it would spread, but even though the building was comprised of brick and stone, much of its interior, including the staircases, was flammable. More than just that, Spark could feel the fear and discouragement of his comrades. They had come so close, only to be defeated and sent back at the final milestone. The thought of finding out more about the Forbidden Attacks, and of stopping them, now seemed even more impossible than it had been before, now that their one solid piece of hope had been snatched away before they'd even had a chance to know for sure if it would help them.

  
**-ooo-**  


Snowcrystal had at first found herself running, more frantically than she had ever remembered running before, through the maze of hallways and up staircases, dodging attacks by ghosts and climbing to her feet again whenever an attack struck her. She could almost feel fainting coming on when she noticed that the pokémon following her had started to pull back. Horrified, she knew that that could only mean one of two things; either the ghosts had found her friends, or the fire she had accidentally caused was getting too much for the other guards to handle. Suddenly terrified that it would spread through different rooms and endanger her friends, she frantically tried to remember how many staircases she had passed and whether or not she was on the third floor. The low lighting made the place look unfamiliar, not that she had had much time to look around or keep track of where she had been forced to flee.

Startled, she turned a corner to see a staircase completely ablaze at the other end of the hallway. _'The fire's all the way up here?'_ she thought in horror. _'On the third floor?'_ She still wasn't sure if it really _was_ the third floor she was on, or if she had gone up to the fourth or even the fifth. In her panic, she realized that she had stopped completely, but the few remaining ghost pokémon simply sailed past her, abandoning the chase as they too realized the severity of the situation.

Snowcrystal knew that running towards the flames was a bad idea; even if her fire type would allow her to pass through mostly unharmed, she didn't want to put herself in the middle of a large group of ghost pokémon. Now that she had a chance to pause, though, she could get an idea of where she was. Noting the paintings on the walls, she turned into a hallway and recognized with relief that it was the third floor. Even more luckily, she knew a quick route to the battle strategies room. She hurried off toward it, hoping desperately that her friends were not in peril.

  
**-ooo-**  


Justin was the first to reach the end of the tunnel and the door leading into the battle strategies room. He nearly slammed into it in his frantic need to escape, the smoke already making him cough. He quickly fumbled with the handle until he pried it open. Swinging his legs out of the opening, he stood up on the shelf, knocking several of the candlesticks off in the process, and then jumped to the floor below. Damian followed, more carefully, and the pokémon jumped one by one to the carpet below as Justin turned to Damian frantically.

"Snowcrystal!"

"Right," Damian gasped. "Let's find her and get outta here!"

Both the humans and pokémon raced out into the hallway, the ghost pokémon hardly on their minds. As soon as they left the room, they could see that the hallway was also filled with smoke, and in the distance they could see the orange light of flames.

"Let's just leave," Scytheclaw spat at Arien. "She's a fire type and she probably already found her way out!"

The alakazam looked to Inferno. "You're also a fire type. If you could-"

"Go looking for her? With the ghosts around?" the flareon shouted. "But…" He trailed off, noticing that the other pokémon in the group had all turned to him. "I…"

Sensing his obvious reluctance, Arien stood up straighter, pausing to glance at the raging flames far ahead of them down the hallway. "All right. I'll go."

"Wait…" Inferno began, looking at the psychic type doubtfully. He then shook his head, stomping a paw determinedly into the ground, his face showing sudden bravery. "No, I'll do it!"

"No need," Alex chimed in, beaming as she pointed toward the doorway they had just left. "Looks like she found us."

The group followed the floatzel as she rushed back into the battle strategies room, meeting up with the panic-stricken white growlithe standing in the center of the carpeted floor. "What happened?" Alex cried. "Did one of the-"

"Ghosts attacked me!" Snowcrystal gasped. "I got cornered and had to fight them, but…but I accidentally…"

Damian, who seemed to have come to the same conclusion on his own, darted in front of Snowcrystal. "You lit the library on fire?" he cried, the fingers on his outstretched hands clenching. He looked truly horrified and utterly bewildered at the same time. " _Why_ did you light the library on fire?"

"I…I didn't mean to! I…" Snowcrystal trailed off, sensing the growing unease in the panicked group. "Look, there's no time for this! We've got to get out of here!"

Spark nodded to her. "We've got to get to the ground floor," he murmured, "unless Arien can lift us all down to the ground from here?" He glanced toward the alakazam for confirmation.

Arien, however, shook his head. "Don't have the strength for that now. Let's go."

The group of humans and pokémon poured into the hallway again, squinting their eyes against the smoke. Keeping at a brisk pace, they hardly had to bear it before emerging into a big open room. They ran through a set of double doors and down another hallway, and then emerged into the gigantic multistory room where they'd spent day after day studying books for the past two months.

Locating one of the staircases that spanned every floor, Justin rushed toward it and he and the others hurriedly clambered to the ground floor. Seeing smoke pouring in from at least two of the doors, they raced toward the opposite side of the room.

As they ran past, Snowcrystal couldn't help but glance at the chairs, pillows and sofas they used to sit at while listening to one of the trainers read from a book, the places where many humans and pokémon came to relax. She felt another pang of remorse for the place that had brought so many pokémon and their trainers happiness, and only hoped that at least this part of the library could be saved, and the majority of the books recovered. She then thought of the ghost pokémon, worrying about them before remembering that they could easily phase through walls if they needed a quick escape. As she reached the doorway, she took one more look at the vast room, wondering if it would be the last time she saw it.

The group spilled into the next hallway, Damian pointing out a turn that led into another wide room adorned with many windows. The trainer immediately ran to one and started fumbling with the latch, but Scytheclaw merely smashed the one next to it with his claw and leaped outside, the others following suit.

Damian tumbled out last, looking a bit dazed as he glanced at his scizor. "Uh…thanks," he mumbled, following Justin as he led the pokémon around the building and into another alleyway between two buildings behind the library.

For a moment, they paused there, hearing sirens as several flashing lights told them that fire trucks had arrived on the scene. Too exhausted to go further for a moment, they merely stood in stunned silence.

"First the pokémon center and now _this_ ," Spark groaned.

Snowcrystal lowered her head, her eyes closing as she realized that the situation was her fault. Then she opened them, lifting her head and turning to face the rest of the group. "I'm sorry," she stated, watching as each of their gazes turned toward her. "I did something reckless, and for that…this happened."

Spark shook his head, walking over to her. "Don't blame yourself," he told her, looking into her eyes with concern. "You did the best you-"

"I shouldn't have used a fire attack," she replied steadily, "That was stupid. But, I promise you, if there's any way I can help it, I won't make a mistake like that again. I want you to be able to trust me to help you with these things."

Spark looked a bit surprised, but then he nodded. "Of course I trust you, Snow. And hey, what's a mistake if you can't learn from it, right?" He gave her a nervous smile. "At least we all got out okay without the police finding us."

"The hidden books have to still be there, right?" Damian mused nervously. "If they were protected so strongly…" The thought of such valuable knowledge being destroyed worried everyone, but they all knew that since the books were so rare and valuable, great care would have been taken to protect them.

"At least it's the library burning and not us. C'mon, guys, let's get out of here," Justin muttered. "We won't know if we can try to sneak back until the fire's cleared out. And I don't want anyone spotting us."

"Eh-heh, heh, good point," Damian chuckled nervously. Reaching down for Snowcrystal, he lifted her into his backpack, quickly zipping it almost all the way closed so no one would glimpse her, and they set off into the streets.

They immediately noticed a lot of talking and chaos from the crowds around them. As they walked briskly through the streets, they heard people speculating about another Team Rocket attack. Many people had their strongest pokémon out of their poké balls beside them, and most were clustering in groups. A few police cars zipped past them, heading for the smoke rising into the night sky above the library building. An officer with several arcanine, each larger and much more intimidating than Redclaw, was trying to calm down a crowd. Damian took a turn that would lead them to the city outskirts, noting with a bit of discomfort that it would take them past the library.

"Hey! You with the scizor!" a voice shouted, and he stopped, turning to see the officer pointing at him. He glanced to Justin, who suddenly went white as a sheet, a look of horror on his face as he watched the policeman step toward them. "That area's being closed off. If your hotel's on that street, you can stay at another for-"

"Thanks, thanks very much!" Damian called, waving, as he changed course. Justin followed him, looking immensely relieved, but he still gripped Spark's fur tightly as they passed the policeman and each of his huge arcanine. "Guess we're going around," Damian whispered quietly.

"I don't even want to know what Katie's going to think about this when she meets up with us back at the camp tomorrow," Justin huffed as they picked up the pace.

"Oh, right," Damian muttered, slapping his palm to his forehead. "You're going back to the hotel, aren't you?"

"No way," the younger boy responded. " _I_ sure don't want to be the one explaining everything. I'll camp with you and the pokémon tonight."

They continued through the streets, avoiding the throngs of worried pedestrians. At last, they reached the city's outskirts and slipped into the trees without anyone paying the smallest bit of attention to them in the confusion. They knew that, since they had moved their camp to the dusty ravine, they had longer to walk before they reached it, but none of them seemed to mind, too lost in their own thoughts and their mission's failure to focus on it.

They walked in silence until they emerged from the trees into the flat, rocky area that led to the camp. Even from a distance, they could see the rock formation marking the edge of the ravine where they had chosen to shelter from wild pokémon and prying eyes.

However, something was wrong.

Even from their distance, they could see that the pokémon, who had climbed out of the ravine, were agitated. Redclaw paced back and forth, while a group of the others huddled near the outcrop of rock, and as soon as he spotted the returning group, Redclaw let out a worried howl.

Justin and Damian glanced to each other before taking off toward the camp at a run. The pokémon, with the exception of Arien, who kept pace with the trainers, quickly overtook them and reached their friends at the edge of the rocky ravine.

"What happened?" Snowcrystal asked once the humans and Arien had caught up. She glanced from Wildflame to Redclaw and then at Nightshade, but each of them seemed speechless. She looked into the ravine and saw their supplies undisturbed.

"Did you guys…have a battle here?" Spark chuckled nervously as he looked at their wide-eyed faces.

"No, you idiot!" Rosie snapped. "Look over there." She pointed with her nose toward a place some distance from the camp.

Snowcrystal looked, seeing an odd lump in the middle of the flat stretch of ground, though other than that, she couldn't make out anything strange.

"I'll show you," Nightshade spoke up. He turned to the others. "Everyone, follow me." Even the fearful or agitated pokémon did not object, and they slowly filed after Nightshade toward the strange object in the middle of the plain.

"Hey, uh, what's going on?" Justin asked Damian, who only shrugged helplessly.

When they neared the object, it was quite easy to see why it had those who had been watching the camp spooked. It was the massive, charred body of a dead pokémon. The stench was so overpowering that several of them had to take a few steps back, and as Snowcrystal examined the body, she found that it was so damaged, she couldn't even tell what pokémon it had once been. A part of the ground near the pokémon was even more charred than the rest of its surroundings, a dip in the ground making it look as if there had been some sort of small explosion.

"Who…who was that?" Damian asked shakily, horrified as he stared at the pokémon's remains.

"Just look at _that!_ " Wildflame growled, flicking her tail toward a smaller object a short distance from the burned heap of flesh, resting in the black dip in the ground. Everyone turned their gazes toward it, recognizing it as the remains of some sort of collar. "That thing detonated when it hit but that-"

"Detonated?" Spark cried. "When what hit?"

"Blazefang used Shadowflare," Wildflame said simply. The others stared at her in horror. "We're lucky we moved camp so it didn't spread to the trees…but we all could have been roasted alive if he'd used it any closer to us!"

Snowcrystal glanced to the others, realizing that she couldn't see Blazefang among them. If he'd run off, they would have to find him soon. She knew he was probably frantic, terrified, horrified at what he had done, but they could not afford to have him separated from them for long. It already looked as if it was becoming easier and easier for Blazefang to give in to using his attack, and he needed them to, at the least, be voices of reason. She only hoped the attack's influence over the houndour was not going to escalate further than it had. She turned to her houndoom friend. "Wildflame, what happened?"

"That pokémon," the dark type began, indicating the body, "was a nidoking that started coming closer to our camp. It was looking for strong wild pokémon. We would figure that out afterward. We were wondering what to do when Blazefang just…stepped out of the ravine and walked toward the pokémon, calmly. It must have thought he was crazy, and it charged him, and then…he used the attack." She paused, looking to the others, and Nightshade calmly nodded to her to go on. "It looked a lot more powerful than it was before. Burned that nidoking to a crisp. At least he died quickly…"

Snowcrystal felt chills creep over her body at the memory of the Forbidden Attack. If Wildflame could see that it was worse, then clearly that meant the attack was growing in power, and she was reminded all too well of exactly what they were dealing with. This was the _fourth_ time Blazefang had used Shadowflare.

"Well, when the nidoking died," Wildflame continued, "some other pokémon appeared after the fire, then a trainer. And…and it was Thunder's trainer."

" _What?_ " Spark gasped.

"The one she called 'Master.' He'd seen the whole thing!" the houndoom shouted.

Confused voices erupted from the pokémon who had come back from the library, and Damian was hurriedly explaining to Justin what the houndoom had said. "And none of you got hurt?" Alex asked, looking over each pokémon in turn. Snowcrystal was still trying to comprehend what had happened and what it all meant. Surely, they weren't safe there anymore. _Would Master come back? Where were they going to go now?_

"No, no one was hurt," Wildflame answered. She then turned to the others, her eyes passing over each of them. "But Master…he captured Blazefang."

_To be continued..._


	55. Objective

Blazefang shivered as he lay as still as possible, thoughts of what the typhlosion had said about the collar he was now wearing around his neck racing through his head. It would explode after a day if Master didn't deactivate it each morning, and hitting it with an attack would also bring about the same messy end. Even if he could escape, Blazefang knew that he wouldn't get far; within twenty-four hours, he would be dead.

For the first time since he had acquired the cursed Forbidden Attack, he had almost wished he could use it, at least at first. In the end, he had quickly realized that without the human to deactivate his collar every day, he'd only be dooming them all.

Yet for some reason, the urge to use the attack never came to him. Blazefang couldn't figure out why at first, but then he thought back to something that had happened during the initial struggle between him and Master's pokémon after he was first let out of the poké ball. While he'd briefly tried to run for freedom, one of the pokémon, a machamp, had stuck something sharp into his side. After that, his mind had become very foggy and sluggish, and he hadn't been able to resist as the fighting type jammed his collar on.

He wondered if the effects of the human drug were suppressing his emotions, dulling his reactions, the things which seemed to be what had begun the drive to use the Forbidden Attack before. The drug's effects were wearing off now, and he began to get a little fearful at the thought that Shadowflare could take hold of him again. It had been getting harder and harder to resist it, and he couldn't get the image of the nidoking he had killed out of his mind.

His frightened eyes darted around at his surroundings. He was in some sort of building, some kind of hallway, though it looked nothing like the hallways in the Stonedust library. It was dingy and dark, its ceiling lined with dim rectangular lights that pulsed subtly. There were doors leading to different areas, but they were all closed. And the smells…he wished he could ignore the smells. He could smell fire, blood, and the lingering odor of pokémon of many species, some tainted with illness and infection. And worse than that, almost hidden beneath the rest, but clearly distinctive to his sensitive nose, was the smell of corpses.

Where was he? This couldn't be Stonedust, could it? Surely that city would not harbor a place as terrible as this. The humans there weren't even all that bad. Was he back in the abandoned town near the mountain? _'No…'_ he thought to himself, reluctantly taking another sniff of the stale air, _'there are too many human scents here. This place is anything but abandoned.'_ His body gave an involuntary shudder, something telling him that the fact that it was populated was no sign that any of these humans wanted to help him.

He wasn't even sure how big the place was; he wouldn't know where to run even if he didn't have the collar around his neck. And the few pokémon that Master had out of their poké balls were all looking at him like he was a piece of meat. As his eyes met the machamp's, he pressed his body harder against the cold ground. He remembered how roughly the pokémon had treated him when he put on the collar, how he'd laughed at his cries of pain and slammed him into the ground so that he'd howled in agony. He had heard him and the others mocking him, speculating on how long he'd last, wanting to see him "thrown into the arena," and Blazefang had a very good idea of what they meant.

Another pokémon, a magneton, seemed to believe he was brought in as nothing more than a punching bag for the stronger pokémon, something that had filled Blazefang's heart with even more terror. However, the others had pointed out that Master wouldn't waste a collar on such a pokémon. No, he was here for something important. At least the collar meant that Master wanted him alive for the time being. Yet Blazefang had a strong feeling that, whatever the human wanted, it had something to do with his Forbidden Attack.

Blazefang's ears flattened against his head as the human approached him. He had never seen a human that scared him as much as this one, and that had nothing to do with the human's appearance. Though he looked tall and imposing, there was something else about Master that made Blazefang too terrified to attack him. He knew that, for some reason, he would find it hard to fight back even if doing so wouldn't end with his death one way or another.

Completely unafraid, Master reached down and placed his hand beneath Blazefang's chin, tilting the houndour's head up toward him. Blazefang's body shook as he was forced to stare into the eyes of the man he knew had power even over pokémon like Thunder.

"You look a little unimposing," Master said in a voice that sounded so uncharacteristically smooth and gentle. "But that can be fixed." He removed his hand and reached into the bag he had been carrying.

Blazefang's mind raced with fear. From the looks of the other pokémon, Master's idea of imposing seemed to mean "covered with scars." He was sure that he was reaching for another poké ball, preparing to unleash another wound-covered monster on him, to tell it to slice into his body until he looked just like the others.

To his surprise, when Master pulled out his hand, he was not holding a poké ball. Instead, he was holding a fist full of what looked like human candy, in blue shiny wrappers. He scattered them at Blazefang's feet.

"Eat," he demanded.

Blazefang stared at the candies. He certainly had no intentions of eating them. Just what had this trainer put in them? If it was to toughen him up, it had to be poison, or something even more horrible. His mind raced with possibilities as he stared at the objects on the ground.

"He said EAT!" the machamp snarled, and before Blazefang had a chance to react, the muscular pokémon grabbed the fur on the back of his neck, pulling his skin back painfully and jerking him upright so that he was nearly hanging, his paws barely touching the ground. His eyes watered as the pokémon's other sets of hands wrenched open his muzzle, and the first candy was forced into his mouth.

Luckily, the pokémon had had the sense to tear the wrapper off, and Blazefang didn't have a chance to spit out the candy before his mouth was forced closed. Having no choice but to swallow, Blazefang whined in terror, wondering just what effect the strange food would have on him. Though he could feel fear racing through his body, the sensation was still dulled, his mind still a bit too foggy to feel the full effects. He could start to feel the urge to use his Forbidden Attack rising, but it was more dulled, subdued, just like the rest of his mind, and he was able to fight back against it.

After the second candy was forced down his throat, he began to notice an effect. To his surprise, it wasn't unpleasant. In fact, he had felt this way when learning new attacks back at the mountain. It was as if the candy simulated that in some way, or perhaps it was forcing it to happen.

His fear subsiding, he swallowed the second candy and gasped, "All right. I'll eat. Just-"

"You will stay quiet NOW!" the machamp growled, and Blazefang's eyes widened in newfound terror before his body was slammed painfully into the wall.

As stars exploded in his vision, he felt himself being swung back through the air, his side hitting the opposite wall before the machamp lifted him fully into the air, dangling by nothing but the skin on the back of his neck. He whimpered, his legs flailing feebly, astonished at the fact that he hadn't fainted from the impact. Pokémon weren't supposed to use that sort of force on opponents smaller than them, not in trainer battles. They weren't supposed to make their opponents walk away from battle with serious injuries.

Yet he knew that Master was not someone worthy of the title "trainer" like Damian or Katie or Justin were. If Thunder herself was any evidence, these tough pokémon were used to seeing serious injuries…and experiencing them themselves.

As his vision cleared, Blazefang caught sight of Master's face. The trainer was staring at the scene, impassively, seeming to know that Blazefang could not yet use his Forbidden Attack, or that he would resist it out of fear for his own life. He did nothing to stop the machamp as he was force-fed another candy, still hanging painfully above the cold floor as the other pokémon laughed and jeered at his painful whimpers.

" _Look at the little houndour!"_ they called.

" _Fresh meat for the arena!"_

" _Just a snack, more like!"_

" _Been a while since I saw a baby pokémon in there. He must be the entertainment!"_

" _Keep the fighters satisfied for blood before the real battle!"_

Blazefang's eyes widened as their words reached his ears. _How could they possibly laugh at this?_ Weren't they being subjected to the same thing? What had happened to these pokémon to turn their minds into something so twisted? Here they were, joking and laughing about battles to the death, when back at the mountain, it had been considered a great offense to even make a joke about killing prey, something that was needed for the houndour's survival. Yet these pokémon seemed to love the idea of him being torn into bits, for nothing more than a bit of sick entertainment. Thunder had seemed positively sane in comparison.

As the machamp reached for yet another candy, and Blazefang began to whimper involuntarily with pain, he thought he heard, from somewhere deeper in the complex, a cry of pain – no, utter agony – from another pokémon in some dark room or hallway just like he was. It was then that it set in, _fully_ set in…

…That he was very likely going to die.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Where did he go?" Arien asked, the alakazam's serious gaze sweeping over the pokémon who had remained behind at the camp while the others had gone off to the library.

Wildflame, Redclaw, and Rosie all turned their heads and pointed their snouts beyond the ravine, off into what seemed like just an open, rocky plain, lined with trees after a fairly large distance. There was no sign of any buildings that way, nothing that could have indicated what Master had been heading toward, if anything.

"Did he run back out in the wilderness…just like that?" Snowcrystal asked fearfully.

"Couldn't have," said Scytheclaw, his voice angry, but with a tinge of something else Snowcrystal couldn't identify. "If he was this close to the city, he would have been heading there for a reason. Probably to meet up with some of his little buddies, if you ask me."

Snowcrystal gave him an astonished look, wondering how someone like Master could ever have friends, or even mere acquaintances. "But…but we first found him hiding out in some abandoned town. That must mean he's running from something. The police must know who he is!"

"Yes…smart for a wild pokémon," Scytheclaw said snidely, glaring at her. "Or maybe he's hiding so that he can prevent them from finding out in the first place. We don't know."

"But he was _here._ We could get the police to find him!" Snowcrystal cried.

Justin, glancing from one pokémon to another in confusion, waited for a translation from Damian. Upon getting one, he looked horrified at the suggestion. "No, no, no, no, NO!" he shouted, his hands moving up to the sides of his head in a frightened gesture. "We can't go to the police! You know who else the police will be looking for? _The people that burned the library!_ "

At this, even Damian froze. He and the pokémon all stared at Justin as he continued, "They'll find us. They'll find the evidence…they'll be looking at _everything!_ Someone had to have seen us around the building…and it wasn't like we managed to just sneak out with one book no one would notice was gone unless some famous researcher showed up at Stonedust, we set the place on _fire!_ And did you hear those people in the street? They think it was _Team Rocket!_ They're going to be serious about this! The police are not going to rest until they find out who did it." The boy's eyes were wide and terrified now, in a way none of them had ever seen him before. Seeing this, Spark rushed to his side, rubbing his head on Justin's leg, but the boy hardly seemed to notice. "They're going to _find us!_ " he cried. "They're going to lock us up, take away our…our pokémon, and…and…"

Though Snowcrystal had never thought highly of Justin, due to his treatment of Stormblade in both the past and present, she couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He didn't look like an angry, abusive trainer anymore, but instead a clearly terrified and devastated boy who seemed so lost and hopeless. Carefully, she sidled up to him, resting her head on his knee after he slowly slumped to the ground, tears forming in his eyes.

The other pokémon looked shocked at his reaction, and each of them glanced to one another in uncertainty, save for Nightshade and Redclaw, who approached Justin as well. Nightshade sat beside him, while Redclaw curled around the form of the boy, the heracross, the jolteon, and the growlithe. Justin seemed too distraught to continue, and, quite contrary to his usual demeanor, lowered his head and began sobbing.

Rosie glanced to Wildflame in confusion, and Scytheclaw merely stared at Justin in disgust. Alex had gone strangely silent, wondering just what had triggered such a response from the normally confident and collected trainer.

"Justin…" Damian began, kneeling down toward the smaller boy. "We…we can get Katie to talk to the police. She wasn't involved and…" Realization dawned on him, and he looked at Justin sympathetically. "Are…you afraid they'll see you aren't a registered-"

"SHUT UP!" Justin cried, leaping to his feet and knocking Spark, Snowcrystal, and Nightshade away. "Just shut up! That was NOT my fault! Okay, sure, I left Scyther out in the snow. But I wouldn't have done it if I'd known THAT was going to happen! Okay, so maybe you're all right and it _wasn't_ my scyther who attacked that girl, but either way, they blame me, and because of that, my life as a trainer was ruined. Now if the police so much as _question_ us, I'm going to get found out! If anyone saw Katie with me they'll make her ask me. And you too, and oh, they'll also find all these wild pokémon here at the scene of the attack, and their arcanine and growlithe are going to find OUR scents, Damian. We can't bring the police here! We just _can't_ , okay?" When Damian merely stared at him in shock, he continued, "How'd you like to be in jail once they realize that you match the description of a person someone saw near the library, and they decide to investigate further?" His eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists as Damian stepped back. "I don't know what they'd do to me, but considering you're over eighteen…it'd be much worse for you. Think about that before you do something stupid!"

"I…I'm sorry," Damian stuttered. "I just thought, maybe…"

"No, you didn't think!" Justin shouted at him, and before any of the others could stop him, he turned and walked away from the group. Snowcrystal thought he was going to run off somewhere alone, but he stopped at the edge of the ravine, staring out in the distance, seemingly at nothing in particular. Spark got up to follow him, but the others stayed put.

"Enough about the pathetic human," Scytheclaw muttered, ignoring a glare from Arien that was shot in his direction. "We need to find a way to track Master down. No doubt he intends to force Blazefang to use the attack, and if he does use it anywhere near that city, or worse yet, the trees, lots of pokémon are going to die. But a human like that is going to make sure he can't be followed. He would have had a pokémon use fly to leave the area once he was out of sight."

"So if the police can't find him, how are _we_ supposed to?" Wildflame asked.

"We don't need to find _him_ specifically," Scytheclaw spat back. "We just need to find the illegal fighting ring."

"The what?" Alex asked, though the answer appeared to dawn on her a moment after she said it.

"Think about it. Why else would Master risk coming this close to the city with his fighting monsters? There's got to be a tournament soon, an opportunity to make a lot of money. And he had to be coming here to meet the other scumbags taking part in it. Think he'd risk alerting the police just to wander around with horribly abused pokémon, hoping he'd come across some random powerful wild ones in a ravine?"

The others stared at him in astonishment. What Scytheclaw was saying started to make a lot of sense, and Snowcrystal reminded herself that the scizor had once had another trainer before Damian, before his role as leader of the canyon pokémon.

"There were some shady looking humans around when we were leaving the library tonight," Scytheclaw continued. "I don't know if any of you idiots noticed, but-"

"Actually," Redclaw interjected, "we did see a couple of weird trainers when we came back from the pokémon park. They had a ninetales and a vileplume, and something just seemed…off about them. I thought at first that maybe they'd noticed Snowcrystal's fur was dyed, but now…"

"A lot of speculation, for something we know very little about," Arien stated, drawing the attention of the other pokémon.

Scytheclaw's eyes narrowed. "Oh, and what's your idea, genius? Going to go up and ask them politely if they're part of a criminal organization?" He scowled when the alakazam did not react. "I know what I'm talking about!" he spat with sudden anger. "If you've got a better theory, I'm sure we'd all _love_ to hear it, but if you don't, I'd suggest you-"

"No," Arien continued, his voice betraying worry rather than anger at Scytheclaw's taunts, "I believe that you're right about this. But we have no way to tell which trainers are a part of it…and I don't believe we would get any information out of them at all."

"But you're a psychic type!" Rosie exclaimed. "Go try to…sense where they or their pokémon are or whatever it is you do!"

"It's not that easy or that simple," Arien replied, "but…even if it was…I'm not the only psychic type. They will have many on their side as well, pokémon who are trained to throw off other psychics used by trainers who would try to seek them out. Scytheclaw is right; we are probably looking at a massive organized crime, not two trainers fighting their pokémon to death in a basement. They will have prepared for something like this."

"So what do we do?" Wildflame asked, and as Snowcrystal turned to her, she noticed that the houndoom looked far more worried than she had ever seen her. She knew it shouldn't have surprised her; Blazefang may not be the friendliest pokémon, but he was Wildflame's pack-mate. "Master wanted Blazefang for his Forbidden Attack. He's probably going to use it to fight these…battles to the death…and if we don't find a way to this place, either Blazefang will die, or…"

"Or every pokémon and spectator in the arena could die," Nightshade finished. The heracross straightened up, his eyes moving over everyone present, even Justin and Spark from where they sat some distance away. "I don't believe Master has any idea what Blazefang's Forbidden Attack will actually do in an area where it could spread. He only saw it out here, where there was nothing to burn." He looked out over the flat, rocky landscape, where the singed ground left a painful reminder of what had occurred there. "We need to find a way to this place immediately."

"But how?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah," Alex interjected, standing beside her. "If we can't go to the police…" She glanced at Justin. "…Then what will we…"

"We don't have enough evidence to go to the police!" Scytheclaw snarled. "And if they see _that…_ " He waved his claw toward the scorched area where Shadowflare had left its mark. "…Evidence of a fire similar to the one that burned down that forest you told me about, do you think they're going to ignore that and go after some random trainer, who may or may not have taken a wild houndour from here?"

"We have the collar Master used!" Wildflame growled, angling her head toward the remains of the Nidoking. "They see that, and they'll know they're dealing with a pokémon abuser. Look, I don't like most humans either, Scytheclaw, but if this is the way to save Blazefang, then I-"

"Wait," Arien interjected, managing to make himself heard as the two pokémon began to bicker. "Scytheclaw has a good point. Pokémon abuser or not, the police won't have enough evidence to tell where Master went or who he even was. Bringing them here would only result in an investigation of the fires along with the library incident. They'll be looking for a culprit that is no longer here, and the last thing we want is for the police to be more distracted than they already are. We need to find this fighting ring, and once we do, we can lead the police to it."

"But…but Justin said…" Alex began.

"Katie can alert the police," Arien replied simply. "At this point we don't have much of a choice. Justin can stay clear if he wants to; they're unlikely to question him just because he may have been seen with Katie. This isn't something we are likely to be able to do on our own."

Each member of the group fell silent at these words, knowing that this time, there was probably no avoiding an encounter with the police, in spite of the risks it posed to Damian and Justin. After several long moments, Damian strode over to Justin, likely to relay to him everything the pokémon had said. Snowcrystal watched him talk to the boy, who, contrary to his previous outburst, said nothing and merely stared into the bottom of the ravine.

Snowcrystal knew that, if they were going to involve the human police, they would have to be especially careful. As much as she was starting to think it was a bad idea, she knew that, with what they were up against, it was probably their only real hope of getting Blazefang - and possibly even Thunder, if the group would take her – back.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Okay, this is all we've got to go on until we find out more," Katie began the next day, several hours after the events of the previous night had been explained to her. To no one's surprise, she had not reacted well, but luckily, urgency drove her to move on and look for solutions rather than focus on their mistakes. She currently stood near a street on the edge of the city, facing the entire group – both humans and wild pokémon – as they listened attentively. "If we're going to cover a lot of ground, we're going to have to split up. If you see or hear anything suspicious, try to find out as much as you can. And above all…be careful." She turned to Damian. "Let's hope your scizor is right."

"He's got to be," Damian replied. "There's something going on around here with Master…and the other trainers…and it's got to be happening soon."

"Well then let's hope we find some information," she replied, "so that I can go to the police."

Damian nodded in response. Justin said nothing, but although he did not protest, the others could see from his fearful expression that he was still not at all comfortable with that part of the plan.

"Then we'll get the houndour back," she finished, looking over all the pokémon before turning to Damian. "You've got your pokégear?" she asked, and he nodded. "Good. We'll call each other if we find anything. Everyone meet back here by sunset, and we'll figure out what to do. Justin, you've got the phone?" She looked to the boy, who nodded and held up the cell phone they had gotten for him in the city. "Good." Taking all six of the poké balls she'd brought with her, she threw them in the air, releasing her current team all at once.

The six pokémon formed, revealing Sid the aipom, an azumarill, a quilava, a sylveon, an ursaring, and a scolipede. They all looked to Katie expectantly, having had the plan briefed to them earlier, as Damian released his six pokémon.

"You guys all know the drill," she told them. "Keep track of where you're going because you'll need to find your way back, don't get in trouble, and…uh…Snowcrystal needs to go with someone."

Snowcrystal looked down at herself; she'd thought that with the die they'd put in her fur that morning, she looked like a normal growlithe, but part of her did understand why they would want her to travel with another pokémon just in case.

"She can go with me!" Spark offered, and Katie nodded in reply, knowing what his intentions were despite not understanding his words.

"And remember…try to act like you're all on errands for a trainer, okay?" Katie asked, giving a satisfied nod as the pokémon cried out in agreement. "With all of you searching…let's hope one of us finds someplace where these trainers could be meeting up."

After that, the pokémon all began to disperse, many of them carrying cloth bags filled with small items that Katie had bought at some store earlier, making them appear just like they were pokémon running errands. Even Rosie, who, out of all of them, was the least trustful of humans, had agreed to wear one and help search the city for any sign of suspicious trainers that might give them a clue. With the moves she had learned from the trainers' TMs earlier, she felt confident that she could fend off an attack.

The weaker pokémon were to head toward more populated areas, where they would be helped should they for any reason get attacked. The strongest, such as Scytheclaw and Nightshade, were to search the back alley passageways. Arien could not keep track of them all, especially not at any great distance, so for the most part, they would be on their own.

Apart from Spark and Snowcrystal, that is. The two padded side by side as they left the others and took a path that led to a neighborhood with some pleasant-looking houses. Considering the threat of someone noticing something off about Snowcrystal, she had been told to search the upper class areas of the city, where the houses had very strong and capable guard pokémon, should anything happen to her. Spark was happy to go along with her, even if it meant going to an area where they were far less likely to come across any shady trainers.

For the next few hours, they walked up and down neighborhoods, stopping at one point to eat some pokémon snacks from Spark's pouch, then carrying on again. At one point, when they had come to a neighborhood where the houses were large and grand, with massive, beautiful gardens surrounding them, Snowcrystal realized that she recognized the place.

This was the neighborhood they had wandered into the previous evening after the incident in the Pokémon Park. As she realized this, she looked around hopefully for the cheerful umbreon with the purple rings, but he was nowhere in sight. She then remembered that he was a naturally nocturnal pokémon, and realized he would probably be sleeping somewhere.

Turning to Spark, she began to muse about thoughts that had been on her mind all that morning. "I really hope we find the arena before this…tournament is over," she said, remembering what Scytheclaw had told them about what he knew of these types of fighting rings. If Master had come to Stonedust City in particular, it was probably for a big gathering. An opportunity for him to earn a lot of money. If they found the arena after he left, or if he hadn't come for that reason at all, then they would have no way to find their houndour friend. "We don't even know what days Master will be battling or how long he'll stay."

"That's what we're going to find out," Spark told her, beaming with confidence. She couldn't help but feel a bit encouraged by that. If Spark thought they stood a chance at finding him, they probably did.

She hadn't brought up Thunder the entire time. In fact, no one had. She figured that, at the very least, they could find her and set her loose in the wilderness, though a part of her knew that would not be a good idea; Thunder didn't even know how to hunt properly. They could turn her over to the authorities, along with any other pokémon they managed to free, but somehow that didn't feel like a good solution either. It would probably be more traumatic for Thunder, and in spite of the terrible things she had done, Snowcrystal didn't want her to suffer any more.

Despite this, she found it easy to put it in the back of her mind, focusing instead on finding a trainer who knew about the fighting ring. Then they could do something to help her and Blazefang. They continued walking, occasionally passing another pokémon either playing or lounging in the gardens. They weren't surprised when none of them had any information on any strange activity. Because there were so few pokémon up and about that day, there wasn't much to stop and look at, so they covered a lot of ground quickly.

The next few hours passed uneventfully. Snowcrystal hoped that the other pokémon had found something out, and that they weren't all wasting large amounts of valuable time. She told herself that Nightshade and Scytheclaw had to have found something; as the most powerful pokémon in the group, they were the ones exploring the places in the city where trainers who were a part of the blood sport would most likely be. She was also starting to get hungry, which irritated her, because she certainly did not want to be distracted.

When they rounded another corner in the sidewalk and began walking alongside a white metal fence adorned with carved, painted flowers, they came upon the first unusual thing they'd seen that day. It was so unexpected, that Snowcrystal momentarily forgot her own discomforts.

It wasn't a suspicious trainer, or even a trainer at all, but a pokémon. A pokémon that was clearly panicked. It was a durant, and it was clearly out of place in such a well kept neighborhood. Its metal armor coating was covered in dust, and it smelled of someplace damp and filled with the sort of dust that reminded her of parts of the library, like it had come from an old or dirty building. However, there were no wounds on its body, no sign of even malnutrition. This certainly wasn't a pokémon that had a trainer like Thunder, but in spite of that, she felt herself drawn to it, something telling her that this pokémon could have answers. At the moment, the durant hadn't noticed them, and was skittering at a surprisingly fast pace across the road toward a group of houses.

"Hey, buddy, wait up!" Spark called out to it, and the bug type stopped in its tracks, its head turning toward the jolteon.

"Who are you?" the ant pokémon called, and though Snowcrystal wasn't familiar enough with the species to tell just by looking at it, its voice gave away the fact that it was male.

"We're, uh…we're just passing through the neighborhood," Spark began, trotting closer to the durant. "But we need some help and were wondering if you could answer a few questions-"

The durant shook his head furiously. "No," he said, turning and beginning to scurry away from them again. "Gotta get away from here."

"Why? Is someone after you?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Yeah, hold up!" Spark cried, putting on a burst of speed until he caught up with the bug type. His paws skidded to a stop as the durant reluctantly halted. "Are you hungry? We've got a bit of food, and-"

"NO!" the pokémon responded, lowering his antennae as he moved his body closer to the ground. "Please leave me alone. I want to be out of here by nightfall."

"We can show you the way out!" Spark cried. "We just want to ask a few questions first."

" _Tell_ me the way out, then," the durant demanded. "I can get there faster than you can; I have no reason to follow pokémon who can't even climb up fences."

"Calm down," Snowcrystal told him in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. The pokémon seemed incredibly nervous, even though there was no immediate danger. "We'll help you. We just want to know if you know of anything…unusual going on in the city right now, or sometime soon."

"What sort of unusual thing?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"Any trainers meeting up?" Spark asked. "Talking about something suspicious? Heard anything about a…about a place where pokémon fight to the death for humans?"

At this, the durant's eyes went wide. "You mean that place my trainer goes to?" he spat, sounding considerably more frightened as he stared at the two.

Snowcrystal's heart leapt. This was it. This was what they were looking for. A pokémon who knew of the place and could tell them how to find it. But then she realized that the pokémon looked quite frightened, even though he wasn't hurt, and she felt bad for having to ask him. Yet she knew if she didn't, even more lives could be lost in that disgusting arena than before. "Uh…yes, I think so. It's a big underground fighting arena…have you seen it?"

"The arena? No," the durant replied in a shaky voice. "I've never seen the arena…my trainer never let me out there but…" His voice trailed off, and his body started to shiver. "My trainer wouldn't come around here, you don't think?" he asked fearfully.

"I doubt any scumbag who goes to dirty old arenas to kill other people's pokémon would risk showing their face around here," Spark said reassuringly.

"You'd be surprised," the durant responded. "A lot of them don't look like 'scumbags.' In fact, some of them probably _live_ here." He gestured with his head around at all the grand-looking homes surrounding them. "The fighters…the really good fighters…they make a lot of money from the battles there…"

Snowcrystal glanced around at all the beautiful houses in shock, suddenly wondering if any of them housed an abuser as cruel as Thunder's trainer. It certainly wasn't what she had imagined when she thought of abusive trainers; she had pictured filthy-looking humans lurking in an alley somewhere.

"My trainer only makes bets, but…" The durant shivered again. "I can't go back there. He doesn't even care about pokémon training anymore. Cares more about winning money and buying his stupid alcohol than getting food for his pokémon half the time. Sure, there were always plenty of scraps to scavenge around the city, but…I can't let him drag me back to that place again. I'd rather go back to the wild."

"I think you can help us," Spark said, "and we will help you. Now, do you remember where this place is? How we can get to it?"

The durant shook his head. "I was in my poké ball most of the time…but I know the building is a big department store…I caught a glimpse of it one time when we were coming out. My trainer let me out of my poké ball after we'd walked through a door into the bottom story of the building, but…that's all I can tell you. I don't know why you'd want to go there in the first place."

"What else can you tell us about that store?" Spark asked. "Did it look different? Some distinguishing feature?"

"I…I don't remember much," the durant admitted. "This was from one of the other times I was brought there. A while back…but the store sold a lot of clothes."

"Argh, that could be any of them!" Spark cried, digging his claws against the sidewalk as he threw his head back in frustration. "There's gotta be something else. Anything else you can remember about it?"

"Er…it had a bunch of blue umbrellas out in the front," the bug type answered. "At least it did when I saw it. I really don't remember what it looked like. So many buildings look the same to me."

"All right," Spark said with a sigh.

Snowcrystal perked up, an idea suddenly coming to her. "Wait," she said, "can you tell us where your trainer lives?" She hoped that, if they could find him, there would be some way for them to learn more about where the arena actually was.

A change seemed to come over the durant as he looked back at the two pokémon. He sounded oddly satisfied as he replied, "He's in the Roserade Hotel. Room 42. Or, if you know any flying types, the fourth window up on the far right of the back of the building. If you can find a way to let the human police or their pokémon know he's involved…that would be great."

"We'll see what we can do," Spark laughed, looking immensely relieved now that they had another source of information.

"I have another question," Snowcrystal began, remembering that they needed to know how much time they had. "When exactly is this tournament…starting?"

"It already has," the durant replied.

Snowcrystal and Spark stared in horror for a moment, but Snowcrystal quickly realized that if Master had used Blazefang in the battles, some sort of disaster would have happened already. However, this did mean that he could choose to do it at any time. "When did it start?" Snowcrystal asked. "Do you know how long before it ends?"

"It's been going on for the past week," the steel ant replied, his fearful demeanor beginning to return. "But that was more the lower class rounds…the less skilled trainers, I mean. The big name trainers are going head to head starting tonight. That's when the other trainers _really_ start betting. I knew my trainer was going to-"

"Wait a minute, _tonight?_ " Spark cried, jumping a bit in surprise. "You can't be serious! We've only got a few hours 'till nightfall, and you're telling me Thunder's Master is going to…going to…" He shook his head. "Well, do you know who exactly will be fighting next?"

"All of them, I think!" the durant replied fearfully, startled by Spark's outburst. "The most skilled trainers fight at least once every time this part of the tournament starts. Winners go on to the next round and losers fight again in the lower ranking tournament. People bet on their pokémon and bet on who will be the last victorious trainer standing. So you'd see-"

"Was there a trainer with a houndour there?" Snowcrystal asked. "Or…or a really scarred scyther?"

"I don't know!" the durant cried. "I don't usually see their pokémon! I'm sorry, that's all I know about it."

"It's okay, you've been a big help," Snowcrystal told him, and the ant pokémon looked at her gratefully. "Just one more thing…do you know anything about how your trainer gets into this place?"

"She doesn't mean what it looks like," Spark quickly interjected, obviously thinking the same thing Snowcrystal had. "She means, is there some sort of password or something the trainers need to get to the part of the store that leads to the arena?"

"Yeah…" the durant began. "Each of the trainers all have this fake Molten Badge with a small carving of a lugia on the back. Looks normal from the front, but…I think the trainer has to show it to the human at the small counter on the first floor. At least, that's what River – my trainer's vaporeon – told me, anyway. I was never out of the poké ball when he did that."

"Okay, thanks," Snowcrystal told him, suddenly aware of how quickly they needed to find the others. It was nearing sunset already.

"All right, to get past the city, you just need to keep heading in that direction," Spark explained to the durant, pointing with his paw past a group of houses. "If you get lost, just follow the street until the houses get smaller, and from there you should be able to see the trees and rocks from somewhere high up. You're really not far."

"Thanks," the durant replied, and before either of them could say anything more, he took off.

This time, instead of following him, the two of them began to race back in the direction of the meeting place, only just realizing how far they had to travel before they reached it. Yet both Snowcrystal and Spark were used to traveling long distances, and they did not tire easily. They were determined to make it as soon as possible.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Are you sure we can't go to the police now?" Katie asked nervously as the group of trainers and pokémon, now reunited, stood beneath the Roserade Hotel. Damian and Katie had returned their pokémon, not wanting to make it appear as if they were walking with more than six each. She sighed as she glanced nervously around before staring up at the back of the building.

"That durant didn't give enough information," Justin replied. "And it's not like the arena's in some abandoned warehouse somewhere; I don't think the police can just waltz in and search an entire store without any evidence."

As much as Katie knew Justin was afraid to alert the police, she had to admit that he was right. The word of one pokémon, told through two other pokémon, wasn't enough to warrant a search, and it wasn't the sort of thing the police would want to be distracted by with the recent library incident and the ongoing investigation of anything they believed was related to Team Rocket. They probably had no idea if there was even anything major happening in the underground battling world at the moment, and even if they got their hands on the fake badge, it probably wouldn't mean anything to them. It wouldn't exactly be much evidence if they couldn't prove it was connected to the illegal fighting and not just a random fake badge, and the people running the arena weren't stupid. They wouldn't still be using them if they were aware the police knew of the connection.

"All right," she sighed, making an exasperated gesture with her arms. "Let's do this quick, then."

"Don't worry," Damian tried to assure her, "I'll be careful. I'll find some dirty clothes, get to wherever the entrance is, snap a few pictures on the pokégear, then you can show them to the police. Simple, right?"

"Yeah, just like your library plan," she muttered.

"What if…what if we'll be too late if we go to the police?" Justin asked nervously. "Or what if the pictures aren't enough evidence or they can't head out there immediately? If Master's going to fight tonight, he could-"

"Surely we can tell them that pokémon are being hurt, and that should convince them," Damian replied, but Justin looked doubtful.

"Look, I know you're scared of the police, but just try to relax," Katie told him. "I'll tell them _I'm_ the one that took the pictures. You and Damian can be far away. Damian's only going in because he's older than us; no way they're going to let a couple of kids like you or me anywhere near the entrance to the arena."

Justin didn't respond, but Katie hardly paid attention. She took out one of her poké balls, releasing the small, purple form of her aipom. "Okay, Sid, this is the _only_ time I'm going to say this, but…" She reached up with her hand, pointing toward the fourth window from the bottom on the building's right side, which was propped open. "…I need you to sneak into that building and steal something. Find us a molten badge with a lugia carving on the back, okay?"

Sid, who looked more excited than Snowcrystal had ever seen a pokémon look about anything, gave Katie a dramatic salute before turning and bounding toward the building. He climbed up its side effortlessly using the trailing ivy along its walls and within no time, he was on the balcony beneath the durant's trainer's window. He gave them an enthusiastic wave before vanishing inside.

They waited, unsure if the trainer was still lurking there, and if the overconfident aipom would stumble upon him. If the trainer was wearing the fake badge, that would definitely complicate things. They stood still with baited breath as they watched the window.

However, no more than a minute or two had passed before Sid reappeared, holding up a small object triumphantly. Damian gave him a thumbs-up, and the others breathed a collective sigh of relief. Sid scampered down to them, handing Damian the volcano-shaped object, which, he could see, looked exactly like a Molten Badge, save for the small lugia engraving on the back.

"Good job!" the trainer exclaimed.

"Good, now let's get out of here, find some scruffy clothes, and try to find out where that department store is," Katie muttered, casting a nervous glance at the window. "Before that trainer realizes what's happened."

Sid only burst out laughing. "Oh, don't worry about him! He was passed out on the floor of the room! I stole the badge from his vest!" Not understanding what he was saying, the trainer just stared at him in confusion.

"He won't be a problem," Damian told her, giving the briefest translation he could. "But you're right; let's go."

"Yeah," Justin agreed as they began to sprint away from the building, glancing nervously at the rapidly darkening sky. "We probably don't have much time. And I doubt that guy would give us any information on how to find the place."

They wasted no time in getting to the nearest café, while Katie worked searching through images of Stonedust City department stores to find one with blue umbrellas. Damian soon returned wearing some scruffy looking clothes, and he began to work on the computer next to her, searching for the same thing.

"Didn't the durant say the humans didn't look…well, like you'd think a scumbag would?" Spark asked, staring at Damian's new attire.

"Maybe not the real 'champions,'" Nightshade replied, "but you can bet many of the ones who waste all their money gambling there do. Someone Damian's age wouldn't be likely to have much luck."

"So if he looks like that and shows them the badge, they'll let him in long enough to take the pictures, right?" Rosie asked.

"More importantly," Arien interjected, "it will keep him from getting hurt if they find him snooping around. He has to look the part. In his case, someone desperate."

"If he doesn't fool them," Scytheclaw continued, "I wouldn't put it past them to kill him." Even Arien, a normally calm and collected pokémon, looked horrified at the suggestion. "I'm just sayin'," the scizor continued, "he's putting a lot at risk to help these pokémon and the monsters who force them into that mess. You had all better be nearby for backup in case anything happens."

"Right," Rosie replied sullenly.

"Got it!" said Katie suddenly, prompting everyone who'd come into the café to stare at her computer screen. "Here it is…" She zoomed in to the picture, showing them a very large department store. The courtyard in front of it was decorated by blue umbrellas, a couple small restaurants nearby. "And here's the location. It's on the other side of town but if we hurry, we can get there within twenty minutes. Damian, you can take the bus. We'll catch up with the wild pokémon as soon as we can. I don't think they'd let that many loose pokémon on board."

They rushed out of the café, regrouping with the wild pokémon who'd chosen to wait outside. Snowcrystal darted over to Damian, a feeling of determination suddenly gripping her. "I want to go," she stated, and the other pokémon looked to her in confusion. "I could help," she protested. "If someone attacks Damian, that is. I'm one of the only ones small enough to hide in his backpack, and I know some powerful fire moves. He wouldn't need to have the time to release me from a poké ball; I could take them by surprise!"

She expected the others to argue, but to her surprise, Arien merely nodded. "That's a good idea." Snowcrystal beamed at him, and he added, "Just do not make your presence known unless absolutely necessary. Do you understand?"

Snowcrystal nodded vigorously. Damian, obviously having received the translation, set down his backpack so she could climb in, leaving a bit of it unzipped so that she could easily push the zipper open wider if she needed to quickly escape.

"Wait…you're bringing the growlithe?" Katie cried.

"Arien thinks it's a good idea," Damian replied. "In case I can't release my other pokémon in time. She may be small, but…I'd like to see someone try to hurt me after taking a flame wheel to the face."

Katie knew he was partially joking, but she seemed to accept that answer. "True…I guess you need all the help you can get," she muttered, in a way that made it seem as if she was thinking of everything that could go wrong.

"No one else is small enough to keep hidden and knows attacks like that," Justin pointed out. "It's a good idea. And he should take Nightshade too." When the other trainers looked to him in confusion, he added, "Think about it. Nightshade's one of the strongest pokémon we've got. And well, just look at him. He still looks like he got dragged under a bus. Just the sort of pokémon an abusive or neglectful trainer would have, right? We could dirty up his bandages if we wanted the full effect. He could even try to limp more. And act submissive and scared or tough and angry or whatever it is abused, sick pokémon are supposed to act like. That way, you've got an eighth pokémon for protection, _and_ you look more convincing."

Everyone stared at him in astonishment for a moment, before Spark burst out, "My trainer is a _genius!_ " and Alex gave him a round of applause. Nightshade nodded in approval and stood protectively by Damian.

"Well, okay, you're right, that's smart," Katie admitted. "Take Nightshade with you and head over to the bus stop. We'll be out in the courtyard in front of the store ordering food or something."

Justin nodded. "We'll act like nothing's up, and the moment you come out, we'll leave and Katie can go to the police."

"All right, it's settled," Damian replied eagerly. He held out his six poké balls, returning his pokémon team and placing the poké balls back on his belt. "And we'll make sure they come as fast as they can to help the pokémon tonight before Master has a chance to make Blazefang use the attack. Good luck!"

"And hope they're not too late," Justin muttered. As he watched Damian running off, Nightshade flying right behind him and Snowcrystal peering from the backpack, he added, "And _you're_ the one who needs the luck."

  
**-ooo-**  


It wasn't long before Nightshade and Damian stood in front of the department store. It certainly wasn't Stonedust City's biggest, but its size was still impressive, especially compared to the smaller shops that Damian had been used to in many of Inari's other cities. It was part of a large strip mall, many other buildings and shops set up around and near it. A large courtyard in the front housed tables with blue umbrellas, where many trainers were currently enjoying food with their pokémon. He could feel Snowcrystal moving around carefully in the backpack, trying to get a better look. Nightshade looked calm and collected, but Damian could tell that he was worried.

Knowing that it would take a while for Justin and Katie to catch up with the wild pokémon, he took a deep breath and strode off toward the department store, the heracross at his side. He had the fake molten badge pinned to his vest along with his other badges, and he hoped he wouldn't look suspicious to either the fighting ring trainers or random passerby. A couple trainers on the bus had already expressed concern over Nightshade's filthy bandages, and he began to wonder if making him look like an abused pokémon had really been a good idea after all. But now, there was no turning back.

They walked into the front doors, seeing nothing odd or amiss. It looked like any normal department store, and for a moment Damian wondered if he'd somehow messed up and came to the wrong one. He reminded himself that looking normal was probably its entire purpose, and turned back and forth to get a good look at the place, trying to figure out where the smallest counter was.

It certainly wasn't an upscale store, and no one seemed to object to him or his tattered clothes. It was fairly crowded, and he began to feel a bit anxious as he started walking, keeping an eye out for the counter and whoever he was supposed to show the badge to. As he walked, he looked around for any trainers that looked as if they were up to something, but it proved fruitless, as everyone seemed to look and act very normal from what he could see.

As he moved toward the back of the store, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked over to see Nightshade pointing toward something. Following the heracross's gaze, he noticed a small, sectioned off area of the store that appeared to sell DVDs and other small items. There was a single counter there, with one cashier waiting behind it and a second worker standing by.

Damian headed over it, reminding himself that he shouldn't look too excited or eager. He needed to act like this was a regular thing. He could see Nightshade beside him, and knew that Snowcrystal was waiting in his backpack. He also had six other pokémon ready to defend him if something went wrong, and he felt his confidence returning.

As he walked up to the counter, the cashier gave him a strange look – which he hoped wasn't one of suspicion – and asked him in an irritated tone, "What are you looking for?"

The question surprised Damian enough that he wasn't sure that he'd walked into the right part of the store. Then he remembered that, of course, the place catered to normal customers as well. They couldn't hide an underground fighting ring with a store that never sold anything.

Feeling silly, he replied, "Well, actually, I'm…" He fumbled around with his vest, taking a bit longer than he would have wanted to unhook the molten badge and hold it out to him.

The cashier took it from him, turning away and staring at it with his hand behind the counter, as if in precaution should any bystander look in their direction. He was silent for several long moments, and Damian wondered if he had done something wrong, if they had seen right through his attempt to pass as another patron of their crime establishment. He probably didn't look or act anything like the other trainers who took part in it, and he began to realize that they had likely noticed right away. His hands shook as he watched the worker, expecting him to scream at him and force him to leave, or maybe even turn him in to the police if he _had_ chosen the wrong department store and the workers somehow knew what the badge meant.

Instead, to his surprise, the worker just sighed. "Great. Another weirdo," he muttered. Turning to Damian, he stated in a matter-of-fact way, "Okay, down there. You know the drill."

He pointed toward a door off to the side, hidden partially by a jutting section of the wall as he handed Damian the badge back. The door was labeled as a bathroom, but it had an "employees only" sign on it. Damian was momentarily confused. "But I don't have to-" Then, it came to him, and he grinned, hoping they'd take his comment as a joke. "Er, I mean, thanks! _I get it…_ " He gave the cashier a thumbs-up and tried to walk discreetly along the wall toward the door, which caused the other worker to give an irritated sigh and glare at him before opening the door and motioning for him to hurry it up.

"They let any old trash in here these days," he heard one worker mutter as he stepped through the doorway.

"Well, they've got money," his partner replied, before shutting the door behind Damian, leaving him in a dimly-lit hallway passage.

This certainly was anything but a bathroom; in fact, it looked as if this part of the building had once housed office rooms or something of the sort. A few disused rooms could be seen through open doors, and up ahead, the hallway seemed to twist and curve. A sudden fear gripped Damian as he realized that the trainers who owned the fake badges were supposed to know where to go, so there was probably a hidden entrance somewhere.

And he had no idea where it was.

He fumbled with his pokégear, knowing that he had to find it as quickly as possible so he could snap a clear picture for Katie to show to the police. Then he had to get out as fast as he could before any of the people responsible for the fighting ring could realize what he'd done. The hallway was empty, and though he was worried this meant that he could be too late, and the fights had already started, it did give him an opportunity to contact the others.

He called Justin's phone, and almost immediately he heard the younger boy's voice on the other end. "Damian? Where are you?" He sounded very worried.

"I'm in some disused part of the building," Damian whispered, creeping down the hallway as he looked left and right for any sign of movement. "I haven't found the entrance to the place yet, but…"

"Send me a picture," Justin demanded.

"There's nothing to take a picture _of_ ," Damian whispered back. "It's all just empty rooms!"

"Then find something."

"I'm trying!"

He kept going as he listened to Justin ramble, finding that most of the old office rooms were being used as improvised storage rooms, but there was nothing that looked like it belonged to anything related to criminal activity. As he turned a corner in the hallway only to meet another empty room, he was about to take one of Justin's many suggestions and have Nightshade or even Snowcrystal split up and look in different areas when he heard the sounds of footsteps.

He slammed his pokégear closed just in time as three men walked into the empty room he was standing in, joking and laughing in a way that made Damian realize that they were probably drunk. One of them turned to him, his expression a bit amused.

"You lost, kid?"

"Uh…n-no, I…" Damian began, but he didn't have a chance to finish.

The other trainer laughed and marched over to the far wall, pressing his hand against a section that looked just like any other, yet it moved inward as he touched it. Damian's eyes widened as sections of the wall separated and moved apart soundlessly, revealing a dark passage lit only faintly with rectangular lights attached to the ceiling.

It had been so easy, and Damian knew that if he could snap a picture of this, it would probably be great evidence for the police. Yet he also knew that he was surrounded by three trainers in an organization that probably would have no qualms with hurting him should they think he was threatening their livelihood in any way. Drunk or not, there was no way these strangers were going to let him get away with that.

"Well, go on," one of the trainers said in a jesting manner, as if they found his uncertainty amusing. At least, he thought, for one reason or another, they were completely oblivious to the fact that he was an imposter. They seemed to think he was some clueless trainer who wanted to gamble and was new to the whole thing, or had forgotten how to get in. Damian knew he would have to walk through that door, or risk a high likelihood of them finding out he was only there to infiltrate the place.

"Oh! Haha, thanks!" he began, giving them a nervous grin as he edged his way backward toward the improvised door, Nightshade at his side. He turned around abruptly as he reached it, glancing down to Nightshade, who was doing a good job of acting like an angry, disgruntled pokémon. Damian thought that was probably a good idea; he wasn't sure he could pull off the "abusive, controlling trainer" look as well as he could the "clueless, horrible battler who didn't take care of his pokémon" one.

After he walked through, two of the other trainers followed, but the third stayed in the empty room. "I'm gonna stay behind and wait for Max, alright?"

"Yeah, sure," one waved dismissively toward him, and to Damian's horror, the trainer waiting outside pushed the panel into the wall again, and the door sealed shut behind him.

Damian barely stifled a gasp of fear as he realized that his escape had been cut off. There was someone waiting outside who would definitely know he was up to something if he decided to leave right after he'd arrived, and he didn't even know how the door opened from this side.

"What's the matter kid?" a condescending voice asked, and he turned to see the amused smirk of one of the men that had come in with him. "Why so nervous? You owe someone money?"

"Uh…yeah?" Damian replied, and the trainer burst out laughing.

"Well, looks like you're in trouble. Well good luck, just don't bet on any a' Jason's pokémon! Ahaha!"

Damian had no idea who 'Jason' was, but as the two men on his side of the passage walked off laughing, he frantically pushed against portions of the wall, but nothing happened. He wondered if the door could only be opened from the outside, and if they were all meant to exit through different areas. Perhaps it wouldn't make sense for everyone to come out through the department store after the fighting, late at night when the store would be closed, so they avoided letting people do so by making a one-way door. As his heart raced, he tried to remain calm. Surely there were plenty of escape routes in the event the police found the place. He'd just find another way out.

The two other trainers had vanished around a dark corner up ahead, and the wall where the door had been looked thick enough that the man on the other side wouldn't be able to hear him, so he redialed the number of Justin's phone. "Justin?" he whispered, as soon as the voice answered on the other end.

"Damian, what happened?" Justin nearly shouted, causing him to cringe.

"I'm in the hallway that leads to the arena somehow. Some guys appeared. But they're gone now…I mean, sort of. Well, I can talk to you right now, but-" He broke off, hearing the sound of something like loud static, combined with something else altogether that he couldn't quite pinpoint, over the pokégear, drowning out Justin's angry replies. "Justin?" he asked.

It was several long seconds before the younger boy's voice returned, sounding more alarmed than it had before. "Something's messing with your signal! Argh, they probably have some kind of machine or psychic pokémon screwing things up. You've gotta get out of there. You're in big danger. Those people could-"

Damian heard no more as the signal interrupted, more fiercely than before. He realized that if he was going to send them a picture, it would have to be fast, but he wasn't sure what good a picture of an empty hallway would do in convincing the police of anything. The signal on his pokégear was now flickering in and out, telling him that Justin was definitely right about the interference. Of course the ones in charge wouldn't want anyone to be able to contact the outside. He tried to stand closer to the door, but it did nothing to remedy the problem.

Suddenly, Justin's voice came snapping back, frantic and scared. "Damian, get out of there! Call the police… _something!_ "

It was then that the situation fully dawned on him. Here he was, having been forced to enter an underground crime ring, and one that probably involved hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. It was run by people who were probably just as ruthless as Thunder's Master, people who probably had more than just pokémon blood on their hands after years of working to keep their activities a secret. His hand shook, making it hard to focus on the pokégear screen, as he realized that his very life probably depended on keeping his true intentions hidden.

"Justin…I had to go through a secret door and there's someone outside…" he began, hoping his voice would be heard through the flickering connection as he readied his hand to dial the number of the police after he got through to Justin. "I can't get out." He looked around fearfully, seeing Nightshade's own concern reflected back at him in the heracross's yellow eyes. He thought that, while Nightshade was probably a strong enough pokémon to break down the wall, there was no way he could do that and escape detection from both the trainer on the other side and the ones in the department store. They would have prepared for anything; they would have thought of every way to deal with an intruder.

Justin's voice was nothing but a garbled mess that transitioned between seconds of absolute silence. Then, in one moment where his voice came through clear enough to understand, it was a frantic shout.

"CALL THE POLICE NOW!"

Damian didn't have a chance to reply before Justin's voice cut out.

The signal was dead.

_To be continued..._


	56. Stonedust City's Underworld

Damian's eyes widened as he stared at the pokégear in shock. His hand shaking, he rapidly jammed the buttons over and over, hoping it would somehow bring the signal back and allow him to contact his friend, or the police, or _anyone._ However, the signal remained dead; no information was going to leave his pokégear as long as he was in these subterranean passages, and his only way out was blocked by an unmovable door with an enemy just behind it.

"Oh no…oh no, no, no…this can't be happening!" Damian gasped, collapsing partway against the wall as strength left his legs. Nightshade ran over to steady him, and Snowcrystal opened the backpack wider so she could poke her head out and give the trainer a tentative lick on his face. Damian, however, didn't seem to notice. "They're gonna kill me…they're gonna _kill me!_ "

"Damian…Damian, listen to me," Nightshade began, gripping Damian's tattered vest in his claws. However, he realized immediately afterward that, while Arien was in his poké ball, there was no way for the human to understand him. He also knew that if Damian was seen walking with _two_ powerful pokémon, it could start to look suspicious.

It became clear to Nightshade that Damian was totally out of his element. He was used to dealing with threats he would come across while in his travels in the wilderness. Down underground beneath the city, he wouldn't be able to use his usual methods to escape. Nightshade knew he had to help Damian calm down so he could think more clearly and focus on the situation.

Damian sunk to his knees, his breathing quickening as he stared blankly ahead. Unfortunately, he had neglected to remember Snowcrystal, still hiding in the backpack, and the growlithe was pushed against the wall as he leaned back. "What am I going to do, Nightshade?" he cried, looking at the heracross with panicked eyes. "Maybe I could…Arien…Arien could find a way out! Or find Blazefang! No, no…too many pokémon here…he wouldn't be able to find him…and, and they've got psychics on their side so one alakazam won't break through their defenses and they're probably-"

Nightshade grabbed Damian's arm, holding him still as he tapped the poké ball on the trainer's belt that contained Arien. Damian stared at him in confusion for several moments before he realized Nightshade wanted to speak with him. Shakily, he picked up Arien's poké ball and released the alakazam.

"Arien," Nightshade began as soon as the psychic type had formed, "do you think you could teleport us out of here?"

"I'm not sure…" the alakazam replied. "Something's not right…" He glanced around, seemingly looking at thin air, and Nightshade saw nothing when he followed his gaze, wondering if whatever Arien was sensing was really something he could see at all. "But I'll try."

Giving the message to Damian through their psychic link, the alakazam reached out and grabbed the trainer's hand, then Nightshade's claws. Both Damian and the heracross could feel Arien's psychic move begin to take effect, but before they were transported, it suddenly died down, leaving them both feeling as if nothing had happened.

"It's no good," Arien muttered. "They've done something to this place…whether it's other psychic pokémon or something else, I can't use teleport."

"So…we really are trapped?" Snowcrystal asked, peering from the backpack at the alakazam.

"Try to blend in and find another way out," the alakazam replied, ignoring her. He turned to Damian, looking as if he were communicating with him again. Snowcrystal watched as the trainer shakily reached out with the poké ball and returned him.

"What was that for?" Snowcrystal asked Nightshade. "Arien could have stayed out and helped us!"

"It would look suspicious if he had two powerful pokémon out at once," Nightshade replied. "It would look like he was using us as bodyguards. And we don't know who else is going to come through here." He glanced uneasily toward the door.

Damian's moment of calm suddenly broke, and he began to pace back and forth rapidly, his eyes darting from side to side. "What'll happen if we don't pass as gamblers? Er…I mean, that _I_ won't…heracross don't gamble…you know what I mean… But if they catch us, we could-" He backed up to the wall again, slowly sliding down to a sitting position.

Before Damian could continue with his ramble, Nightshade reached forward and gently gripped the boy's shoulders, stopping the rocking motion he was beginning to make. The heracross's eyes were worried as he stared into the trainer's. "Damian, please try to focus," he said. "We can do this." He hoped his meaning would get across despite the lack of a translator.

Unfortunately, the meaning seemed to be lost on Damian as the trainer let out a small whimper and placed his hands against the sides of his head before suddenly jumping to his feet, which startled both Nightshade and Snowcrystal. "We're trapped! What do we do…we can't go back! We've gotta…we've gotta think of something…act the part, yes. We've…oh no, how are we gonna get out of here?"

In a panic, he flung his arms around Nightshade, pulling the bug type closer to him as he clenched his eyes tightly closed. Nightshade looked a little surprised, and Snowcrystal rapidly tried to think of something they could do to help Damian, realizing that although he had been very confident when they had first met in the wilderness, she knew that he didn't know how to handle things when his plans went wrong. She wondered if there was something she could do, but before she came to a conclusion, the boy's eyes snapped open. He backed away from Nightshade, extending his hands out toward him as if he were pretending to be disgusted. "No, no, I'm in an underground crime ring of pokémon abusers…can't show affection…" he mused to himself. A moment later, he collapsed to the floor again, sobbing, " _They're going to kill me!_ "

Nightshade was beginning to think that Arien should have been left out of his poké ball a little bit longer. The heracross moved closer to Damian, butting him lightly with his horn to get his attention. When the terrified trainer looked at him, Nightshade made a mock-fighting movement, as if he was pretending to ram invisible enemies with his horn. He turned to Damian again, making a protective stance and giving him a confident nod. He gave a short statement of encouragement, which to Damian merely sounded like "Herra-croh!" but this time, the meaning got through to him.

"Okay," he began, stepping forward. "I just gotta act natural, and if anything goes wrong, I've got a powerful pokémon on my side, right? _Right…_ " Still filled with obvious fear, he took a few more tentative steps forward, eyeing the dark tunnel ahead.

Nightshade stayed by his side, also looking into the gloom. The lighting was so poor that it was hard to see which direction the tunnel turned at its end. He was glad that, at least, the other trainers who had walked ahead of them seemed too far away to have heard any of Damian's outbursts, and since there was no activity from behind the door, it was probably soundproof. That made sense, as this was a place that was meant to be hidden.

"Nightshade?" Damian asked in a frightened voice, prompting the heracross to turn to him. "If…anything goes wrong and it's too much for you to handle, I'll catch you and Snowcrystal. They can't hurt you if you're transported to the PC system." His expression changed from one of small confidence to one of barely-concealed horror. "Unless their psychic pokémon have barriers to prevent _that…_ " he added uncertainly.

Further conversation was made impossible as the door behind them suddenly opened, and two trainers – the one from earlier who had stayed behind, and a second they didn't recognize – walked through. Damian, without thinking, started to move toward the open doorway, but was stopped by the unfamiliar trainer. Damian realized as soon as his escape was cut off that this trainer was far bigger and stronger than he was, and likely had strong pokémon to match.

"What are you thinking?" the trainer growled at him, shoving him back. "The store's closed; you can't go back that way. Get moving!" Damian winced as he heard the door closing behind them, sealing them inside.

"Max, calm down," the first trainer stated, his voice still sounding as slurred as Damian had remembered it from when he'd first heard him speak. "He's probably just running from someone he owes money to. He's not doing any harm."

The larger trainer, Max, reeked of alcohol even stronger than his friend did, and Damian found himself backing even further away as the man's eyes bored into him. "I don't trust him…he's shifty looking," Max grunted.

Beside him, Damian noticed Nightshade tense up. Though he still appeared – to the other trainers at least – relaxed and aloof, Damian could tell that he was prepared to fight at a moment's notice. He edged a bit closer to the heracross, hoping the other two men wouldn't notice.

"Oh, come on!" shouted the first trainer, an impatient whine to his voice. "They're already starting, let's just go."

"He's-"

"Look at 'is heracross! Does that look like a trainer who can skillfully command a pokémon?" He pointed a finger at Nightshade, or more accurately, a bit off to his left, swaying a little on his feet.

"Lots of people here have hurt pokémon," Max growled.

The other trainer only laughed. "You think _he's_ been in an arena fight? You've gotta be kidding me! A pathetic trainer like him wouldn't end up with a pokémon walking out of a fight looking as good as this one does."

The trainer jabbed his finger at Nightshade, and Damian suddenly wondered what pokémon who survived the arena usually came out looking like. He edged even closer to Nightshade.

"He's just another crummy trainer," the more easygoing of the two men continued. "Now come on, let's go."

"All right," Max agreed, and Damian nearly sighed with relief as the two walked toward the hallway. "…But he goes first. I don't like him waiting around here."

Damian realized that Max was staring right at him again, gesturing for him to walk down the tunnel ahead of them. The last thing he wanted to do was walk with those two at his back, but he realized that he had no choice. Max already found him suspicious, and he couldn't risk giving himself away until they at least found another escape route. Nodding numbly, he walked into the gloom with Nightshade trailing behind him.

They walked down the narrow hallway, the dim, pulsating lights above them giving the place a chilling, uneasy feel to it. Damian repeatedly told himself that Nightshade was right behind him, and Snowcrystal would definitely be useful in a pinch, as she had an element of surprise that the two other trainers were unaware of.

They carried on down the passage, and both Snowcrystal and Nightshade could pick up the sound of shouting...no, _cheering…_ from somewhere down below. And then came the smells…the smells of death and decay, of blood and smoke. It made each of them want to gag, but Nightshade strode on confidently in spite of it, and Snowcrystal covered her nose with her paws, trying not to make sudden movements that could alert the other trainers to her presence.

They passed many doors, but each of them were closed. The trainers made no indication that they were to enter any of the doors, so they were sure they were meant to keep following the hallway. And then, when it seemed like the hallway would never end, they came upon a dingy-looking elevator.

The machine looked rickety and unsteady, little more than a metal platform surrounded by beams. However, Damian only hesitated momentarily before he remembered he had to act like this was something he had done many times before. Reluctantly, he stepped onto the structure.

It was surprisingly stable, and didn't even rattle as he and Nightshade stepped onto it, followed by the two trainers. He watched Max press a button on a panel at one end of the elevator, and the metal beneath their feet shuddered and began to descend.

The ride was oddly smooth, and they passed several floors, most of which looked empty. One only seemed to contain what looked like the remains of a massive storeroom. More rooms passed by and the elevator came to a halt on the bottom floor. Damian wasn't sure how far underground they were, and he had a feeling this wasn't the deepest part of the place.

They stepped off the elevator and into another hallway. Damian glanced over his shoulder as he heard the elevator shudder again, and saw it rising upward of its own accord, waiting for whoever would use it next. He turned around, noticing that Max was still eyeing him suspiciously. Trying hard not to appear nervous, he carried on.

The hallway was much shorter than the previous one, and soon, they stepped into a much brighter area. Damian realized he was looking at a massive room at least three stories tall, with various doors edged around one side of its interior. There were metal walkways on the upper floors, doors ringing those stories as well. There was a large square booth in an area situated away from the doors, where several trainers and powerful-looking pokémon were waiting. Damian assumed it was a betting booth.

However, his attention was quickly drawn back to the sets of doors that went three stories up. He could hear pokémon cries behind them…pokémon who were not fighting, but merely scared or hurt or angry. For whatever reason, some of the trainers were keeping their pokémon behind those doors. His heart raced; that was where he needed to go.

"Well, come on!" a voice called, but when Damian turned, it was merely Max's friend addressing the more irritable trainer.

Damian wondered if he should ask him what the pokémon were doing in those rooms. Yet he was afraid that if he did, he would be revealing that he didn't know something that might very well be common knowledge to everyone else with access to the fighting ring. In the end, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Knowing that the trainers at the booth had a clear view of the entire room, and he couldn't sneak off to find the pokémon behind the doors that way, he was left with little choice but to follow the two drunken trainers into a hallway situated in a wall opposite where the doors were. The hallway was much larger and wider than the others he'd been through. As they walked through it and reached another, far larger elevator platform, the sounds of hundreds of voices reached their ears.

They boarded the elevator and it lowered, passing a dark wall of concrete at least a few stories high before Damian and the others suddenly found themselves standing above a truly massive room, putting even the previous one to shame. Staring at it, Damian, Nightshade, and Snowcrystal could feel nothing but a surreal sense of horror.

Rings of stands almost as big as the ones he'd seen for Pokémon League battlefields, and towering nearly as high as the massive room itself, circled the entire room, and in the center of them, was the arena. The elevator was too high up for them to get a good look at what was happening below, but Damian could see that the arena was surrounded by blindingly bright stadium lights, and massive television screens were set up, hanging from the center and every corner of the ceiling. Damian didn't give them more than a glance, as from his position on the elevator, he couldn't see the screens on the ones closest to him, and his attention was drawn more to the people in the stands.

There were hundreds of trainers. The stands were absolutely packed, and both Damian and the pokémon could now see all too clearly that the "big name" fighters like Master were certainly a big deal. As they were lowered closer to the ground, which was more like a small upper 'floor' from which they could walk down into the stands, the noise of the cheering audience became deafeningly loud. Damian was nearly knocked off his feet as the elevator came to a stop, having been so focused on the arena stands that he hadn't noticed they had reached the floor of the upper walkway. He quickly made his way over to the nearest sets of stairs, wondering if he could quickly get a seat and then pretend to slip away while the other trainers were too focused on the battle.

As he moved downward, he made a point not to look at what was in the arena. He could see that Nightshade was doing the same. Neither of them wanted to know what was happening to whatever pokémon were locked in battle below them.

Snowcrystal had a much more limited view, only able to see through the gap in the backpack's zipper. However, she could see enough to know that Damian was going to have a hard time finding a seat; every single space on the benches seemed to be taken up by a trainer.

Suddenly she felt herself and the backpack be knocked against Damian's back, and realized that Max had pushed Damian forward by shoving him in the back. Damian stumbled, but managed to regain his footing, and Snowcrystal gritted her teeth, reminding herself to move only very carefully, so no one could tell she was inside.

"Hey, look at this!" the less hostile of the two trainers that had been tailing them cried. "Someone left us front row seats!"

Snowcrystal peered through the backpack's opening, and luckily Damian, sensing that she was trying to get a look, thought to turn his body enough to give her a view. The trainer was pointing to a group of seats very close to the edge of the arena itself. It was still far below them, but even from a distance she could see the other two trainers, who had questioned Damian when he'd come near the secret entrance, waiting beside the bench. They were saving more spots at the front, and Snowcrystal had to wonder how they'd managed to get them.

"Yeah, why don't you sit with us?" Max's taunting, drunken voice reached them, and he gave Damian a barely-concealed glare. "Then you can see a _real_ pokémon battle up close. You can pay us back later."

"Uh, well, uh…sure," Damian mumbled, his voice barely heard over the sound of the crowd.

Snowcrystal had the sinking feeling that these trainers were going to demand a very large amount of money from him later in exchange for the seat, which would cause trouble when he wasn't able to pay it. She wished Damian had thought it out more before answering. She reminded herself, however, that they planned to sneak away and find out where Master and his pokémon were before the trainers would get a chance to try to take money from Damian.

"Oh, what's wrong with your heracross, little boy?" a jeering, condescending voice sounded from beside them. Damian nearly stopped walking as a rather mean-looking woman with a well-groomed delcatty by her side gave him a fake pitying look. "Did it get hurt? And are you sure you're in the right place? You look a little lost," she continued, imitating the sound of a concerned adult having found a lone child. A moment later, she burst into raucous laughter at the sight of Damian's shocked face.

Damian quickly turned away, and though Snowcrystal couldn't see his face, she could sense that he was scared. Nightshade could tell, too, and as he looked up at Damian, he noticed the boy's eyes darting from side to side, finally noticing that it wasn't just that one woman staring at him; many of the trainers in the stands on either side of the stairs were as well.

"I don't think I'm fooling anyone who's not drunk," Damian whispered, only loud enough for the two pokémon to hear.

Snowcrystal was worried. Damian may have passed for a gambling trainer – albeit an odd one – at the department store, but here, she knew that his fear and uncertainty was probably plastered all over his face. The other trainers could sense something was up.

Nevertheless, Damian walked until he came to the bottom rows of the stands, the two trainers who were friends with Max and his pal having saved a section of the bench right by the stairs for them.

Luckily, Damian was allowed to let them go first and sit on the very edge, giving him a quick route to the stairs whenever the moment to escape should arise. Snowcrystal didn't think it would be easy. To get out, they would have to walk back up past all those suspicious and cruel-looking trainers.

Nightshade stood in the stairway by Damian's seat as the trainer slung his backpack around to his shoulder in order to more comfortably sit. Unfortunately, this gave Snowcrystal a view of what was lying below them, and suddenly none of them could avoid looking into the arena any longer.

Two trainers were standing on raised platforms above the arena itself, which lay in a huge, oval-shaped pit in the center of the room. Two pokémon could be seen near the middle of the pit. The first was a kabutops. It was standing almost in the direct center of the arena, where a poké ball shape had been drawn in black lines, as if in some sort of sick mockery of the Pokémon League stadiums Snowcrystal had seen in books in the library. The kabutops was covered in wounds she knew would rarely, if ever, occur in even the most serious of League battles. One of its scythes had been broken off at the halfway point, and she was so close to the arena, she could see the pokémon flinching in pain even without looking at the television screens overhead, which she could now tell were showing all the grisly details of the battle.

Or, more accurately, the battle's aftermath.

The other pokémon was a heracross that was lying in a pool of its own blood. Its body was nearly severed in two, its lower half attached only by thick strands of flesh. The pokémon's claws weakly scrabbled in the sticky red liquid, unable to cry out due to its mouth being filled with blood. The kabutops merely stood back, still awaiting a command from its trainer that didn't seem to be coming as both humans watched the heracross in its death throes.

Damian couldn't help letting out a horrified cry, which he luckily managed to stifle quickly. From what Snowcrystal could see of him, he looked frozen, as still as a statue and unable to turn away, his face etched in shock and horror.

Feeling just as horrified and utterly sick, Snowcrystal turned away from the sight, pushing her head against the backpack's zipper until it opened wider so she had more room to look in other directions. She looked at Nightshade, who was staring at the heracross's human, and flinched in surprise. This was the first time she had ever seen Nightshade look murderous.

After what felt like an eternity, Snowcrystal heard rousing cheers from the audience, and she glanced at the arena again to see the heracross go completely limp. There were also many shouts of anger, and several trainers threw cans or trash into the lower stands in fury. Snowcrystal remembered with utter revulsion that the humans had been betting on these battles, hoping a certain pokémon would die so that they could get a payoff.

An announcer's voice rang out from several points on the ceiling above, and suddenly all the television screens showed the kabutops's triumphant trainer. The man's hands were in the air as he joined in the cheering, not even glancing at his wounded pokémon below. Three poké ball symbols flashed beneath his image on the screen, showing a kabutops, a victreebel, and a hitmontop within them. The hitmontop's shape, unlike the others, was shown in black and white, and a large red X covered it. Snowcrystal realized that this had to mean that the pokémon had lost. This trainer's pokémon had died, yet he was celebrating his victory as if it hardly mattered in comparison to the win. Snowcrystal wondered how any amount of money could make a human act this way. She turned away from the screen as it then showed an image of the heracross's severed body, some brightly colored words racing along the top of the screen.

Snowcrystal turned her attention to the real trainer of the kabutops, a small figure standing on a platform instead of a giant image on a screen, who reached out and returned his pokémon to its poké ball. Afterwards, the ball was placed in a machine on the platform that was just the right height for the trainer to easily reach with his hand. Snowcrystal was close enough to see a poké ball sized indentation on its small surface, and sure enough, the trainer placed the ball right in that spot. Electricity seemed to jump over the poké ball before it vanished.

And she saw, for a split second, a holographic screen pop up in front of the machine, and the image of a cage-like structure, then the kabutops being released inside that structure, flashed across it. She was sure that if she was further back in the stands, she wouldn't have been able to see it. Though almost as soon as it had appeared, it was gone. The trainer, who had been staring right at the screen when it happened, seemed nonplussed.

"What was that for?" Snowcrystal whispered to Nightshade, who looked as if he'd noticed the same thing.

Nightshade spoke lowly, his head lowered close to the backpack. "Those pokémon cries we heard from behind those doors? I think that's where all the contestants' pokémon are held during the battles. To prevent cheating, I imagine."

"But why put them in cages? Why not leave them in their poké balls?" Snowcrystal whispered back, glad that the noise of the crowd would prevent any of the other spectators' pokémon from hearing them.

"Part of it's probably so that they can be treated for injuries," Nightshade replied. "But what I think the main reason is…" He paused, watching as the kabutops's trainer proudly walked down from the platform, and his opponent made a stiff, less enthusiastic descent from his. "I think it's so the people running this thing can see everything. The pokémon is in their sight before and after the battle, so the trainers can't try anything funny, or leave any item in the poké ball that could give them an unfair advantage. This would also give them a chance to check each pokémon physically, to see if the trainers used any…illegal means to strengthen them."

"So Blazefang and Thunder are somewhere in that room?"

"I think they are," Nightshade replied. He and Snowcrystal glanced to Damian, noting that he seemed to have come to the same realization after seeing the screen. He looked like he wanted to make a break for it right then and there, and Snowcrystal didn't blame him; after all, they had no idea how long it would be before it was Master's turn to battle. Nightshade continued, "That would mean they're only in their poké balls for a few seconds – to and from the arena – and the rest of the time they're waiting around in a cage."

"We've got to get there now," she whispered.

"I know," Nightshade replied, with a worried tone to his voice that she was not used to hearing. "But it won't be that simple. The cage area has got to be crawling with human and pokémon guards working for the ones who run the arena. These battlers aren't stupid; if they're entrusting their pokémon to this system, it has to be extremely secure."

"…Right," Snowcrystal said in a whimper. She suddenly realized just how impossible their task seemed; she didn't have any idea how they would even get near the cages. She wasn't even sure the police officers and pokémon she had seen in the city streets would have stood a chance against something like this.

Snowcrystal felt the backpack being lifted up, and caught the gruesome glimpse of a conkeldurr dragging the heracross's body off the arena floor and into an opening that had appeared on the far end of the pit. She could see nothing but darkness in it, and as the conkeldurr disappeared with the heracross, she imagined the bodies of brutally killed pokémon, carelessly thrown in a heap after their defeats as if they were garbage. She didn't imagine their meat would even be fed to other pokémon; it was a completely pointless death that stripped the pokémon of any dignity after they had passed away.

She braced herself as the backpack was slung over Damian's back, and he stood up, much to the protest of the people sitting behind him. Damian, unable to hide the terror in his voice, stuttered "I…I-I'm, going to g-get…something…" as an excuse before stepping onto the stairs.

As he began to walk, shakily, up the stairs, ignoring the stares of the other trainers, Snowcrystal heard the announcer voice again. The first was for a trainer named Gregory Terroe, and a very thin man stepped up to the platform where the heracross's trainer had been, his image flashing across the television screens with three poké balls – with no image of the pokémon inside them this time – appearing beneath the words she thought were probably his name. Several seconds afterward, a second name was announced.

"Nathaniel Mausk!"

Another trainer stepped up to the opposite platform. This one was also tall, but looked more muscular than thin, and was wearing clothes that she could tell by human standards were very nice. Snowcrystal only got a glance at the figure as Damian tried to scramble up the stairs, and it was only when that second trainer's image flashed across the television screens that she saw him clearly. And her blood ran cold.

It was _Master._

Nightshade had obviously seen as well, because he reached out and gripped Damian's arm in his claws, nearly knocking him off his feet as the boy tried to step forward.

"Nightshade, wha-" He broke off, having whirled around to look at the heracross only to catch sight of the television screens. "Oh no…"

"What are we going to do?" Snowcrystal whispered to Nightshade, who merely looked back at her with an equally terrified expression. She couldn't get a good look at the arena anymore; Damian seemed like he'd frozen solid.

"Hey, _sit down!_ " a voice yelled, and before Snowcrystal could try to look at whoever had shouted, she and Damian were roughly shoved.

This time, Damian lost his footing and tumbled down the stairs near where they had been sitting before. A few pokémon in the stands hissed or growled at them as Damian crashed to the ground, and the trainers around them didn't seem pleased either. Nightshade rushed over to Damian, helping him back on his feet. Looking up, they could see that the first round of the battle was about to commence.

"I have an idea," Damian gasped as Nightshade led him back to the seat, wary of the attention they were attracting from the other viewers. He lowered his voice so only the heracross and growlithe could hear. "If he sends Blazefang out into the arena…I'll let Scytheclaw out…he's the fastest pokémon…he can jump down there, get him, and get out. And then we'll…" He trailed off. "…Think of something to do when everyone sees us stealing a pokémon..."

Snowcrystal turned toward Master, or Nathanial Mausk, realizing that if he planned to use Blazefang, any hope they had of stopping him was already gone. All they could do now was hope that they could somehow rescue Blazefang – and get out of there in one piece – before he could use Shadowflare. She realized with a sinking feeling that Damian wouldn't even be able to capture the houndour before he had a chance to use the attack; he belonged to Mausk now, and therefore already had a poké ball. Whatever happened, she knew that they couldn't afford to leave their place so close to the arena itself; it was their only hope of getting to Blazefang in time.

With the sound of a loud, blaring horn, the two warring trainers sent out their pokémon. Snowcrystal gave a sharp intake of breath as the light from Master's poké ball formed into the shape of a pokémon, but to her relief, it wasn't Blazefang. It was a green, serpent-like pokémon she recognized as a serperior. The grass type was so covered in scars, it reminded her greatly of Thunder. She remembered how much the scyther hated being around most other pokémon, and suddenly wondered if any of the longer scars on the serperior's body had been caused by Thunder herself.

The serperior slid anxiously around its half of the arena. As the cameras zoomed in on it, showing its image on the screens above, Snowcrystal could see the crazed look in his eyes. A look that reminded her all too well of how Thunder had looked when she'd attacked Nightshade.

The other trainer's pokémon was a poliwrath. The water type looked less agitated than the serperior, and stood, almost completely unmoving, while he waited for the battle to start.

"Not exactly a fair matchup," one of the trainers in the crowd near them chuckled. "Mausk is going to wipe the floor with this guy!"

Snowcrystal glanced to the poliwrath's trainer, who looked visibly worried, glancing into the arena and at the machine on his platform as if he didn't want to look straight at Mausk. She had a feeling that it was more than just the type disadvantage that had him so nervous.

"If the opponent is not much of a threat, he may not send Blazefang out," Nightshade whispered to her, but she could sense a tone of immense worry in his voice, and she could tell it wasn't just for Blazefang.

The sound of a second horn, even louder this time, signaled the start of the battle. Snowcrystal found herself unable to look away as the serperior launched itself toward the poliwrath with agility impressive even for one of its species. The end of its tail lit up in a bright glow, something Snowcrystal recognized as a leaf blade attack. She noticed that Master hadn't even needed to shout out a command.

Before the poliwrath could react, the leaf blade connected with a force Snowcrystal was sure would kill a lesser pokémon. She winced and looked away a sickening slicing sound met her ears, followed by the splatter of blood.

She opened her eyes, her gaze turning almost involuntarily back to the battlefield, suddenly wishing she could close up the backpack further. The poliwrath was on its feet, and had managed to grab the serperior by its neck and lower body. The grass pokémon thrashed, and a flurry of leaves appeared around both of them, prompting cries of agony from the poliwrath. Still, it did not let go, and Snowcrystal watched as the froglike pokémon delivered a crushing brick break attack to the serperior's back.

She was sure it would have broken the serperior's spine had it not twisted its body in just the right way when the attack hit. Dazed, the snakelike pokémon slumped to the ground, and the poliwrath gripped its neck, delivering a powerful punch to the grass pokémon's face as it tried to strike with another leaf blade. Before the poliwrath could deal much damage, long vines appeared from the serperior's neck, wrapping around the frog pokémon and holding it still.

The other trainer seemed to realize how much trouble he was in, but still managed to call out, "Poliwrath, surf! Now!"

A wave of water tore the serperior from its grip, sending it crashing toward the opposite wall of the arena. Snowcrystal had never seen the move surf in action, so she didn't have much to compare it to, but something about that massive wave looked far more dangerous and wild than what she'd imagined the attack to be. It hit the opposing wall with a deafening crash, loud enough to make her want to cover her ears. Water shot up the sides of the pit, but as soon as it reached the level of the floor above, it continued upward in an odd, restricted movement. It was then that she saw faint flickers in the air around the wave, and it hit her.

_There was a force field._

' _Of course there is a force field_ , _'_ she told herself frantically. _'How could they not have one?'_ She knew the pokémon could jump out of the arena and go on a rampage if they were not contained, and she knew that stray attacks from these brutal fighters would be disastrous to anyone sitting too close.

The water cascaded downward almost as powerfully as it had risen up. For a moment, the whole arena was nothing but a gigantic, writhing mass of water, more choppy and wild than any river Snowcrystal had ever seen. Then, gradually, the water level began to lower, as if it was being drained out.

As soon as the two pokémon appeared, she could see that the serperior looked horribly beat up. It was thrashing, writhing in the water as it made its way to the surface, hissing in fury. She could see a distinctive kink in its tail as it moved with the water toward the poliwrath; it had obviously been broken when it smashed against the wall. There was also a large, bleeding spot on the grass type's head, but the pokémon was undeterred, and shot toward the poliwrath, its body still moving in a graceful motion despite its injuries and the water surging around it.

The poliwrath met the grass type with some sort of powerful fighting move, slamming the serperior through the water and into the ground. Snowcrystal could have sworn she saw blood float to the top of the water as the pokémon's skull met the hard floor of the arena. The poliwrath punched again, and the serperior writhed, its slashing tail trying to find its enemy. However, with its injury, it was unable to land an accurate hit. After a third punch, its movements started to slow, and the poliwrath continued to hold its head underwater. Snowcrystal could hear shocked gasps from around her; it seemed like _Master's_ pokémon was the one who was losing.

Then, the serperior burst from the water with a strength that shocked Snowcrystal, her friends, and the rest of the audience. Snowcrystal wanted to look away, but found her eyes fixed on the scene as the snakelike pokémon wrapped its body around the poliwrath, squeezing so tightly that the water type could hardly move. Snowcrystal got glimpses of some sort of grass type attack assaulting the poliwrath, and she shut her eyes, not wanting to see what was making the pokémon cry out in agony.

Beside her and Damian, Nightshade looked away as well. He did not want to look upon the pokémon who were suffering or their cruel trainers. Instead, he focused on the machine beside Nathaniel. That machine teleported poké balls to the place where the pokémon were being held, where both Blazefang and Thunder probably were at that very moment. If he could get to it, perhaps placing one of Damian's poké balls into it while under the guise of a pokémon who had snapped and was going on some sort of rampage, then perhaps they would have a chance. Such an idea was incredibly risky, far more risky than anything he would normally consider doing, but with what was on the line…

He was interrupted by a shocked gasp from several of the nearby audience members. Instinctively, he jerked his head toward the scene of the battle. The water had completely drained from the arena, leaving the floor and the two pokémon completely exposed. The poliwrath, still partially entwined in the serperior's coils, stood over a twitching and defeated grass type.

Even the poliwrath looked surprised, and Nightshade could tell that the pokémon was barely standing. Its blue skin was shredded by the grass type attacks, blood smeared all over its body. It looked to him that, if the pokémon did not get help immediately, it would die.

However, no one made a move to retrieve the poliwrath while the serperior still lived. Now, he could see what was wrong. The snakelike pokémon's neck was bent at an unnatural angle. Its coils slipped from the poliwrath's body. It was completely defenseless now. From the look on the poliwrath's face, Nightshade suspected that the injury had been an accident – a fluke – and that the water pokémon had thrashed around and broken the serperior's neck either against the wall or with its own weight. As Nightshade caught a glimpse of a television screen out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Mausk looked livid beneath the calm, collected mood he was trying to portray. From the shouts and talking in the audience around him, Nightshade guessed that Mausk did not usually lose.

"Dynamic punch," the poliwrath's trainer instructed.

The frog pokémon delivered a well-aimed punch to the serperior's skull, and with a sickening crunch that could be heard by all who were close to the arena's edge, the serpent pokémon went still.

Snowcrystal poked her head out of the backpack as the painful cries of the wounded poliwrath faded away and the pokémon was returned to its poké ball. Nightshade normally would have been worried about the growlithe drawing attention, but in the midst of the crowd, no one seemed to notice her. He realized there would be little use for an element of surprise here; there was no way they could fight so many trainers.

"Nightshade, what do we do if he sends Blazefang out? We can't get to where they're holding the pokémon in time!"

"I don't think we have many options," he replied grimly. "I don't think any pokémon could break through that force field…" He suddenly trailed off, his eyes lighting up. "But we could find a way to shut it down." He looked up toward the ceiling. "Someone's probably controlling it either from up there, or down beneath in a lower room," he whispered.

Snowcrystal tried not to look at the conkeldurr dragging the serperior into the dark opening that appeared in the wall as she replied, "How would we get there without anyone seeing?"

"I'm not sure…" Nightshade said grimly. "First we have to find out where the controls would be. Look around, see if you notice anything."

Snowcrystal nodded, and as she and Nightshade began to carefully examine their surroundings, she noticed that Damian looked confused and conflicted as well, and wished there was a way to communicate with him that wouldn't make him look suspicious by releasing another pokémon.

She scanned the huge room, knowing that at any moment, the trainers would begin their second round. Most of the upper reaches of the room were too dark, locked in shadow beyond the blinding stadium lights, and she couldn't make out if there was any sort of platform up there. That part of the ceiling was higher up than the place where the elevator had dropped into the room; they wouldn't have seen anything even if they had been looking at it from up there. She wondered just how they were going to find something, especially if the arena's controls were in a place below the arena or in another room entirely.

Both the pokémon and Damian were interrupted in their desperate race to find a plan of action as the two trainers above the arena readied their second poké balls. Snowcrystal tensed up, afraid that she would see a houndour form from Mausk's, a houndour that would be forced to use an attack that could obliterate the arena and the audience with it. She suddenly wished that Damian would flee, but the trainer remained frozen, and she knew that if Blazefang did appear, then they would need to risk everything to get him out of the arena.

Then, the poké balls were thrown. The one belonging to the trainer facing Mausk was the first to hit the ground, and a furious-looking, massive tauros appeared. And then, out of Mausk's, came a scyther…a thin, scarred scyther, and there was no mistaking who it was.

" _Thunder…_ " Snowcrystal breathed, leaning forward out of the backpack. She could see that Nightshade had a similar reaction, his expression as fearful and horrified as she imagined her own was. They had both realized upon the instant she was released, that they were going to either watch their former friend die, or watch her brutally kill another pokémon for humans' entertainment.

As soon as she was released, Thunder darted around her side of the arena, her scythes slashing at the walls as if in frustration or anger. Her gaze darted to the tauros on the other side, which looked even more enraged, but remained still, pawing at the ground instead of running. Now that Snowcrystal got a good look at it, the beast was positively terrifying; it was covered in enough scars to rival Thunder herself, and it was bigger than the tauros she'd occasionally seen with trainers in Stonedust City. The look in its eyes was mad…desperate. It was in pain, and it wanted – no, _needed_ – to kill.

Thunder's burst of energy didn't last long. After a couple of seconds, she came to a halt, pacing back and forth in a tiny patch of the arena floor. Though Snowcrystal and Nightshade could see the look on her face fairly well from their distance, they couldn't imagine what she was thinking.

As they looked, however, Nightshade noticed something. "Thunder's not wearing a collar," he whispered. "Not like Master's nidoking was. Of course she can't wear it in battle…the nidoking's exploded when it was hit with the attack."

Snowcrystal suddenly realized that the serperior hadn't worn a collar either; none of Mausk's battling pokémon would have one on during the tournament. She could see the light of hope in Nightshade's eyes; if Thunder was missing her collar, there was a chance they could get her out safely once she was teleported back to where the pokémon were being held. That is, _if_ she won the battle.

Snowcrystal couldn't focus on trying to find a way to disable the arena's force field. There had been nothing to see, anyway; there was no way the humans would have the controls out in plain sight. And at the moment, she and her friends seemed unable to do anything but watch.

Now she would have to see what Thunder's life had really been like.

_To be continued…_


	57. The Fighting Ring

Thunder could see the stands, the hundreds of jeering trainers. She could see their excitement and smell their food and drinks over the scent of blood wafting around her in the arena. They were waiting to watch her make a kill, but not for the purpose of hunting as would be normal for a scyther. She would not be allowed to eat her defeated opponent, even though the tauros was a prey species. She was starving, but she knew the body would just be dragged away like the others after the fight. This only drove the point further as to how cruel and pointless the pit fights were. It was a disgusting mockery of both nature and pokémon battles.

She could see Master, and the tauros's human, standing above the arena on their platforms. She could smell the blood even stronger as she paced, but the scent of it didn't make her hungrier as it normally would. It made her furious.

The floor of the arena was wet, as if one of the pokémon who'd last fought had been a water type. From the look of the blood smears, it seemed as if one of the fighters had been slammed into the ground. Perhaps that was how that pokémon had died.

However, as she continued to take in her surroundings, they started to register in only a distant, mechanical way. Even her anger subsided, giving way to what she could best describe as indifference. This was a situation she had been in countless times before, yet this time, she realized, something was different. When she had first been sent out of her poké ball, she had raced around her half of the arena frantically, but more at the opportunity to run and move around than anything else. Now, it was all too clear what she was actually facing, the place she had hoped she would only ever have to return to in her nightmares.

This was just one of the arenas. They were all the same to her. She couldn't even remember which battles she had fought in this particular one, and she didn't think it mattered.

As the trainers readied themselves, her thoughts still drifted back to the day Master had captured her again, those same events that repeated in her head over and over every day since it had happened. And perhaps it was the taste of freedom she had found when joining the growlithe and her group, but there was something about being recaptured that made the thought of being under Master's control even more unbearable than she could remember. At least, it had at first. Now that she was actually here, she felt numb, disconnected. She couldn't even bring herself to fear for her life as she stared at the tauros on the other side of the line breaking the arena up into two halves. The whole thing suddenly seemed incredibly pointless, an endless cycle of pain and misery for her, that tauros, and every other pokémon forced into this terrible place.

And she knew at any moment, the horn would go off and she would have no choice but to fight. Growling, she raised her scythes and stared at the tauros, but it was a halfhearted effort, and the pokémon did not seem intimidated at all. As Thunder tried to prepare herself for what she was about to do to the pokémon, images flashed through her head of the last time her blades had cut through a pokémon's flesh.

It had been Nightshade. The heracross who, she had come to realize, was probably the only pokémon she had ever considered a friend.

She had attacked him. She might have even killed him. Yet even now, she couldn't help but wonder why she had done it. She had told herself that she had lost control, slipped into the 'attack mode' Master had forced into her since she was barely older than a hatchling. She had told herself it was something she couldn't control.

But that wasn't right. Some part of her mind had given her that instinctive reaction, but it had been her choice to act on it. She had barely even made an effort to hold back the rage, the drive to wound and attack that Master and his pokémon had taught her so well. She had begun to realize this one day several weeks ago when she had recalled something Nightshade had said to her. He had told her, days before the attack happened, that she did not have to be a slave to Master; she could make her own choices, and she would always have that ability. She had thought, back then, that he was just stating the obvious, the things she already knew. But the meaning of those words had dawned on her. She had _chosen_ to attack her friend. And she had regretted it even the moment after she'd done it. It was the worst mistake she had ever made.

As she waited for the horn to sound, she caught a glimpse of one of the television screens overhead. Master's three poké balls were clearly laid out beneath the image of his face on the screen; her, his serperior, and a third unknown pokémon. Yet what caught her eye was that the serperior had a red X over its poké ball image. The match had just started and Master was down by one. One more loss, and all the money he had put into the tournament would be lost.

One more loss…Master would lose the fight.

Her eyes narrowed in hatred at the man standing on the platform above her. Her claws dug into the ground. She was done fighting for him. He would not own her anymore. Thunder did not want to die, but she didn't want to continue serving that cruel human either. And if there was one thing she could do, she could bring him down in his moment of glory, even if it meant that defying her Master would be her final act.

The sound of the horn came suddenly, and Thunder realized that what had seemed like several minutes had really been a much shorter period of time. She caught sight of the tauros charging toward her, its eyes filled with the same boiling rage she was sure had filled her own eyes when she attacked Nightshade.

Before, she had always been afraid for her life during these battles. She was sure it didn't show; to anyone else, she was just another crazed, violent pokémon out for blood. Yet that was what they all appeared like. There was rage in these pokémon, yes, but it masked the fear. Even in Master's other fighters, the ones who supported and praised him. The cold blooded killers these humans wanted to see were not what pokémon were really like.

Now, however, she felt only a strange sensation. It wasn't quite calmness, and it certainly wasn't peace. Maybe it was just satisfaction, the thought that she was doing something to make things harder for her tormenter, even if only temporarily. Maybe it was the satisfaction of messing up the rules of their stupid little game. But when the tauros came at her, all she felt was that strange, weak sensation of satisfaction of how she was exerting what tiny amount of choice she had. And she let the pokémon hit her.

She barely registered being thrown into the air over the tauros's horns, but she felt the impact when she hit the ground. She had managed to avoid landing on her scythes, but one of her wings was bent beneath her. She flexed it; it seemed functional enough, not that she planned to use it.

"Thunder!" Master cried from somewhere beyond the arena walls. "Get up! _Now!_ "

She ignored him. The tauros struck again, this time catching her side with its horn as it flung her over its head again. Thunder didn't know if she was hurt badly or not; she hardly cared. There was nothing more she could do anyway, unless she wanted to give Master his victory.

The maddened stomping of her opponent caused her to glance in the tauros's direction, and it was then that she realized that, in tossing her, the bull pokémon had gotten one of its eyes slashed by her blades. It whipped its head from side to side, shaking droplets of blood onto the arena floor. Its trainer shouted some angry words, and Thunder couldn't help but notice that, compared to Master, he sounded incredibly inexperienced. How he managed to get this far was a mystery to her. Perhaps his tauros was one of his lesser-trained pokémon, because the normal type certainly didn't look like it was prepared for an arena fight. If that was true, it would be all the more humiliating for Master when he lost.

Thunder stood up, but kept her scythes lowered as she watched the other pokémon. Then, hoping Master was watching carefully, she looked away from the tauros and casually glanced around, scanning the trainers in the arena as if she was simply admiring a pleasant day. She didn't even listen to Master's increasingly infuriated shouts.

And then, to her shock, her eyes locked onto someone familiar. No, two of them. She stared incredulously as she spotted, in the stands, near the edge of the arena itself but raised enough above it so that she could see, Snowcrystal and Nightshade. She could recognize Nightshade anywhere, and he was _alive…_ injured, but alive. And Snowcrystal…Snowcrystal was orange now. Some human thing must have been done to her, Thunder figured. But there was no mistaking her eyes. Both members of her former traveling group were looking at her, a mixture of horror and sadness on their faces. Not for their own sake, but for her.

And then, in a split second, Nightshade's words, from what seemed like so long ago, came back to her mind. And for the first time, she thought she understood them.

It wasn't like what she had figured out all those weeks ago. She'd known that it had been her own choice to attack him for a while now. This time, the full meaning of those words was clear.

Nightshade was right; he had been right about that. And probably many other things too. She was not some twisted creation of Master's; she never had been. Her actions, her choices, were her own. Maybe even Nightshade didn't believe that now. Maybe he had come to believe, like many of the others, that Master had warped her mind beyond any sort of redemption, turned her into something evil. She wouldn't blame him if he did. But he had been right before. She had the ability to choose for herself. Not even Master could take that away.

She did not have to kill this tauros. And she did not have to die.

Her attention snapped to the charging beast that was now barreling in her direction. She braced herself, and then, at the last instant, darted to the side and let the pokémon charge past her. It whirled around, charging again, this time readying a hyper beam. However, the blood in its eyes and resulting loss of vision caused it to misaim, and Thunder had no difficulty dodging the new attack as well.

As she continued to dodge attack after attack, she caught glimpses of Master's barely-concealed fury, could hear the shouts of both humans as they tried to spur their pokémon on to greater efforts. It was to no avail; the tauros was tiring, and the loss of vision seemed to be inciting a sort of panic in the pokémon; its attacks were more and more off target.

Then, when Thunder felt as if she had dodged a hundred attacks or more, the tauros came to a sudden stop. Thunder waited in anticipation, but the pokémon only drew in shuddering breaths. It looked exhausted, and she then noticed that some of its scars were actually wounds – fresh ones – as if it had been in recent battles. Perhaps the tauros wasn't inexperienced, but instead a victor who had been put through too many consecutive fights. Maybe its trainer did not have as many pokémon as Master, so to compete in the tournaments, he needed to reuse some of them soon after a battle. Well, that worked to her advantage.

"THUNDER!" Master shouted, his fist pounding on the rail surrounding his platform. His eyes were wide, the usual calm and collected attitude he presented to other humans completely gone. "Listen to me! _Attack!_ "

Master looked so comically enraged, so utterly helpless to do anything to her while he was up there, competing in a tournament with rules set by other humans, that Thunder couldn't help but smile. It was an odd thing for her to do; in fact, she wasn't sure she remembered the last time she had smiled. She hoped that Master could see her smirk.

"Tauros, attack the scyther!" the other trainer shouted, sounding just as stressed as Master.

Obediently, the tauros turned toward her, but its movements were clumsy, and it stumbled, falling onto its side. At further demands from its trainer, it climbed heavily to its feet.

"Go ahead," Thunder told it. "Try to attack me. I'll only dodge again. I'm not going to fight."

The tauros stared in her direction with its one remaining good eye, blinking as blood obscured its vision again. Then, it gave a weary sigh and kneeled on the floor of the arena.

Thunder's head jerked up as the horn sounded out again. After it faded, she could now make out the angry shouts and booing from the audience around them, which only drove Thunder to stare in defiance at the stands. A few trainers threw pieces of garbage at them – empty bottles, cartons that once contained food, or styrofoam cups – which only bounced off the arena force field and shattered or crumpled at the feet of the trainers in the front rows.

A booming voice sounded out over the arena's intercom system. "You have thirty seconds to get your pokémon to attack. If you fail, you both forfeit."

Thunder wasn't sure this had ever happened in the arenas before. At least, it hadn't in any event she had heard about. She knew that most of the pokémon acted out of fear of death or fear of what their trainers would do to them if they performed poorly. But in the grand scheme of things, nothing Master could do to her would be worse than living in the hell of the arenas again and again for the rest of her life. And now, with this one act, she was sure she had likely ensured that Master would never use her in an arena battle again. His hold on her had slipped, and he would not want to take the gamble of sending her into a fight he had poured a lot of money into ever again.

The tauros seemed to have realized that attacking his opponent would only tire him out at best, and at worst, finally provoke an attack. He knew that he would have lost; he had been weakened, he was exhausted, and he could hardly see. He looked so weary of the fighting. Even as Thunder watched him, he gently lay his head down on the ground and closed his eyes.

Amidst the angry cries of the battling trainers and the hundreds that surrounded them, another horn sounded. "Trainers, return your pokémon," the announcing voice said, and Thunder stared defiantly at Master as he, shaking with rage, held out her poké ball and the red beam surrounded her.

  
**-ooo-**  


It was clear to Nightshade, Snowcrystal, and Damian that Mausk's humiliating defeat was not something anyone in the audience had expected. He could hear cries of rage from trainers who had bet money on his victory, and excited shouts from those who had bet on trainers other than the two standing at the arena. The television screens showed the two opponents side by side, before their images turned to black and white, signaling a double loss, which triggered an enraged uproar from the crowd.

They watched as the tauros's trainer angrily stormed off the platform. Mausk, however, stayed where he was, Thunder's poké ball still in his hand and his eyes wide in disbelief as he gripped the rail of his platform. He looked as if he wanted to murder the nearest person, and if the three of them hadn't been so relieved for Thunder's sake, they probably would have been afraid of such a look.

Another trainer, wearing a uniform that set him apart as one of the people running the arena, climbed up onto the platform next to Mausk. Even through the noise, Snowcrystal and her friends caught a few of his words.

"Mausk…your pokémon…what was that…"

"I paid money for this!" Mausk shouted back, rounding on him. "Three pokémon! I paid to battle three pokémon. You let me fight one more battle…I will impress you!"

From what they could see, the other trainer gave Mausk an amused smirk. He grabbed a small microphone he carried with him, suddenly taking over as the announcer. "Did you hear that, folks? Mausk says he wants one more round. Three rounds per trainer is what you paid to see, right? So how about this? He shows us something truly impressive and wins? He can carry on. How about that?"

The cheers that erupted from the stands were deafening. Snowcrystal glanced to Nightshade in alarm. "Why are they letting him fight again?" she asked. "I thought they just said he lost!"

"That trainer overrode the decision," the heracross began, looking in the direction of the human who had spoken to Mausk. "The trainers weren't happy when both battlers were disqualified. This place runs on their money too, so the people who run the fighting ring want to keep them satisfied…and to do that, they need a winner. They certainly realized that as soon as all these people started reacting badly to them both losing."

Snowcrystal nodded numbly, tensing up in anticipation as the tauros's trainer returned to the stand. She felt Damian grip the fur on her head tightly, but she didn't object. He pulled her closer to him, taking the backpack with her, and she leaned out further to lick the side of his face.

Snowcrystal watched as Mausk placed Thunder's ball into the machine that would teleport it. In a moment, it vanished, and Snowcrystal knew that Thunder would be sent to where the other pokémon were being watched over. She only wished there was a way to get there, but at the moment, they had to wait and see what would happen; they couldn't afford to leave just yet.

The horn sounded, and the tauros's trainer sent out a new pokémon, a male pyroar. This one looked at least in better shape than the tauros had, and let out a thundering roar as soon as it emerged. Though Snowcrystal knew the roar was fake, just some trick its trainer had taught it rather than something the pokémon did of its own bidding, she still felt chilled to the bone at the sound of it.

Instead of releasing his pokémon immediately, Mausk stepped forward, closer to the edge of the platform. Grabbing the microphone attached to the center of the rail, Mausk stated, in a very eerily calm voice, "This is what I've been waiting to show you. I hope you'll all be…impressed." Taking out a poké ball, he held it up for a few seconds, as if admiring it himself, and threw it at the force field.

Instead of hitting it, the poké ball opened up before it reached it, but the beam of light passed through it, and a pokémon formed on the arena floor. It morphed into a tall, four legged black shape, and within seconds, a canine pokémon was standing there. Its head, adorned with large, curved horns, was lowered, and its body shook. It was a houndoom, a houndoom with red markings in contrast with Wildflame's orange. A houndoom that immediately jerked its head up, its gaze darting around the arena in terror. Snowcrystal, Nightshade, and Damian each took a horrified look as their worst fears were realized.

The houndoom was Blazefang.

Like Thunder and the serperior, Blazefang was also collarless. He looked dazed and confused, as if he didn't know where he was. However, it didn't take long for him to figure it out, and at the sight of the pyroar, he yelped and backed up toward the arena wall, his tail tucked between his legs. This prompted more angry shouts from the audience.

"What is he playing at?" some trainer near them called out. "That houndoom doesn't look like it could beat a caterpie! And against another fire type?"

"He doesn't even have a mega stone!" another cried.

"Is he kidding?" a third grumbled. "That pokémon looks too scared to move!"

Snowcrystal could easily tell that the rest of the audience felt the same way. She had no idea how they would get Blazefang out of there, and she saw Nightshade tense up, as if he was about to fly off and try to break through the arena's force field himself. Luckily, he did no such thing, but she could see him scanning the room for any sign of something that could possibly help them. However, she didn't have long to focus on that, because it wasn't more than a few seconds before the horn signaling the start of the battle went off.

With a roar, the pyroar barreled toward Blazefang, who gave a high-pitched yip and dashed along the wall of the arena, trying to circle around the enemy pokémon. However, the pyroar easily outpaced him, and, knowing his fire attacks would not be as effective, picked up speed and charged toward the dark type with a crushing take down attack.

With a panicked shout, Blazefang darted to the side, and by some small miracle, managed to get out of the way. The pyroar, however, stopped the attack, and with hardly a break in his stride, raced after the fleeing houndoom again.

Blazefang looked panicked, as if he could clearly hear the pyroar right behind him, but he didn't dare look behind as it approached. Snowcrystal watched in horror as the big cat pokémon got closer and closer, and then chomped down on Blazefang's tail.

Blazefang let out another yelp as his momentum was suddenly halted, his claws skidding uselessly on the floor as he was pulled back. He glanced over his shoulder at his long tail as if only just remembering it was there, and his eyes widened in horror as he met the pyroar's glare. Snowcrystal really feared for him, the Forbidden Attack momentarily forgotten, as she thought about what the fire attacks of a trained killer could do. Regardless of Blazefang's own type, all fire pokémon had a limit, and even if the pyroar couldn't reach Blazefang's limit with fire moves, he still had devastating teeth and claws.

Blazefang's attempts to pull himself from the pokémon's grasp were useless as he was dragged backward by the tail. His legs slipped out from under him and he crashed to the ground. The pyroar took this opportunity and released Blazefang's tail before lunging forward and sinking his claws in the houndoom's back.

The howls that Blazefang released shook Snowcrystal to the very core. The fear, pain, and hopelessness in that howl was unlike anything she had ever heard from another pokémon. It spread through the arena, seeming to prompt nothing but jeering shouts or angry cries from everyone but her and the two friends beside her.

They could only watch, helplessly, as claws tore through Blazefang's black fur. Luckily for the houndoom, the bony ridges on his back deflected the worst of the slashes, but the pyroar soon had his shoulder in his teeth, and bit down hard, causing blood to flow to the ground and Blazefang's shouts to grow more frantic and desperate. Then, in one blessed stroke of luck, Blazefang managed to pull free and limp away from his attacker.

The houndoom truly looked like a wreck; the pyroar's claws had sliced him all over his shoulders and back where his bonelike armor couldn't protect him, and the skin on one of his hind legs was badly torn. He was staggering, as if barely able to keep on his feet. He was far beyond the stage where the battle would have been considered lost in a normal trainer battle. Shadowflare had to have been triggered, but Blazefang seemed to be fighting the urge.

"Blazefang…" Snowcrystal whispered as she watched his wounded form race away from the pyroar again. "Nightshade, what do we do?"

From Nightshade's expression, he was clearly thinking the same thing she was. If something was not done, either Blazefang or countless innocents could die. Blazefang was too weak and inexperienced to pull off a stunt like Thunder had, and the pyroar was far from exhausted. "Stay here," he told her, the back of his armored shell opening to reveal his wings.

"Nightshade, wait! They could kill you!" Snowcrystal shouted, but the heracross had already flown off directly toward the arena. She knew that a pokémon who actively tried to interfere with a fight would be dealt with severely, and these humans certainly didn't value pokémon life. At worst, it could give Damian away as well.

Already, she could see trainers shouting and pointing at Nightshade, and a couple of the humans who looked like they were in charge were sending out pokémon to detain him. She knew there was no way Nightshade could find the arena's controls in time, but that did not stop him, and he instead headed toward the platform Mausk was standing on – where the trainer was gripping Blazefang's poké ball.

She saw Thunder's "Master" turn and give the heracross a furious look, reaching into his pocket – probably for a pokémon he had not entered in the battle – as the arena workers' pokémon who had been called to stop Nightshade closed in. At the rate they were moving, they would reach the heracross before he ever had a chance to take Blazefang's poké ball.

Neither Master nor the pokémon from the arena had the chance to strike Nightshade. For at that moment, everyone in the audience had noticed a sudden change come over Blazefang.

To Snowcrystal and Damian, time seemed to slow down as she watched Blazefang whirl around, facing the pyroar that was charging toward him from the other end of the arena. His eyes were closed, his body relaxed, as if he were completely at peace. But there was something strange, unnatural about it, and for the brief second she saw him like that, Snowcrystal felt as if her whole world was crumbling beneath her. She knew exactly what was about to happen.

The houndoom's eyes shot wide open. Now glowing an eerie yellowish-white, they seemed to pierce through even the light provided by the stadium lights above them. And then he fired his attack straight at the pyroar.

Snowcrystal had seen Shadowflare before, but this time, the inferno was much larger, a raging wildfire that raced through the air above the surface of the arena, causing the ground to crack from the heat. The light was so blinding that she wanted to look away, but found her eyes glued to the scene before her. The massive inferno of blue-white and purple-black flames completely engulfed the pyroar, and Snowcrystal didn't even hear a shout of pain as she saw the shadow of the lion pokémon's body jerk once before collapsing to the ground in a heap of warped flesh.

Yet Shadowflare did not stop. The flames reached the other end of the arena. Having nowhere to spread, some of the fire flickered out, but the topmost flames raced along the upper part of the wall, leaping into the air.

Snowcrystal watched as the force field suddenly revealed itself, and a high-pitched alarm-type sound went off as she watched giant holes eat through its surface, allowing the white-hot flames to catch and race up the platform toward Mausk.

Mausk, however, had sent out a talonflame the moment he'd realized something was wrong. He leapt on the pokémon's back and it took off moments before the Shadowflare flames jumped to the machine where the poké balls were transported from. The machine burst into flames, its metal coating melting from the heat, as the fire began to spread around the innermost circle of the room around the arena. It found purchase in anything flammable, namely the wires and machinery connecting the platform to the ground above the arena. Snowcrystal saw something on the other side of the platform catch fire, and the Shadowflare flames raced along a section of the ground that led to the groups of seats lining the front row.

The trainers in the stands had stared in shock for the first few seconds, many probably not even aware of what it was they were looking at. But they soon broke out in panic and scrambled from their seats, knowing that the fire was about to connect with the wooden benches of the stands. They scrambled over one another, trying to get to the exit, but it was so crowded, only those who had brought flying pokémon with them were able to leave in any sufficient frame of time. Damian had already stood up, and he grabbed the backpack where Snowcrystal was still waiting, and slung it over his shoulder as he fumbled with his belt to find his tropius's poké ball.

Nightshade, who had been forgotten by the arena workers' pokémon in the sudden confusion, attempted to shield his eyes from the strange blue smoke that was pouring from the Shadowflare flames and filling the room at an alarming rate. It stung his eyes, and he could only hope the pain was temporary, and that it wasn't causing damage that would never heal.

Nevertheless, he spotted the hazy shape that was Blazefang, standing in the midst of the billowing smoke in the arena. He dove down, his wings buzzing as rapidly as they could, picking up speed as he shot toward the houndoom's shadowed body.

As he neared the worst of the smoke, he closed his eyes, unsure what sort of damage could be done if he didn't. If he were blinded, he would never get himself or the others out of the arena room. He felt his claws meet short fur and thick, bony ridges, and he wrapped his arms around the houndoom's belly. Blazefang gave a weak, fearful cry, likely thinking Nightshade was an enemy, but it was clear that the dark type's energy was too spent to fight back. He did not struggle as Nightshade lifted him into the air.

As soon as he felt the worst of the smoke lift from him, Nightshade opened his eyes and spotted Damian and Snowcrystal down in the stands. Damian's hands were shaking so much that he was having trouble unclipping his poké ball. Nightshade flew straight for him, shifting Blazefang's weight to one arm as he reached out for the human.

As he scooped up Damian as well, knowing that he already had Snowcrystal and the backpack in his hands, he heard sudden screams as he realized that the fire had hit the wooden stands. He faltered in midair, halfway to the upper walkway where the elevator was currently being crammed with trainers desperate to escape. He suddenly jerked around and flew downwards, aiming for a few trainers who were trapped in the middle of the room, caught between the burning rows at the bottom of the stands, and the blazing edge of the arena.

"Are you crazy?" Blazefang shouted, struggling in the heracross's grasp. "You're going to get yourself killed! Take us up there! Get us out of this place now!"

Nightshade ignored him, making a beeline for the trainers. There were three of them, and as they didn't have the uniforms the workers had, Nightshade assumed that they were trainers who had been participating in the battles or had some special seat closer to the arena than the rest. While they were standing on concrete, the Shadowflare flames seemed to be building higher and higher; the heat would kill them before long. Flying high enough to clear the flames, he focused on the group of trainers before landing in the clear patch.

He momentarily released Damian, and the trainer stood upright, shielding his eyes from the smoke. They each felt as if they'd stepped into an oven, and they could tell that if they stayed any longer, the flames would be large enough and close enough to do real damage; the room was rapidly heating up already. Snowcrystal, even as a fire type, flinched in pain at the heat. Only Blazefang was unaffected.

"Fernwing, help anyone you can find!" Damian shouted, releasing his tropius, who took a look at her surroundings and cried out in terror, but nonetheless obeyed, flying over the wall of flame as Damian indicated. The young trainer turned to Nightshade. "They need all the help they can get," he explained. "You can take us all out of here...right?"

Nightshade nodded, and motioned for Damian to climb onto his back, and once he did, two of the trapped trainers had raced toward him, not seeming to care who he and Damian were. Nightshade grabbed the smaller of the two, allowing the second to climb up on his back behind Damian, where he gripped the pieces of the heracross's shell that served as wing covers, not having much else to hold on to. Nightshade winced as he aggravated the still-tender wound Thunder had left on his exposed back, but remained still.

He lowered his head toward the third one, who was running toward him from the other side of the arena, indicating that the human should climb behind his horn. He knew it wasn't an ideal solution, as there wasn't much room for any of them to hold on, but he knew he was strong enough to lift them, as long as they could get a good enough grip for the several seconds he'd need to fly up the elevator shaft.

Snowcrystal watched the wall of fire as it spread rapidly through the stands around them. She had no idea how many humans had gotten out, how many were close to the fire, or worse yet, how many had already perished. She knew the only reason the flames hadn't consumed the entire room yet was that there were sections of solid concrete between each row of stands, slowing Shadowflare down. But once it reached the elevator…she knew the deadly fire would begin to creep through the other rooms of the underground. She didn't know how far it would spread before it reached the underground's sealed doors and ran out of things to burn.

As the third trainer finally reached them, Snowcrystal suddenly realized that this was the trainer who had sent the heracross into the battle earlier. From her position at Damian's shoulder, she could see that Nightshade recognized him too, and from the look in his eyes, she was suddenly almost certain that Nightshade was just going to take off and leave him there. She could tell that her friend was no longer sure he wanted this human to be saved.

Yet, after a moment's hesitation, he lowered his horn, allowing the trainer to try to climb awkwardly behind it. Nightshade was sturdy enough to carry him, but there was simply too little room for another trainer to ride. When his attempt to find balance failed, the frightened man desperately wrapped his arms around Nightshade's horn, clinging on for dear life as the heracross lifted off the ground, this time heading straight for the elevator shaft.

As they passed the flames and emerged into more open, less heated air, Snowcrystal could now see that the majority of the trainers were crowded at the topmost part of the room, waiting for the sole elevator to return. The elevator itself was massive, but it certainly wouldn't be able to carry all of them. Fernwing was nowhere in sight; she had to be carrying trainers up to the higher floors. Looking at all the ones remaining below, Snowcrystal didn't think there was any way for them all to get out in time, and she could only see a few other flying pokémon trying to bring trainers up; most of the humans had fled and left the rest behind.

Even though these people were responsible for horrible things, she wasn't sure they deserved to be burned alive. She remembered that part of the reason they had come here in the first place was to prevent deaths by Shadowflare, even if the lives they were saving weren't exactly innocent.

She could also see that the Shadowflare flames were growing bigger. They had been quite small when they first made the leap out of the arena, but as they found more to burn, they were steadily growing to be a raging inferno. The fire was taking far less time to leap from row to row now.

Her view of the fire vanished as Nightshade darted upward toward the one exit. He zipped by Fernwing as he began to fly up the shaft, passing the massive metal frame of the elevator as it slowly, far too slowly, made its way down. He hoped Fernwing could lift several trainers at once fast enough; the tropius was bigger than he was, but not nearly as strong.

Luckily, Nightshade cleared the distance to the upper room fast, depositing Blazefang and the trainer he was carrying onto the floor. He flicked his horn, dislodging the arena heracross's trainer, who sprawled to the ground in an ungraceful heap. He then straightened himself so that the other slid off his back. Damian carefully dismounted, holding his backpack which was now halfway open, Snowcrystal's head in full view as she stared around with wide eyes. The heracross gave all three of the trainers an unusually fierce glare as they ran off down the hallway. Snowcrystal could see that he still looked a bit conflicted about saving them.

"Nightshade, we've got to get out of here," Blazefang barked, looking at the heracross with a panicked gaze. The houndoom looked frantic; he wasn't able to be hurt by Shadowflare, but he clearly wanted to leave its devastating remains behind.

"Blazefang, we came here to try to save them from Shadowflare; we can't…leave them to die," Snowcrystal replied before Nightshade could answer. She knew that Blazefang was unaware they had come for any reason other than just to retrieve him. The idea that they would want to save all those trainers from such a fate probably would strike him as very strange. The way the underground was built, strategically modified so that it was cut off from the levels above ground by large amounts of concrete and metal, the Forbidden Attack would die out before it reached the surface, much like it had out in the rocky wilderness beyond Stonedust City. Blazefang probably wouldn't understand why they would risk so much to stop Shadowflare from killing the spectators of a bloodbath, trainers who he probably thought deserved such a fate.

Blazefang looked at her with a mixture of surprise and astonishment. She expected him to protest, but instead, he gave her a pleading look and mumbled, "What do you suggest, then?"

Before anyone could speak, Fernwing reappeared, a few trainers clinging to her back and neck. She faltered, unable to fly properly while carrying so much weight, but managed to land safely beside the others to let the trainers descend from her back and flee down the hallway.

"Nightshade, you can't go back down there!" the tropius cried. "It's like a furnace! All of a sudden, half the stands were up in flames. Any second now it's going to-"

"What about the ones still down below?" he asked.

"The elevator should be big enough to carry them out…they're getting on right now. But you don't understand…we have to leave _now!_ "

"But the elevator-" Nightshade began.

"Er…if it's all the same," Blazefang interrupted, sounding uncharacteristically timid, "I'd prefer they didn't die in, uh… _that…_ "

As the houndoom continued to stutter, Nightshade turned his attention to the cables that were pulling the elevator up to their floor. They were attached to a massive pulley that he could see resting on a ledge jutting from the wall above them, forming a partial upper story above the main floor of the hallway.

Flying up to it, Nightshade gripped the pulley in his claws, using his strength to try to rotate it faster and bring the elevator up to the higher floor at a quicker pace. He knew it was only a matter of time before the Shadowflare flames reached the machinery at the bottom of the shaft and either set the elevator ablaze or sent the whole thing crashing down.

He was surprised when he was suddenly joined by other flying pokémon – a pidgeot, a staraptor, a charizard, a salamence, and a braviary – pokémon he didn't even recognize. Whether they were here on orders from their trainers or of their own accord, he didn't know, but he was grateful for the help regardless, especially in a place where he expected the pokémon spectators to be as cruel as their trainers.

"See if you can fly beneath the elevator and push it up," he told them. "Fall back if the heat is too much!" He watched as the pokémon nodded, and vanished down the shaft.

Damian, Snowcrystal, and Blazefang watched anxiously, their instincts screaming at them to run as smoke began to trail up from the massive room below. But like the flying pokémon, they held their ground. The other trainers had all fled down the hallway into the larger room where the betting booth was, but the flying pokémon remained there. Even Fernwing, despite her terror, had vanished down the space that served as the elevator shaft with the other winged pokémon.

Nightshade gave the pulley another push, straining against the weight of the elevator machinery. He could tell that the entire thing had malfunctioned and come to a stop, and it was only himself and the flying pokémon pushing the elevator upward now. Despite how many pokémon had joined in to help, he knew that pushing such a massive frame of metal crammed with countless trainers was still a tremendous feat of strength for all of them.

Snowcrystal and Damian watched as the elevator climbed upward, much faster than it had previously; Nightshade and the flying pokémon were doing their job. Within seconds, the elevator had climbed high enough for the trainers on the side of the platform facing the hallway to leap up, grab the upper floor's edge and haul themselves out.

As soon as the elevator was level with the floor, the remaining trainers raced out into the hallway, many of them leaping over the rails of the elevator instead of using the usual entrance space. As soon as they had all fled, the flying pokémon abandoned the platform and quickly swerved through the space in the shaft not occupied by the elevator. All of them, save for Fernwing, flew off down the hallway toward freedom.

"You can let go!" Snowcrystal called to Nightshade, who released the pulley and allowed the elevator to drop a few feet before it came to a sudden stop and held still.

"Fernwing, return!" Damian cried, and a red light enveloped the tropius, bringing her back inside her poké ball. He knew that there would be little space for a large flying type to maneuver in some of the smaller hallways.

Nightshade flew back down to them as they began to back away from the elevator shaft, already feeling the heat climbing at an alarming rate. Damian chanced a look downward, seeing that flames had enveloped the machinery near the bottom of the elevator, and were steadily climbing up anything they could find to burn. He was sure that the only reason the whole place hadn't gone up in flames yet was because Shadowflare had been slowed down by having to leap from row to row in the arena stands. Now, however, it was probably a raging inferno, and even if the main flames were contained, he didn't want to see what would happen to the rest of the place as smaller fires began to spread.

"Are any of the humans still down there?" Blazefang asked, his voice still sounding terrified.

"If they are, there's nothing we can do for them now," Snowcrystal replied grimly.

"Let's get out of here," Damian muttered, unable to understand what the pokémon were talking about. He secured the backpack containing Snowcrystal tighter around his shoulders before he, Nightshade, and Blazefang took off.

It was immediately apparent that Blazefang was having trouble. He was limping badly, gasping for breath as he tried to keep up. One of his hind legs as well as his shoulder were badly wounded. Damian turned to him, concern making him instantly reach for an empty poké ball.

However, he quickly remembered that Blazefang technically belonged to Mausk; he couldn't catch a pokémon who was already caught, even if he was separated from his trainer.

"Slow down," the houndoom gasped, his breaths coming in labored wheezes. "I can't keep up." He was shaking, and looked as if he could pass out at any minute.

"No need for that," Nightshade interjected, lifting the houndoom over his shoulders and ignoring any protest Blazefang made before hurrying after Damian.

They soon emerged into the large room which contained the betting booth. To their surprise, there were still a few trainers there. A few were arguing on the side of the massive room that contained the three stories of doors – presumably leading to the fighting pokémon – and several were rummaging around in the betting booth, heedless of the danger that could be heading their way. Damian stared at them in shock. There were primitive, open electrical wires wiring the lights together in all the hallways and rooms, and he was sure that was all a Forbidden Attack would need. It would stop at the sealed exits, but no one was safe inside.

Snowcrystal noticed that the humans paid Damian no heed as he shouted to them, though after a few moments the arguing ones seemed to have settled their dispute and ran out. The ones trying to loot the betting booth merely shouted back angrily, but seemed aware enough of the danger and the risk they were taking.

Seeing there was no convincing them, Damian and Nightshade, carrying the canine pokémon with them, headed toward the stairs that clung to the wall and led to the first level of doors. Upon reaching the first door, Damian gripped the handle, only to realize with dismay that it was locked. A panel next to the door had a device that was clearly meant to read a card, along with a keypad of numbers.

"Uh…" he muttered, turning his head and gazing all around the massive room. "We need someone with a key, or someone who knows the code…but we've gotta-"

With one powerful swing of his horn, Nightshade knocked the door clear off its hinges, sending it clattering to the ground and leaving the way clear.

"Or use a pokémon," Damian continued as they raced through the doorway.

The room was full of large, cube-shaped containers. They looked almost completely clear, but Damian knew that the force fields blocking them were far stronger than they looked. To his relief, there seemed to be no guards in the room anymore; they must have fled when they heard about the fire.

Yet there were no pokémon either.

All of the cages were empty, many of them not even having an active force field at all. The room was eerily silent, driving that fact home even more.

"We've gotta get to the upper floor," Damian stated, making a beeline for a set of stairs positioned on a wall opposite of them, Nightshade obediently following. "Maybe there are some pokémon up there!"

After clambering up the second set of stairs, they were met with another empty room. Going up to the third floor, however, brought them close to the fearful cries of panicked pokémon.

Around half of the cages were full on this floor. Pokémon were pacing back and forth, aware that something was wrong but unable to escape. They could hear human voices as well, but they were coming from the direction of the doors leading out of the room, and they were fading away.

"They're abandoning them," Nightshade whispered, as the sound of the trainers grew more and more distant.

"Their trainers?" Blazefang responded, shocked.

"The guards…the ones who can open the cages," the heracross responded.

"Well, break them open, then, oh mighty fighting type," the houndoom said tensely.

In response, Blazefang was placed rather unceremoniously on the ground, and Nightshade opened his back shell and spread his wings, heading for a cage that held a scared-looking blastoise. Picking up speed, he rammed into the force field. The impact knocked him backward, causing him to wince in pain as shockwaves ricocheted through his horn and down into his body. He hovered in the air, shaking his head to clear the momentary dizziness that accompanied it, and stared at the force field ahead of him, which remained completely undamaged. "I thought so…" he growled.

As Damian caught up with him, Snowcrystal wriggled her way out of the backpack and leaped to the ground, running until she stood beneath the heracross. "Well, there's the control panel," she said, pointing to a small square made up of buttons positioned at human height on one half of the force field. "Let Damian get a look at it. He could figure it out."

Blazefang and Damian reached them, the houndoom taking more time as he trailed behind. Damian watched Snowcrystal motion up toward the buttons, and shook his head.

"I don't know the code," he said desperately.

With a growl, Blazefang reared up on his hind legs and, using what little strength he had, rammed his curved horns into the device as hard as he could. A few sparks littered the ground, and when he stepped back, several of the buttons were crushed, but the force field did not weaken or change.

"That won't do any good. What we need to stop is the power source…" Damian stated.

"And if it's not on this floor, we won't have time to find it," Blazefang growled, despite knowing the human couldn't understand him.

"Well, we've got to try," Snowcrystal interjected. "No one's paying any attention to us; we could split up!" She took off running down another line of cages. "Let's find a pokémon who knows something!"

"Hey, Snowcrystal! Wait!" Blazefang called, a clear message of concern behind his frantic words. "You can't just-"

Snowcrystal didn't hear what he had to say next. She had stopped dead in her tracks, realizing that the force field several cages down the row contained a scyther. Turning her head, she cried, "Thunder! It's Thunder! Over here!"

The other three came running; this time Blazefang wasn't complaining when Nightshade lifted him up to carry him. The white growlithe sped toward the cage containing the scyther, desperation spurring her onward. Thunder had done some horrible things in the past, yes, but she had also done great ones. And Snowcrystal refused to let any pokémon die such a horrible death if she could help it.

However, when they reached the cage, it was clear they'd been mistaken. This scyther wasn't Thunder at all. For one, it was male. For two, it was missing an arm. That wasn't what surprised Snowcrystal the most. What surprised her was that she recognized him.

" _Darkfang?_ " She asked incredulously.

Darkfang, a scyther they'd met shortly before reaching Articuno's mountain, the pokémon who had told them that Articuno had flown there in the first place, was trapped in one of the cages along with the other pokémon. He looked even worse than Blazefang did, with various wounds all over his body, and Snowcrystal realized that he had to have been in the arenas too.

"Growlithe…" the scyther said weakly from behind the force field, turning to Snowcrystal. "I recognize you, growlithe…"

"It's me, Snowcrystal," she began, suddenly not sure if Darkfang would remember any of their names in his state. "My friends…Nightshade and Blazefang are here. Do you know how to open the cages?"

"Friends…" Darkfang began, seeming as if he was totally lost in thought, or even half asleep. He swayed a little, his gaze focused on nothing at all. Snowcrystal wondered if he'd had some sort of head injury, or was merely so weak he was close to passing out. "The swarm…" he continued. "How long ago was it…before the battles…it couldn't have been that long. I need to stay and train the pokémon who are going into the arena. I need to stay here in this cage so they can practice on me before he sends them out…even the other scyther…"

In the midst of his ramblings, Snowcrystal noticed two things. One was that Darkfang must have been taken from his swarm, probably sometime soon after they'd left it, and possibly with some of the other swarm scyther too. He hadn't been taken to this place to battle in the arena. His purpose was to be nothing more than a punching bag for stronger pokémon, as Redclaw once was. The underground arena probably had a practice room somewhere, and this room served to hold the pokémon used as target practice for the stronger ones as well. The second thing she noticed was that the trainer that had captured him was very likely Nathaniel Mausk.

"The other scyther…" she said, pressing her paws against the force field. "What was her name? Where is she? Is she here? Was her name Thunder?"

"Thunder? Yes, I think that was her name…" Darkfang continued on, retaining his listless gaze.

"Snowcrystal, look!" Blazefang's voice interrupted, and she looked to see him and Damian pointing toward a cage behind a row of others that she could barely see. "We found her!"

She turned around followed Nightshade, who had headed in the same direction, toward her friends, but not before turning back to the one-armed scyther and whispering, "We'll be back."

They wound their way around multiple cages before coming to the one containing the female scyther. Thunder was backed up in the far side of her cage, her blades raised at Damian and Blazefang. She didn't seem to recognize the houndoom, and Snowcrystal realized with a sinking feeling that Thunder had never even met Damian; she would have no reason to trust him.

"Thunder!" Snowcrystal shouted, skidding to a halt in front of her cage. "Thunder, you have to listen to us! You have to trust this human." She motioned toward Damian. "But we need your help. Do you know what powers the cages? How we can shut it down? There's a fire coming and-"

Thunder, however, was looking straight past her at Nightshade as the heracross landed in front of the cage. Her gaze took in his bandages and her eyes widened. However, it was only for a second before she looked to Snowcrystal again after her gaze briefly flicked back to Damian. "Past this row of cages. There's a generator. An electric pokémon could probably destroy it but there's always guards."

"Not anymore there isn't," Nightshade assured her, and turned to Damian, pointing in the direction Thunder had indicated.

Getting the point, Damian released Todd and Scytheclaw, who looked around in confusion. "Head over there!" he shouted, pointing down the row of cages. "Find a generator and shut it down. Hurry, there's a fire."

The eyes of both pokémon widened, but they didn't waste time trying to question their trainer. Scytheclaw sped off toward the other end of the room, the elekid following him. Snowcrystal, Blazefang, Nightshade, and Damian remained.

Blazefang backed uneasily away from the cage. "I'm not sure we should let her out…" he muttered.

The others ignored him. Damian, sensing that Thunder was uncomfortable with his presence, backed up to stand beside Blazefang. Snowcrystal could see that Thunder was far less intimidated by Damian once she got a good look at him, or she was simply so desperate to get out that she didn't care. The scyther turned her attention back to Nightshade.

"Nightshade," she asked, her voice sounding demanding but beneath that, somewhat scared. "Is…Stormblade still alive?"

Nightshade nodded his head. "Yes."

Thunder was silent for a moment, her expression leading Snowcrystal to believe that she didn't quite know what to think of that. She looked conflicted, and Snowcrystal suspected there was more than just Stormblade on her mind. Then, Thunder looked Nightshade straight in the eyes, looking as if she wanted to tell him something. But a moment later, she turned away, shaking her head.

Before anyone could say anything else, the force field comprising Thunder's cage suddenly vanished. Snowcrystal turned around in time to see all the force fields on the cages shutting off, the pokémon immediately fleeing their prisons. Thunder was no exception. She darted out of the cage area, glancing left and right as she tried to find the nearest exit.

"That way!" Nightshade cried, pointing toward the stairwell leading down to the room below. "Go down both stories and head away from the arena! Find a way out!"

Thunder ran off before any of them could even see her reaction. Only moments afterward, Todd and Scytheclaw reappeared, looking startled.

"I heard shouting," Scytheclaw told the pokémon uneasily. "I think the fire's spread to other rooms. We've got to get out of here."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Blazefang muttered.

The scizor shot a glare at him. " _You!_ You're the reason we're trapped in this-"

"Scytheclaw, stop!" Damian cried, stepping between the two pokémon. He took out a poké ball, aiming it at his elekid. "Todd, return!" The electric type vanished in a beam of light, and Damian replaced the poké ball on his belt. "Scytheclaw, stay out here with us," he instructed. "We might need…"

His voice trailed off as he caught sight of something moving further down the row of cages, many yards from where they stood. As it stepped into view, he could see that it wasn't a pokémon, but a trainer. A trainer he recognized as Nathaniel Mausk.

"…Protection…"

_To be continued…_


	58. Underground Hell

Damian and the four pokémon stared in horror as Nathaniel Mausk stepped closer. He had a talonflame by his side, and the fearsome sight of the pokémon made both Scytheclaw and Nightshade's eyes grow wide with horror. Suddenly neither bug type pokémon looked eager to fight, a sight that only served to drive home what a dire situation they were in. That talonflame was a trained killer. A pokémon that was part bug and steel, and another that was bug and fighting, did not stand a chance. The normally brave Nightshade and the normally rash Scytheclaw were both taking large steps backward.

Blazefang whimpered and began to back away as well. "Nightshade! Scytheclaw! He…he has my poké ball," he whispered. "Don't let him come near me!"

Mausk stepped closer, his gigantic scarred bird by his side. He showed none of the fear that the other trainers had of the fire, and they knew it was not due to ignorance. Mausk knew the underground well, and he had a fast and capable flying type; he knew he could make an escape at any time, and he was not going to fall to panic like the rest of the trainers.

"Well, boy," Mausk's deceptively calm voice came to him from across the room. "What happened to the generator? Where is my scyther? My training pokémon? Hm?" He took a few steps closer. Although little distance was closed and he still stood fairly far away, Damian and the pokémon quailed.

"Look," Damian stated, doing a horrible job of concealing his fear. "There's a fire. We need to get out-"

"I know that very well," Mausk's dangerous voice responded. "We've got time."

"N-no, you don't understand," Damian stuttered, now backing up along with the pokémon.

"I understand perfectly," Mausk replied, still moving closer. "You see…" Suddenly, his features became less calm and relaxed, an expression of disbelief that soon turned to anger replacing his previously composed look. He looked Damian in the eyes, and Snowcrystal could tell that, now that Mausk was close enough to see clearly in the dim lighting of the room….

…He could recognize him.

Mausk's eyes narrowed. All false politeness was gone from his voice as he stared Damian down, snarling, " _You._ "

Damian backed up, and Snowcrystal knew that he was thinking about the time he'd faced this man before. When they were still out in the wilderness, he had rescued Snowcrystal from his clutches, stopping Mausk from capturing her. She knew it had infuriated the man greatly, especially since a white growlithe would fetch a lot of money, and she suddenly feared for their lives. She was glad that at least Mausk didn't seem to recognize her with the orange fur dye, or simply wasn't paying attention.

But he knew Damian. And not only did he know that Damian had stolen Snowcrystal, he could also see that he'd just set at least two of his pokémon loose, and that the houndoom who'd destroyed the arena was standing right beside him. With the trouble Damian had caused, and from what they knew of Mausk, Snowcrystal knew that he probably wouldn't need much of an excuse to kill him. She doubted he would even feel any remorse, or see Damian as anything other than an annoying pest to get rid of.

Mausk raised his hand and pointed straight to Damian. "Firestorm, attack."

With a screech, the talonflame launched itself at the group with startling speed. Damian and the four pokémon had no choice but to flee around one of the cage structures. However, without the force fields, they only had one solid wall – the others now just empty space – and it would offer little protection.

"Scytheclaw, Nightshade, do something!" Blazefang shouted as they raced across the gap between rows to the next line of cages. The houndoom, in spite of his wounds, had found strength through pure adrenaline, and Snowcrystal was relieved, realizing that that most of the wounds probably weren't too deep or damaging, as nasty as they looked.

"Are you crazy?" Scytheclaw shot back. He was interrupted as a blast of wind from a flying attack launched in their direction, causing him to have to scoop both Snowcrystal and Blazefang out of the way. "I'm a _scizor!_ I don't want to get melted today!"

They ducked behind another cage wall, and it was then that Damian noticed that the talonflame, despite being airborne, had to maneuver around the cages as well. Each cage, without the force field, was comprised of a single wall and a roof. It was within that "box" area that the force field was formed. The other two corners had thick metal bars reaching to the ground, also providing an obstacle. The roof of each cage was high enough, and the ceiling low enough, that the talonflame had no room to fly above the cages without being considerably slowed down or risking crashing into them. He had to resort to dodging around them. Taking a quick note of the number of cages in the room, Damian had an idea.

As they ran to the next wall they would use as a shield, Damian grabbed a poké ball, giving it a worried glance before releasing Fernwing, his tropius. "Fernwing!" he hissed between clenched teeth, already having to run again as a screech sounded behind him. "Distract it! Just…don't…get…hit!"

The tropius didn't even need Damian to finish his sentence; she had shot off toward the talonflame, startling the bird pokémon and swerving around a wall toward another group of cages at the last second. Distracted, the talonflame sped after her, screeching a war cry. Damian bit his lip, hoping with all his might that he hadn't just sent his tropius to her death. He knew that none of his pokémon stood a chance against one of Master's trained killers. Fernwing's only chance was to out-maneuver the talonflame. If she couldn't, he and the rest of his pokémon, along with his wild pokémon friends, would all be killed.

"Nightshade, carry him!" he shouted, motioning to Blazefang.

The heracross nodded in response and grabbed the houndoom, scooping up Snowcrystal in his free arm as he did so. Then he, Scytheclaw and Damian spotted the stairwell leading to the two lower stories, and bolted toward it.

Damian frantically wished he could have Arien teleport them, even if the psychic type could only manage a short distance. However, he knew that even if there _weren't_ devices or psychic pokémon powers in use blocking such abilities, there was no way Arien would be able to teleport him, Blazefang, Snowcrystal, and Nightshade all at once. It would simply take too much energy, more energy than the alakazam had. And it wasn't like Damian had the time to try to stop and catch Snowcrystal and Nightshade to send them to the PC system; even just getting out spare poké balls would waste valuable seconds. Gritting his teeth, he kept running.

  
**-ooo-**  


Fernwing glanced behind her at the talonflame. He was always right on her tail, but always a moment too late. Even though each of the cages only had one wall, the walls were arranged in a different place in each row. Fernwing could see the pattern, and a look of determination etched across her features as she planned exactly what to do. She also took note of the poles on the corners of the cages that didn't have a wall attached; those could be used to her advantage too.

She could hear the talonflame's frustrated cries behind her, its screeches filled with the desire to rend and tear, to sear and slash. Yet, like her, he had to work around the cages instead of pursuing with a normal flight pattern, and Fernwing had spent her entire wild life learning to fly through thick jungle. The talonflame obviously had no such experience.

Fernwing knew that her species was large and bulky-looking, which was why she always found amusement in surprising others with her grace and agility. Maybe she was a bit slow or clumsy on _land,_ but in the air, she was in her element, and the confined spaces provided by the bars and walls of the cages almost felt like home when she pictured them as tree trunks and thick vines.

Fernwing twisted and turned, darting from row to row and turning at the last second in front of a wall or series of poles. More than once, she heard a frustrated cry as the talonflame smacked his wing into one or grazed his side on a wall.

She knew that once Damian and the others reached the stairs, they would be safer for a short while, or at least have a head start. From what she could see of the stairs from brief glances, there was no way there was room for a talonflame to fly after them. Yet if she tucked her wings in at the right moment, she was sure she could maneuver her body enough to slip through the stairwell and onto the second story, where she'd meet up with the others. It would be a tight squeeze, but she'd preformed such feats back in her old jungle home.

She couldn't catch sight of the others, but she knew they would probably be entering the stairwell soon. She continued to swerve around the cages, using the one wall each of them had as a shield whenever an attack was fired. She calculated it, always making sure that the talonflame would end up running into a wall when he tried to get to her using the quickest route. When he avoided that and attempted to catch up with her in a roundabout way, Fernwing only put more distance between them. The more she flew, the more she felt confidence surging through her. Maybe she couldn't match this flying type in combat, but she could do _this_.

Briefly glancing over her shoulder, she called back, "Never tried an obstacle course, have you?" She heard the talonflame give a wordless screech of fury. "Used to having a clear shot at the pokémon you're trying to kill? Well try this!"

Tucking her wings to her sides, the tropius dove down low to the floor. She spun around a group of cages and banked just before she struck a cage wall, turning her body upwards so that her belly faced the ceiling and she shot over the astonished talonflame's head. She heard a satisfied clang as he struck the wall, not having seen it until too late as Fernwing's body had been blocking it from view.

In a flurry of angry feathers, the bird pokémon kicked off the wall and zoomed after her, but Fernwing had already darted further into the maze of her own making. With the way she used the walls to her advantage, there was no way the talonflame was going to get a clear shot at her from a distance. He was forced to stay behind her, which was exactly where she wanted him.

A sudden shout from somewhere to her left distracted her, and with a look of horror, she realized that the talonflame was no longer alone; a dragonite and a houndoom – one much more frightening looking than Blazefang – were racing toward the stairs where she presumed the group had gone.

Abandoning the talonflame mission, she sped up, passing over the heads of Mausk's other two pokémon and flattening her wings tightly to her body as she neared the open door leading to the stairs.

She felt the blast of some sort of attack pound the wall over her head as she shot through the opening, twisting her body so that she could shoot past the stairs and into the door leading to the second story. However, she miscalculated, and her side bumped painfully against the wall, scraping one of her wings. She winced, but her momentum allowed her to move through the narrow passage and burst out of the doorway into the second story of the pokémon cage rooms.

"Damian!" she cried, picking up speed as she spotted the fleeing trainer and pokémon. They were heading toward the next stairwell, which was located along the same wall as the one they'd come down from, but on the other side of the room. "There's more coming!"

She realized a second after she'd shouted that Damian wouldn't have a clue what she was saying without Arien, but he seemed to understand her warning well enough.

"Damian, I need help!" Fernwing cried again, knowing the two pokémon upstairs would find their way down at any moment.

Hearing her desperation, Damian grabbed another poké ball, releasing his absol. "Dusk, help Fernwing distract them!"

Dusk shot a glance at Fernwing, who nodded to him. "Don't worry," the tropius assured him. "I know what to do. Follow my lead."

"All right," the absol replied with a grim nod. Turning to his trainer and the pokémon, he shouted, "Get going! Now!"

After a moment of hesitation from Damian, the group turned and raced toward the doorway, leaving the absol and tropius to put whatever Fernwing's plan was into motion. They shot down the staircase leading back to the first story. They emerged into yet another room filled with empty cages, and Damian quickly spotted one of the doors that would take them back to the big room that contained the betting booth. "There," he rasped, pointing across the room at the door, and he and the pokémon raced toward it, Nightshade still carrying the houndoom and growlithe.

They didn't get halfway there before the door that would have served as their exit was torn away by thick, muscled arms. Damian, Scytheclaw, and Nightshade came to a panicked halt as a machamp, clearly belonging to Mausk, forced his way through the opening. His bulky body was riddled with massive scars, and he wore no collar, no weak spot for them to hit should they be left with no other choice.

There was no sign of Mausk or any of his other pokémon, but each of them knew that Mausk was familiar with the building and they were not. The machamp had probably been sent out almost as soon as the talonflame had, but instead of following them, the pokémon had located the doors leading to the metal platforms in the betting booth room. Those platforms connected the three stories from that one room, but the stairwells only connected the cage rooms to the floor immediately above or below, with no quick way to access the next set of stairs. It would have been easy for the fighting type to cut them off.

The muscular pokémon was dragging something behind him. As he stepped into the room, he lifted it up.

It was Darkfang. The group could only stare in horror at the sight. Darkfang's one remaining arm had been torn from his body, the blade embedded so deeply in his chest that it stuck out the other side. Even in death, the scyther's eyes looked wide and terrified.

"Look what tried to stop me," the machamp said with a manic grin. "This a friend of yours?" He shook the body as he advanced, causing Damian and the pokémon to scramble backwards in shock. "Well, _is it?_ "

Having nowhere else to run, as the machamp was between them and the doors leading to the betting booth room, they had no choice but to flee back toward the stairs they had come down from. Nightshade and Scytheclaw fell back, letting the trainer run ahead of them, and the heracross set Blazefang and Snowcrystal down, urging them to follow Damian. This way, he and Scytheclaw would bring up the rear, placing themselves between the weaker members of the group and the grinning monster behind them.

Snowcrystal glanced over her shoulder at the bug types as they kept pace behind her, Blazefang, and Damian. She could see the machamp steadily walking toward them after throwing Darkfang's carcass onto the ground, but for some reason she couldn't guess, he wasn't chasing them down. Hearing a shout, she flicked her gaze back toward the way ahead, where Damian had nearly reached the stairs.

"Everyone!" he cried. "We need to meet up with Fernwing and Dusk. From there we can-"

He broke off suddenly, just as he'd reached the stairwell and set his foot on the first step. Snowcrystal and Blazefang came to a halt several yards behind the human as they clearly saw what had caused his hesitation.

Mausk himself was standing in the stairway.

For a split second, Snowcrystal saw Mausk lock eyes with Damian, who she knew probably looked horrified. And then, before Damian could move, before she or the other pokémon could intervene, Mausk reached into his coat, pulled out an object she recognized as a gun, and shot Damian point-blank in the chest.

She vaguely registered Scytheclaw shouting something from somewhere behind; her eyes were on Damian. She hadn't even seen the bullet go through his body, but the enlarging red spot on the back of his vest told her all she needed to know.

Damian faltered a bit before he stumbled backward from the stairwell, hitting the floor with a loud thud. She saw his eyes roll into the back of his head and his limbs jerk once before he went limp.

As the pokémon stood, momentarily frozen in shock, Mausk returned the gun to his pocket before turning around and climbing back up the stairwell he'd appeared from. "Finish them," he stated simply, obviously addressing his machamp, but speaking as casually as if he were commenting about the weather.

As Mausk vanished, Scytheclaw gave a strangled cry as he raced to the limp form of his trainer. "Damian! Damian, wake up! Wake up!"

Hearing a battle cry, Nightshade tore his gaze from the scene as the machamp thundered toward them, all four of his arms outstretched and ready to pummel and tear anything in his path. Whirling around, the heracross charged toward the new foe, pointing his horn downward as he did so.

As the two fighting types collided, Scytheclaw reached Damian's side. Snowcrystal ran toward him as well, knowing that if she tried to interfere with the machamp and Nightshade's battle, she could either be crushed, or she could hit the heracross with a fire move. She looked at Blazefang, who was crouching low to the floor, frozen in terror. Considering the circumstances, she couldn't blame him, especially as he was worse off than either she or Scytheclaw.

"He can't be dead…" she heard Scytheclaw whisper desperately. "I have to use the attack, the healing attack…"

She watched the scizor tearing part of Damian's vest to get a good look at the wound. Running up to Damian's face, she froze at the sight of him. He looked so pale and still that for a moment she wasn't sure if he was dead, if Scytheclaw was going to waste energy trying to use his power when it was too late. But then she realized she could see him breathing, faint and shallowly, but breathing all the same. "He's unconscious," she told the scizor.

Scytheclaw stared at his trainer in pure terror. "The bullet…" he murmured. "Have to get it out before I close the wound…" He glanced toward his large pincers and a look of horror crossed his face as he realized how useless they would be for such a thing.

Snowcrystal didn't understand why Scytheclaw would think being a scyther would be any better in this situation, but she could tell he wasn't thinking rationally. "Scytheclaw! The bullet's not inside him! There's blood seeping out his back!" She saw Scytheclaw glance down to the puddle forming beneath Damian. "Heal him! Now!"

Scytheclaw gave her a panicked look before he nodded, leaning over his trainer as he narrowed his eyes in concentration. To her surprise, there was no visible indication that Scytheclaw was using his power, no glow, no sound, no change coming over the scizor at all. From what Scytheclaw had told them about his attack, she knew that healing wounds was extremely painful for him. She hoped he would be able to concentrate enough to get the job done, and that no real damage would come to him.

"You and Blazefang," Scytheclaw said through gritted teeth. "Watch them!" He angled his head toward Nightshade and the machamp before turning his attention to Damian again, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Snowcrystal had no idea what Scytheclaw expected them to do if the battle came too close, but she did as she was told and turned around, placing her small body protectively in front of Damian and the scizor. Immediately she could see that Nightshade was in trouble. The heracross was one of the strongest pokémon in their group, but it was clear from the start that Mausk's machamp was more than a match for him.

With lighting-fast movements, the machamp pummeled his four fists into the heracross's body. At first, it seemed to have little effect on the fighting type bug pokémon, but after several blows, she could see that Nightshade looked dizzy, his gaze unfocused as he tried to stagger out of range, one of his eyes half-closed from pain.

This machamp was no ordinary pokémon. This was not a pokémon who competed in normal trainer battles, who knew how to restrain himself before he severely hurt or killed his opponent. This was a pokémon who had been one of the few to survive Mausk's training methods. This was a pokémon with power strong enough to kill even another fighting type with his attacks. Nightshade was doing his best to fight back, but every attempt left him on the wrong end of a brutal beat-down. Though most of the damage to the heracross wasn't readily visible beneath his armored shell, Nightshade's movements gave away the fact that he was hurt – and in real danger. She wanted to run and help him, but she knew that if she did, she would be killed.

A painful shout from Scytheclaw distracted her, and she turned to the scizor, still crouched above the prone form of his trainer and his only friend. The scizor's eyes were wild with pain and terror. His gaze was focused on Damian, who still lay unmoving, the pool of blood beneath him steadily growing. Snowcrystal realized with a terrible dread that either Scytheclaw's power wasn't working, or it simply took far too much time and energy to heal a serious wound…time that Damian didn't have.

"Keep trying!" she shouted to Scytheclaw, coming up beside the scizor and pressing herself against his side for comfort. She knew that Scytheclaw normally would not appreciate such a gesture, but he did not protest this time, and focused harder, his breathing becoming more and more rapid. "You can do it!" she told him. "Just focus!"

To her surprise, the scizor didn't snap at her, but just nodded to her once, his breathing beginning to calm a little. She moved closer to him, feeling his body shake with the pain she knew he was feeling as his Forbidden Attack – or whatever it was – was set in motion. She stared at Damian's chest, her eyes widening in fear when she realized that Scytheclaw's efforts still didn't seem to be helping, or even slowing down the blood flow, despite the fact that the scizor was obviously gripped by pain from using the healing move.

From somewhere a few yards away, she heard Blazefang shout in terror. As she looked toward the injured houndoom, she suddenly felt Scytheclaw's body torn away from her side. She jumped back in terror as she stared at the large form of the machamp, standing over her with Scytheclaw's neck in one of his fists. Scrambling backward, she looked around for Nightshade, and saw the beaten heracross several yards away, staggering weakly on all fours as blood trickled from his mouth.

"This who you were trying to protect?" the machamp shouted into the room with a booming voice, swinging the scizor in Nightshade's direction before tightening his grip on the steel type's neck. Scytheclaw's life would have ended right then and there if the scizor hadn't brought his pincer up to the fighting type's jaw at the right moment. Taken off guard, the pokémon stumbled backward from Damian's body, and the scizor broke free of his grasp.

But only for a moment. With a mighty swing of two of his other arms, the machamp grabbed Scytheclaw's arms, jerking the scizor back toward him before lifting him up and slamming him into the ground.

Scytheclaw's armor was even stronger than Nightshade's, but the blow still left him reeling. The machamp lifted his foot and slammed it down on the scizor's head twice, stunning him. Then he reached down and gripped Scytheclaw by the neck again, heaving him upright.

"No…no, please…" Scytheclaw wheezed, his pincers weakly gripping the machamp's arm. The fighting type didn't even seem to notice as the sharp edges cut into his flesh. Scytheclaw seemed too weak to do anything more; even such a short time of using his healing power had sapped a huge portion of his strength, despite the fact that Damian was still lying bleeding on the ground and looking no better than before. "Please don't…"

The machamp ignored him, grinning as he hissed, "Let's see how strong steel pokémon really are." He gripped the scizor's head and forced it to the side. Scytheclaw shrieked in pain.

Snowcrystal let loose a flame wheel attack, knowing that some of it was likely to hit Scytheclaw, but having no other option. To her shock, the machamp barely even registered the burns, and responded by slamming his foot into her side, which sent her tumbling head over heels.

She crashed painfully against the floor, her head spinning. She noticed Blazefang approach her, the frightened look still plastered over his face as he nudged her to her feet.

"Are…you okay?" he asked.

"I…I don't know," she admitted, feeling her body sear with pain. "But Blazefang! Stay back!"

Blazefang looked confused for a moment, before what Snowcrystal meant finally set in. "If I use Shadowflare…"

"We'll all die!" Snowcrystal cried. "Please…stay back…"

The houndoom nodded and backed off, and Snowcrystal, fighting the dizziness, staggered toward the struggling scizor and his attacker. Scytheclaw was gripping the arm that held his neck, clamping as tightly as he could with his razor-sharp pincers. However, his strength just wasn't there, and it didn't do enough damage to force his attacker to release him. With a jolt, she realized that Scytheclaw was likely mere seconds away from death, and if that was true, not only would he be killed, but Damian would bleed out as well. And she couldn't watch either of them die. Taking a deep breath to try to clear her muddled senses, she hurled herself toward the fray.

Yet someone else got there before she did.

With the force of a steamroller, Nightshade hurled himself at the machamp, ramming his horn into the pokémon's side and knocking him off balance. The large four-armed pokémon staggered backwards, but didn't lose his grip on Scytheclaw. He glared at Nightshade, but instead of charging toward him, he tightened his grip on Scytheclaw's neck again. He grinned at Nightshade as he tried to force the scizor's head to the side enough to break the armor around his neck, while his two free arms readied to fight the heracross once he tried to attack.

Nightshade staggered forward, his eyes narrowed. In normal situations, he would prefer that fights were fair. However, there was absolutely nothing fair about this fight, or what the machamp was trying to do to kill the currently weak and helpless scizor. He charged in a straight line, anticipating the machamp's movements, and as the two arms came toward him for a punch, Nightshade ducked beneath them at the last moment before lifting his head up and ramming his pronged horn right between the machamp's legs.

With a howl of agony, Mausk's pokémon dropped Scytheclaw like he was a hot coal. The scizor crashed to the ground, groaning as he reached toward his neck. Nightshade stood protectively in front of him as the machamp floundered into the wall containing the stairwell, smashed a fist into it so hard that the concrete cracked, and then charged toward the heracross again.

Nightshade stepped away from Scytheclaw and the others, not wanting them to get caught in the crossfire, as the machamp collided with him. Nightshade had no chance for a similar shot; the machamp wouldn't fall for that trick twice. Lowering his horn toward his foe, Nightshade attempted to push him back, fighting through the pain of the blows the machamp was landing on his back. He managed to push through the attacks enough to get a grip on the fighting type's waist and lift him off his feet.

Machamp were powerful pokémon, and Mausk's certainly had stronger typed attacks, but no machamp could match a heracross in pure physical strength. Gritting his teeth as pain seared through his wounded body, Nightshade hurled the machamp at the wall, hearing a loud crash as the pokémon collided with it.

Gasping painfully, Scytheclaw dragged himself back to Damian's side. His trainer looked pale, lifeless…the sight made Scytheclaw's breath catch in his throat.

"Scytheclaw, hurry!" Snowcrystal urged, and he turned to see the growlithe looking at him with concern. "You have to keep trying…"

The enraged cry of the machamp stole both of their attention as the fighting ring pokémon stood up again. He was currently facing Nightshade, but Scytheclaw knew that he could go for one of them at any moment. This pokémon seemed to enjoy killing pokémon in front of their companions, like he had tried to do with him and Nightshade. "Snowcrystal…" he gasped, surprised at how horribly weak his voice sounded. "Arien…get Arien's poké ball."

Snowcrystal nodded as Scytheclaw began the process of using his healing move again. She nudged aside part of Damian's bloody vest until she could see the poké balls on his belt. Luckily, he was lying in such a way that it wasn't hard for her to pick out the one she recognized as Arien's. Gripping it in her teeth, she managed to unhook it off the belt after some struggling and set it on the ground, pressing the button in the center.

The alakazam formed, looking immediately alert and ready to fight, but when he saw the scene before him, all color drained from his face. "D-Damian…what…" he stammered, his arms lowering as his eyes moved along his trainer's bloody body, seeming oblivious to everything else around him.

"Sh-shut up…a-and st-stay back!" Scytheclaw growled at him, his eyes narrowed and his teeth gritted in pain.

"Put up a shield!" Snowcrystal instructed. "A protect barrier!"

When Arien just stared, unresponsive, Blazefang shouted, "Hurry! Unless you want that machamp to kill us _and_ him!"

Arien seemed to snap out of it, now fully noticing the battle between Nightshade and Mausk's pokémon. He also seemed to note that both Blazefang and Snowcrystal were injured, and while Snowcrystal still looked like she could fight, he knew that such a small pokémon going up against one trained for the fighting ring would be suicide. "Where are Damian's other pokémon?"

"We've only g-got Inferno and Todd," Scytheclaw hissed.

"Send them out," Arien ordered, and Snowcrystal nodded obediently, working to take out their poké balls. "S-Scytheclaw, do you think you can handle a teleport?"

"We can't teleport here, remember?" Snowcrystal cried, shocked that the normally logical and intelligent alakazam would have forgotten the failed attempt he'd made at teleporting when they'd first realized they were trapped underground.

"Stop talking and help me!" Scytheclaw shouted at both of them. "I just need you to buy me time!"

Arien nodded, narrowing his eyes in focus as he formed a translucent shield in front of Damian and the scizor. It would not protect them on all sides, but it would be better than nothing.

Snowcrystal was still new to the world of pokémon battling and attacks that weren't something growlithe could use, but she had learned enough from being read stories at the library and from the practice battles she'd seen Damian have with the wild pokémon to know that the move Arien was using – protect – didn't last long. It took up a lot of energy, and Arien would have to put all his focus into forming a psychic barrier big enough to have a chance at shielding them from the worst attacks.

She turned to Scytheclaw, hoping that by some miracle he could speed up the healing process, but despite the scizor's clear efforts, the wound didn't seem to be healing. She knew it wasn't for lack of trying or that the power wasn't working; Scytheclaw was clearly in pain, enough that she could see a tear starting to trickle down the side of his face. It was a sight that, just hours before, Snowcrystal would have never thought she'd see from a pokémon like Scytheclaw, but now, considering the situation, she couldn't even find it strange.

She was about to focus on sending out Damian's other pokémon when she realized that Scytheclaw had suddenly become less alert, his eyes unfocused. His body started to lean forward, and Snowcrystal could tell that he was close to fainting.

"No! Stay awake!" she cried, rushing to the scizor's side. She knew that if Scytheclaw passed out, it was over. There was no way Damian would last long enough to get help from some other source. She placed her paws on Scytheclaw's arm, trying to shake him into alertness. "Stay…awake!" she cried.

Scytheclaw remained listless for a few moments before he snapped to attention, shaking his head as if to clear it of dizziness. He looked at Snowcrystal in confusion for a moment before everything seemed to come back to him. "I told you…" he growled. "Get…the poké balls." In response, the growlithe nodded and stepped away.

Within moments, Snowcrystal managed to get Todd and Inferno's poké balls, releasing the flareon and elekid. Almost as soon as she did, she heard a growl from the direction of the door the machamp had first entered the room from. A houndoom, one that looked far more muscular and powerful than Blazefang, growled as he stalked into the room. The new intruder ignored the fighting that was going on between Nightshade and the machamp as the four-armed fighting type slammed the weakening heracross into the ground again and again. The houndoom noticed Damian and the pokémon around him and let out a growl.

"We need to distract him! Now!" Snowcrystal told Inferno and Todd, not giving them time to fully react to the state they now found their trainer in. "Scytheclaw's healing him," she said to try to reassure them. "Come on!"

The two pokémon nodded, and then they, as well as Snowcrystal, darted away from Damian in three different directions while Arien strained to keep the protect barrier working. Snowcrystal hoped that Mausk's houndoom would go after her, but instead it chased Todd, who was forced to run up the stairwell in order to get away.

"No! Todd!" Inferno shouted, stopping in his tracks before shooting toward the stairs as well.

Snowcrystal followed, and reached the base of the stairs before the flareon did. Hoping the houndoom hadn't caught up with the elekid or that Todd's paralyzing attacks had worked, she raced up the steps. She only cleared three or four before the houndoom suddenly reappeared, lunging at her with jaws open wide.

Snowcrystal felt sharp teeth sink into the back of her neck. The fangs tore through her skin, causing blood to run onto her shoulders. For an instant, she was sure her neck would be snapped like it was a twig by this powerful pokémon.

But, for a reason she didn't fully understand – perhaps in a startled reaction to the foul taste of the dye on her fur – the houndoom's grip loosened, just for a moment.

That was the only moment she needed. Lashing out with her front paws, she managed to slice the houndoom's muzzle and nose with her front claws, twisting her body in the same moment so that the houndoom only had a hold on the loose skin of her scruff.

With a snarl, the dark type hurled her back down the stairs, and she collided painfully with the cold ground and lay in a battered heap. She heard Inferno shout something as well as the sound of two sets of paws thundering up the stairs before both the houndoom and flareon vanished. She could hear Scytheclaw shouting with pain as he focused intently on Damian's wound, but the sounds of an even bigger fight than the houndoom's quickly turned her attention to Nightshade and the machamp.

Nightshade was losing the fight. He had quickly lost the upper hand, succumbing to the machamp's powerful attacks again. He was dizzy, there was blood in his eyes, and he found it a struggle just to stand after being pummeled so many times by the machamp's fists. Horrible pain gripped his body, the worst pains being internal, and he did not know how much longer he would stay conscious. He suspected the only reason he hadn't passed out already was sheer willpower. He watched the machamp swing another fist toward him, but his vision was so blurry, it looked as if there were three machamp, and his brain couldn't process fast enough to figure out which image to attack.

As he weakly tried to fight the pokémon again, he felt another blow before the machamp's fist closed around his horn. He had barely registered that before he was torn off his feet, held dangling in the air in front of the machamp's face. He winced as he felt his back being slammed against the concrete wall, preventing him from opening his wings.

The enemy pokémon was staring at him with a fury he had never seen in another pokémon's eyes before. The grip on his horn tightened, and Nightshade could only weakly reach up to try to slice the machamp's arms with his claws. Since his feet were off the ground and his wings currently unusable, his strength would be of no use to him in this position even if he wasn't injured and weak.

The machamp grinned at him, though the muscular pokémon's eyes were still narrowed with pain. He had realized that Nightshade had nowhere else to go, and so little fight left. "Well," he said in a low, dangerous voice, obviously pleased that he had stopped Nightshade's attack in its tracks. "I've never fought a heracross before. Never seen one die, either."

Nightshade's eyes widened. "N-no…" he gasped, coughing and spraying flecks of blood in his enemy's face. "Listen-"

In response, the machamp lifted him from the wall momentarily before slamming him back into it. Nightshade gritted his teeth; he could have sworn he felt the back of his shell crack. His terrified eyes stared into the eyes of Mausk's pokémon, fearing that within moments, his life would be over. "Please…listen…"

"Shut up!" the pokémon snarled. It was clear from the look in his eyes that he did not intend to show any mercy. The machamp's mouth twisted into a sadistic grin. "You know what I'm going to do to you?" he growled. "I'm going to rip your limbs off _one by one…_ just like children do to real bugs."

Back near Damian, Snowcrystal and the others watched as Scytheclaw, finally seeming to make progress, struggled to heal the trainer's wound, but they were distracted by an ear-splitting shriek from Nightshade. Snowcrystal shot bolt-upright, having not expected such a sound to have come from her heracross friend.

What she saw horrified her. Nightshade was pinned to the wall, the machamp holding him up by the horn, as one of his hands was pulling on the bug type's arm, clearly trying to rip it out of its socket. From the sounds Nightshade was making, Snowcrystal knew that the machamp was likely very close to accomplishing that goal. She hoped it was her imagination, but she thought she could pick up a tearing sound as her ears perked up in alarm, adrenaline putting her senses on high alert.

To her surprise, she saw a flash of black and red race by her, and saw Blazefang charging toward the machamp. The houndoom's jaws filled with red-hot flame, but the machamp only responded by holding Nightshade in front of him, right in Blazefang's line of fire. Instead of giving up, Blazefang extinguished the flames and ran closer, but as soon as he got within range, the machamp grabbed one of the houndoom's horns and flung him across the floor, where he crashed into the ground and did not get back up. He had managed to fight against using Shadowflare, but he was now unconscious.

The machamp slammed Nightshade against the wall again, resuming the attempt to tear the heracross's arm from his body. Nightshade's shrieks grew to a wail of agony.

Hearing him, Snowcrystal tried to force her bleeding body to run, when another screech pierced the room. And this time, it wasn't Nightshade's cry of pain.

From another door further down in the room, one that opened up into the large betting booth room, a green blur appeared, darting swiftly between the rows of cages. Snowcrystal gave a gasp of shock as she recognized the thin, scarred frame of Thunder charging toward the machamp and shouting at the top of her lungs.

"You hurt Nightshade!" the scyther screamed. "You hurt my friend! I'll kill you…I'll _kill you!_ "

The machamp only had seconds to turn toward the source of the shouting before Thunder struck him, leaping clear onto his back and driving one of her blades into his shoulder, slicing with the other. With a howl of agony, he dropped Nightshade, staggering backward as he tried to tear the scyther from his back.

His efforts only barely managed to keep Thunder from slicing his neck as the scarred scyther clung on, shouting furiously as she hacked at the fighting type, sending droplets of blood spraying onto the floor. Nightshade couldn't see them; his eyes were staring at the ceiling as he lay on his back, his breathing coming in ragged gasps as he clutched his injured arm.

Snowcrystal could hear the machamp still screaming in anguish as he blundered further away from the group and toward the groups of cages. She could still hear Thunder's shouts; the scyther was screaming over and over again, but Snowcrystal didn't pay attention to the words. This time, the scyther was the one who had the advantage; unlike the rest of them, Thunder was no stranger to the arena or to the strength of Mausk's other pokémon. Snowcrystal saw the machamp, blinded with agony, race through one of the doors into the main room with Thunder on his tail.

"It's…it's working…" Snowcrystal heard Arien whisper. She angled her head toward the alakazam, seeing that his psychic barrier had already vanished. He was facing Scytheclaw, who was holding his pincers out weakly toward Damian's body.

This time, the scizor didn't just look pained, he looked in agony. She had always known Scytheclaw as a very tough pokémon, so to see him in such a state was startling, to say the least. His whole body was trembling, his eyes wide and his breathing quick and sharp. Though she could see no physical wounds on the steel type's body, the look in his eyes was a look she'd expect from a pokémon who was burning in acid. He shook his head, in some vain attempt to distract himself from the pain, or to keep himself conscious.

Yet despite the side effects of the healing move, he had remained focused, and Snowcrystal could see that the blood flow from Damian's wound had stopped. Scytheclaw had also torn the trainer's shirt enough that she could now see the wound, and to her surprise, it had almost closed. Damian still remained unconscious, though she could see him breathing, much steadier than he had been before.

Scytheclaw had done it.

_To be continued..._


	59. To the Surface

"Scytheclaw! Arien!" a pained voice shouted, and Snowcrystal looked toward the stairwell to see Dusk the absol limping toward them, Todd the elekid and Inferno the flareon at his side. Though Dusk had obviously hurt his front leg, the three of them looked surprisingly unscathed otherwise. However, their eyes were wild with fear. "There's fire in the room above!" He angled his head toward the stairs. "It looks like Shadowflare!"

"It is Shadowflare," Arien hissed at the absol. "Where's Fernwing? We need to get out of here."

"She's up there," Dusk replied with another flick of his head. "Those pokémon who were attacking us just left. I'm not sure why but I think their trainer must have called them back somehow."

"Is anyone else hurt?" Arien asked, eyeing Dusk's paw.

"No, Fernwing got them to chase her. She gave them the slip until they suddenly left."

"Good," Arien responded. At least for all their ferocity, Mausk's pokémon didn't seem to be used to thinking and making decisions on their own, if they had made the error of going after the tropius together.

With a shuddering crash, Fernwing appeared, pounding down the stairway until she came to a stop in front of the others. As soon as she did, she noticed that Dusk had suddenly gone rigid with fright, his eyes locked on his unmoving trainer. "What the-what…what happened?" she cried, stumbling backward. "Is he…he's not…"

"Quiet!" Arien cried, not wanting the grass type to start a panic. "Scytheclaw's helping him. Stay calm."

"It's done…" Scytheclaw gasped, his voice sounding smaller and weaker than any of them had ever heard it before. They all turned to the scizor, who was slumped over, looking barely conscious.

Peering at Damian's wound, Snowcrystal could see that it was now hardly there at all. As much trouble as he'd had, Scytheclaw seemed to have repaired the damage, or at least the worst of it. Looking at the scizor, however, Scytheclaw only had a moment to look relieved before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Snowcrystal had no idea what sort of side effects using the healing power would have on him, or if it only involved pain, but she knew they had to get back to the surface before they could assess him.

Suddenly Damian's eyes flickered open, his breathing becoming rapid and strained as he stared at everything around him, seeming completely lost. "Where am I?" he gasped, his words sounding confused and slurred. He didn't even seem to realize that he was lying in a puddle of blood.

Arien stepped over to him, helping him sit upright. Damian didn't cry out in pain, and the alakazam breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that Scytheclaw's attack had really worked. Damian did nothing but stare in confusion at the pokémon gathered around him, not seeming to fully register what he was seeing.

"He may not be badly hurt any longer but he's lost a lot of blood," Arien said. "We have to get him out of here as soon as possible."

Snowcrystal was sure Arien was explaining things to the trainer through his psychic link, but Damian hardly seemed to react. Whether he was in shock or simply too dazed to respond properly, Snowcrystal wasn't sure, but he didn't seem to have too much difficulty as he shakily reached for his poké balls, probably at the instruction of Arien, and returned all but the alakazam and Fernwing.

"Scytheclaw…he did this?" he mused aloud in response to Arien's telepathic words as the psychic tried to help him stand up. He stared ahead blankly as he mumbled, "He saved me? Oh…all right. Okay, I think I get it." He staggered upright, but swayed so much that he had to lean against the alakazam. From the look on his face, Snowcrystal didn't think he'd remain conscious much longer.

Arien turned to Snowcrystal. "Can you walk?" The growlithe nodded. "What about you?" he addressed Blazefang this time, and the houndoom, just waking up, shakily climbed to his feet. "Nightshade?"

The heracross tried to stand up, but it was clear that he was in very bad shape. He clutched his useless injured right arm to his side, and his eyes had a dazed, unfocused look.

"Can you walk?" Arien asked him.

"I'll try," Nightshade wheezed.

"Fly?"

"I don't think so."

"Just keep up then," the alakazam replied sternly before turning to Damian again.

"Let Damian climb on my back," Fernwing offered, angling her neck toward the group. "The injured pokémon too."

"You can't carry all of them," Arien replied. "And the hallways up ahead are going to get too narrow. We'll keep going on foot."

The tropius looked as if she was about to argue, but after a moment nodded reluctantly. Damian, obviously having been told the conversation, weakly held up her poké ball and returned her.

"Come on," Arien cried. "We don't want the Shadowflare smoke to catch up with us."

Even though Snowcrystal knew that the fire was forced to crawl through the building at a slower rate, with so little to burn, smoke and fire had already started pouring into the upper stories, according to Dusk. They didn't have time to waste.

Even though Damian had at first seemed as if he was recovering enough from the incident to stand, he was swaying now, and after a moment of trying to retain his balance, he slumped over, unconscious again. Arien caught him before he hit the floor, holding the trainer up with the help of his psychic powers. "What are you waiting for?" he called to the others, who were looking at Damian with worry. "I can carry him. Now MOVE!"

Now that the worst of the danger was over, Snowcrystal realized that she could smell the smoke and the flames – and they were not far off. She limped over to Blazefang, who was also limping, but had a steady enough pace. They followed Arien as he headed toward the door the machamp had come from, which led into the larger betting booth room. Nightshade followed last, his breathing labored and heavy as he trailed after them.

Snowcrystal tried not to look at Darkfang's body as she passed it, looking instead at the doorway ahead of them. She did not want to be reminded of the scyther's grisly death; even though she had not known him well, he had died trying to save them. When they emerged into the betting booth room, her eyes widened as she noticed that part of the booth itself was on fire. It took her a moment of panic before she realized that it had already died down; there was nowhere else here for Shadowflare to burn. Yet smoke was already piling up near the ceiling, and more was seeping in through the hallway leading to the arena. The smoke would spread through the rest of the underground until the fire completely burned out. She didn't want to find out what kind of harm prolonged exposure to it could do; they had to get moving.

A shout from somewhere near the opposite wall caught their attention, and the group turned to see Thunder facing Mausk's machamp, who was backed against the far wall of the room and clearly losing the fight, only barely managing to defend himself as Thunder ruthlessly slashed at him, clearly aiming for the throat.

"Thunder!" Snowcrystal shouted. "Follow us!"

She saw the scyther glance at her, but then ignore her, facing her cornered prey once again.

"Thunder, leave him!" Nightshade called to her, as loudly as he could manage. "We have to get out of here!"

Thunder hesitated, but, miraculously, Nightshade's words seemed to change her mind, and she turned away from the machamp, who scurried into another hallway. Snowcrystal was not sure where he was going, but she figured that since Mausk had left him alone to fight them, the machamp was probably meant to meet up with him somewhere else. She figured that Mausk himself had probably already left the building.

Beside her, Blazefang tensed as Thunder walked purposely toward them, each of her movements stiff and calculated, as if she was on high alert. Blazefang shook his head, muttering, "No…not her…this is the last thing we need…"

"What are you doing with that human?" Thunder growled, her gaze piercing into Arien's.

The alakazam was unfazed. "This is my trainer, and I'm bringing him to safety. Now _get out of our way._ "

Snowcrystal winced; Arien obviously had little idea about Thunder's personality and mannerisms, having only what the group had told him about her to go on, as he had never met her before. However, to her surprise, Thunder didn't try to attack or argue with him, and instead just glared at him, seeming unsure what to make of the psychic type.

"Do you know a way out?" Snowcrystal asked before Arien could make demands of Thunder again.

"Master never showed me directly," the scyther began, her furious gaze still fixated on Damian's unconscious form. "But there are plenty. Just find one. And…leave that human here."

"Damian's not one of them!" Snowcrystal cried. "He was the one who got us here! He helped you get out of your cage, remember?"

An explosion from somewhere deep in the hallways of the underground shook the walls and floor around them. Snowcrystal realized that the fire must have reached deeper into one of the cage rooms, and to the machinery inside them. "Thunder, we'll explain later…let's just get out of here!"

To her surprise, Thunder said nothing and instead turned to one of the hallways branching off from the rooms. Snowcrystal hoped she remembered Damian's actions and had decided to trust him, but she also knew that Thunder could just be desperate to get out of the building too.

The group followed after Thunder, and though Snowcrystal could feel her strength returning in spite of her wound and Blazefang was keeping up well enough, Nightshade was lagging badly behind. She slowed down, allowing him to catch up while keeping an eye on where the others were going. She wished that Damian were awake; if he could catch them, they could probably get to a pokémon center from the lab within minutes.

She felt the air getting hotter, harder to breathe. She could see the blue Shadowflare smoke beginning to choke the room, and she was glad when they left it and walked into a wide hallway.

It didn't take long before Thunder, at the head of the group, came to a door. Snowcrystal could tell that it was usually sealed off, but someone had left it open in a hurry. It led to a very narrow hallway ending with a set of stairs rising steeply upward. She gave a worried glance to the heracross, knowing the climb would be difficult for him.

Thunder, who, compared to most of the others, still had a lot of strength, bounded up the stairs in a heartbeat and turned to watch the rest of the group catch up. She still cast a suspicious glare at Arien as he carried Damian, but she did not confront him.

Snowcrystal got to the top of the stairs and stood beside the alakazam and his unconscious trainer. Blazefang followed her, breathing heavily and limping but managing to make his way up to them without much trouble. Down below was Nightshade, who halfheartedly tried to lift himself in flight before realizing he was too weak and resolving to climb the stairs. He tried to climb on all fours, but seeing as he only had one usable arm, it was difficult.

Thunder vanished for a moment, and after Snowcrystal and Arien had watched Nightshade struggle to climb his way to the top for the space of about a minute, she returned.

"Nightshade, there is a way out," Thunder called down the stairs toward the heracross. "Follow me."

"Can't you carry him?" Snowcrystal asked Arien, angling her head toward Nightshade. She wished she could help, but she knew she was too small to be of any use to the much larger heracross. She knew Arien was partially lifting Damian with his psychic powers, and hoped he would be able to help Nightshade as well.

"No," the psychic type replied. "I need the energy to bring Damian to safety. He'll have to walk by himself."

Before Snowcrystal could reply, Arien set off in the direction Thunder had indicated, and Blazefang limped after him. Thunder, however, remained at the top of the stairs, pacing back and forth anxiously as she watched Nightshade.

When the heracross finally reached the top, the scyther turned and walked into the hallway she had discovered, and when Snowcrystal followed, they soon saw Arien and Blazefang waiting for them impatiently.

"Nightshade, hurry it up!" the alakazam growled at the heracross, gritting his teeth as he looked at Damian's prone form.

"I'm _trying!_ " Nightshade snapped, shooting an uncharacteristically angry glance at the psychic type.

"Good," he replied tersely. "Don't stop trying." With that, he turned around and walked briskly into the hallway.

Thunder sped up so that she matched Arien's pace. "We don't care what you have to say!" she growled. "Go on by yourself if you want to, but stop bossing us around like you're our master."

The alakazam, not breaking his stride, shot a furious glare at the scyther. "I am trying to get us out of here!"

"Well you're doing a pretty poor job of it," Thunder snapped back. " _I'm_ the one who found the way out."

"Just do as I say," Arien said lowly, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint. "Then we'll be out of here and you can go wherever you want."

Thunder gave him a mocking laugh. "Do what you say? Who died and made you leader?"

"We can't exactly afford to wait around," Arien replied through gritted teeth, lifting his head toward the smoke that was beginning to creep through the hallway. He looked over his shoulder. "Nightshade!" he yelled. "Move it!"

"I see…" Thunder replied, her voice laced with disgust, "…you just like the feeling of ordering other pokémon around. It's some sort of power trip isn't it? Like Master."

"Don't you _dare_ compare me to trainers like him!" Arien shouted, his normally calm voice distorted into a shout that made Snowcrystal step a few paces back in alarm.

Thunder, however, wasn't fazed. "Is that another order, your majesty?"

"Guys…" whimpered Blazefang in a pained voice. "Please stop. Let's just get out of here."

Snowcrystal had to agree with him. Luckily, Arien was the one to see sense and, ignoring Thunder, he continued onward. She wasn't used to seeing the alakazam act this way, even if he was usually strict when giving orders. She knew it had to be his worry for Damian that was driving him to act in such a manner toward the other pokémon. Yet the arguments were nothing but a waste of time, and she didn't like the way he was treating the injured Nightshade.

Thankfully, they didn't have far to go before they reached another elevator platform, this one much smaller than the massive one leading to the arena. The pokémon took a short, but welcome rest as it carried them upward.

"The door's at the end of the hallway at the top," Thunder was telling Nightshade. "It takes us outside."

In response, Nightshade only nodded numbly.

Snowcrystal moved over to Damian's still body as the elevator lifted them up, watching the faint light patterns from the dim lamps above them move across his face. She slowly reached down and licked his cheek, wishing that he would wake up. She wasn't sure how Thunder would react to that, however, and reluctantly admitted that it might be better that he was unconscious – and therefore not someone she would consider a threat – for the moment.

"Does that trainer still have Stormblade?" Thunder asked out of the blue, obviously referring to Katie. The scarred scyther hadn't been present when Katie had joined the group, but she had been there when Snowcrystal had first informed everyone else that she'd seen Stormblade's capture.

"Yes…" Snowcrystal began, "and that trainer's travelling with us."

Surprisingly, Thunder didn't say anything in response to that. Instead, she just looked deep in thought. Snowcrystal had a feeling that it wasn't just about the human. Thunder had rejected Stormblade's friendship even more so than she had Nightshade's, and Snowcrystal couldn't help but wonder if she was having second thoughts. She did seem to be friendlier toward Nightshade at the moment, even to the point of defending him, in her own strange way. Yet Snowcrystal knew that Thunder was unpredictable, and told herself that it was probably only brief; Thunder would likely go back to berating and insulting him along with the others soon. She wondered where Thunder would go now, if she refused to get along with the rest of the group, especially the humans.

They reached the top, and Thunder had been right; a hallway branched off from the area occupied by the elevator platform, and at the end of it they could see a door, partially ajar, letting in streams of moonlight. When Snowcrystal reached it, she saw that it led into a secluded alley. She couldn't tell from where she stood, but she assumed that it was near the department store they'd first entered the underground from.

Immediately upon reaching the alley, Arien set Damian down, leaning him against the alley wall. As he waited for the other pokémon to make it through, he grabbed Damian's pokégear and activated it.

"Let's get out of this disgusting city," Thunder muttered, ignoring the alakazam.

"Thunder, we have to wait for the others," Snowcrystal insisted. "We need to-"

She was interrupted when Justin's voice sounded from the pokégear. The boy was clearly panicked, and frustrated that Arien was the only one on the other end of the call. The alakazam took the pokégear, walked outside the alley, and presumably used the device's video feature to show Justin the location, because she heard the boy say "I'll be right there," before the call ended.

"I don't see any of the trainers from the fighting ring," Arien mused as he returned. "There's hardly anyone around, and no one seems to be noticing anything unusual, either. They don't know there's a fire down there."

"It…won't find a way to spread, will it?" Snowcrystal asked.

"No, it'll run out of room to burn underground," the alakazam replied. "The building walls didn't catch fire, so it will be contained." He looked back toward the alley's exit, at the brightly lit buildings of Stonedust City. "It's odd, though…no one out and about seems to have noticed hundreds of trainers coming through…those gamblers must have a method to ensure they all leave the arena without attracting too much attention."

"Well, let's hope we don't run into any of them," Blazefang muttered.

Suddenly Damian let out a groan and stirred, staring groggily around at the pokémon before he leaned forward, trying to sit up. "Where are we…" He trailed off, looking just as confused as he had when they were underground.

They must have been very close to the department store – and therefore the rest of the group – because they suddenly heard footsteps, and Justin and Spark appeared at the alley entranceway, followed quickly by the rest of the wild pokémon. Katie, however, was missing.

Thunder tensed up, and Nightshade shook his head, lightly touching her arm to get her attention. "No…Thunder…they're my friends…" he said weakly. Thunder merely growled in response, but made no hostile movements toward the trainer as she backed further into the darkness of the alley.

"What happened?" Justin cried, rushing to Damian's side without paying the pokémon any attention. "Katie went to get the police a while ago, but she hasn't come back and…" He froze, suddenly noticing the blood on Damian's vest. His eyes widened, and he stepped back, a look of horror crossing his face. He looked about to say something when his gaze traveled over the other pokémon and rested on Thunder's shadowy form.

"A scyther!" he cried, scurrying frantically backward toward the alley's entrance. "Pokémon!" he shouted, looking over his shoulder toward the group of his companions behind him. He rushed behind Redclaw. "St-stop it! It tried to kill Damian! It-"

"No…she didn't," Damian wheezed. His voice still sounded listless and distant, and his eyes were half closed. "It was…something else…her trainer I think…"

Redclaw and Spark stepped forward, standing protectively in front of Justin as he watched Thunder, which seemed to make the boy calm down a little. He could realize that Thunder had no incentive to turn hostile with so many pokémon willing to defend him. The scyther was already backing away from the crowd of pokémon, either on the defensive or just out of pure displeasure at being around so many others. She soon stood at the back of the alley, looking anything but ready to attack. Still, Justin continued to hide behind Redclaw, gripping handfuls of the arcanine's fur as he stared warily at the blade-wielding bug type.

"Damian," Justin began, "you need to get to a hospital."

Damian shook his head. "No…I'm not hurt. Scytheclaw must've helped me. I'm just tired…"

Justin peered at the tear in Damian's shirt, the area the blood spots were centered around, seeming to realize that there was no longer a wound. He sighed nervously. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just go...somewhere else." He gave Thunder another fearful glance.

The scyther, however, didn't move. She was aware of all the hostile glances thrown her way by the pokémon she had once traveled with. She made no move to attack, but instead stood still.

"You can tell us what happened later," Wildflame spoke up as she addressed Snowcrystal and Blazefang, walking further into the alley toward them. "We need to get to a pokémon center." She approached Blazefang, sniffing his wounds. "I have to say," she began, trying to lighten the heavy mood, "you look great as a houndoom."

"Sure," Blazefang muttered. "Let's just get to the damn pokémon center."

"Right," Wildflame replied nervously. She looked at Nightshade, an even more worried look coming to her face. "Nightshade?" she asked, approaching him and taking in his beaten state and the blood that coated parts of his body. "You're…hurt bad, aren't you? Where are you bleeding from?" The heracross, however, didn't seem to be able to give a proper answer.

" _She's_ not coming with us, is she?" Rosie spat, interrupting them. The ninetales glared daggers at Thunder. "I can't believe she'd show her face around us again, that-"

"Now's not the time, Rosie!" Arien called. He gripped Damian's arm, helping him to his feet. The trainer had to fully lean against the alakazam, unable to stand properly on his own.

"Thunder can go wherever she wants," Redclaw huffed. He approached Nightshade, showing no fear of the scarred scyther. "What happened to you?" he asked incredulously, taking in Nightshade's battered state. The heracross was leaning forward as if unable to stand fully upright, and his breathing was shallow.

"Save it for later," Arien called from ahead.

Redclaw lowered his body enough for Nightshade to climb onto his back. The heracross shakily clambered up to the arcanine's shoulders. He clung to Redclaw's mane with the claws of his left arm, his injured right still useless. After making sure Nightshade was secure, Blazefang limped out of the alley, supported by Wildflame.

Spark brought up the rear as they left the alley, giving Thunder a challenging glare. The scyther glared right back, but did not follow them. The pokémon emerged into the moonlit streets, deciding to keep to the shadows so that no other late night pedestrians would notice the bad shape Damian and Nightshade were in. Justin, meanwhile, held up his phone, trying to get hold of Katie.

As the pokémon slunk away from the alley, glad that there were currently only a few other humans out and about in this part of the city, Nightshade slipped from Redclaw's back and crashed painfully on the street. The pokémon and trainers turned their heads to him, but before Redclaw could help him back up, a green blur came to a halt a few yards from the heracross.

"I want to talk to him," Thunder demanded.

"No way!" Rosie shouted, darting forward as her nine tails arched above her head. "You just want to finish what you started!"

Thunder shook her head, and, to the others' shock, lowered her blades and crouched down, assuming as unthreatening a pose as possible. Wildflame and Blazefang exchanged confused glances as Thunder continued, "I won't _hurt_ you. I want to talk to Nightshade. Then I'll leave you alone if you want."

"What are you standing there for?" Justin demanded, the fearful glare returning to his eyes as he looked around at the pokémon before pointing to Thunder. "Attack it!"

No pokémon moved.

"Spark?"

The jolteon shook his head, prompting a shocked expression from Justin.

"If she attacks," Redclaw began, "we will fight. But not until then."

As Damian mumbled a quick translation to Justin, Nightshade looked into Thunder's eyes. Though he remembered all too clearly the pain she had inflicted on him, pain that had lasted for months, and he was hesitant to put himself in a position that might lead history to repeat itself, something in the look of the scyther's eyes told him that she was telling the truth. Slowly, he nodded his head, and warily stepped closer, steadying himself with his uninjured arm.

"We won't kill you, Thunder," Wildflame was saying in a low tone, "but if you hurt him, we'll make you _wish_ you were dead."

Though Thunder had argued with the others time and again, she said nothing this time, and merely stepped a bit further away so Nightshade could follow her. At the insistence of Redclaw and Wildflame, however, they only walked a few yards from the main group; the others would be able to see and hear everything.

Nightshade straightened up as much as he could and looked at Thunder uneasily, his eyes resting on the blades she had used to so badly wound him merely months ago. He closed his eyes, trying to drive the memories from his mind before he looked at her again. Blinding pain was searing up his injured arm like fire, and the rest of his body was hardly any better off. He was well aware of how vulnerable he was, wounded to the point where he could hardly stand, staring straight at a pokémon that was trained to kill and could snap with little provocation. Yet he knew that his friends would jump to his rescue should anything happen, and after Thunder had saved his life, he didn't think she would be quick to attack him.

He wasn't sure exactly what the scyther wanted to tell him, and when she spoke, it came with the same bluntness that Thunder usually used to express her views, yet what she did say greatly surprised him.

"I'm sorry," Thunder said. "About hurting you. And I don't want to be like that anymore. I want to change."

Nightshade could hear the confused murmurs from some of the pokémon behind him, but he ignored them. "Thunder…?" He looked at her incredulously, wondering what could have prompted her to say such a thing.

"I…was wrong about you," she said, interrupting him. "I thought you were using me like Master did. But…I know you wouldn't be standing in front of me wounded like that if you only wanted my attention for personal gain. So, I think that…I understand now." She gave him a serious look, not sounding at all ashamed or embarrassed over what she was about to say, only clear and straightforward. "You are a friend." She paused. "And…I did a horrible thing."

Nightshade looked at a loss for words, before he asked her, weakly but just as seriously, "Why the sudden change? What made you-"

"It wasn't sudden," Thunder replied. She paused to glance toward the waiting pokémon and trainers, but the look in her eyes was one of annoyance; it was clear that she didn't care what they thought. "I realized it was a mistake right after I attacked you," she said after a moment. "And once I got captured again…I started to really realize things. Maybe it was more accepting than realizing. You were right about a lot of things."

Her voice betrayed to Nightshade the fact that Thunder found it hard to admit these things, but something had driven her to the determination she was showing now. And he knew that if Thunder had thought things over and was willing to change, he was willing to accept it.

"Thunder," the heracross began, trying to keep his thoughts straight in spite of the pain. Immediately the scyther focused on him, looking intensely interested in what he had to say. "I would welcome you back to our group…but I won't allow you to hurt any of us again."

The other pokémon cast Thunder skeptical glances, knowing all too well how she had reacted to others telling her what to do in the past. Rosie backed up toward Redclaw, as if she expected Thunder to attack someone in a rage. Redclaw stepped forward protectively, wondering how Thunder would react. Nightshade could hardly enforce such a thing in his current state, and the arcanine hoped that would be enough to keep Thunder from getting angry.

Thunder looked Nightshade straight in the eyes. "Good. I won't hurt any of you again, but…if I did…I would want you to stop me."

Nightshade tried to straighten up again, giving her a small smile. His voice was weak and strained. "Thunder, I understand that what you've been through was terrible…and that that…had an effect on…"

Thunder shook her head firmly. "No, Nightshade. You don't understand," she stated. "You're not listening to me at all." She paused, and though the group of pokémon standing beyond Nightshade waited expectantly, Thunder acted as if they weren't there. "…It was not Master who hurt you. It was me. I was the one who did it. And trust me; you were not the one to make a mistake."

Nightshade's eyes widened at this. He knew that in the past, Thunder would have jumped to blame the pokémon who had triggered her anger one way or another. He was unsure just what had made such a change in her, and he stared at her in bewilderment. He looked lost for words as Thunder continued.

"Being captured by Master again made me think…realize that not all pokémon are like the ones he trained. I sure knew you weren't." She glanced around Nightshade toward the group of pokémon and humans waiting for her. "I'm not sure about the others…but if you trust them…" she began, a bit hesitantly, "…I guess I could try to trust them too. Even the humans, if you want."

It was clear from the tone of her voice that she still didn't approve of Justin or Damian being there, but she looked much less hostile toward them than before. Perhaps, Nightshade thought, she had come to realize just what Damian had risked to go into the fighting ring, and remembered that he'd helped set caged pokémon free without capturing them for himself.

"I don't want to be like I was before," she continued, her voice not small or meek, but direct and honest in a way that Nightshade could tell showed she was telling the truth. "I don't want to be like I was when I attacked you. I want to be a better pokémon…friend."

To Nightshade's astonishment, Thunder lowered her head and body, crouching down as she assumed a submissive pose, bowing her head. The pokémon who were watching the spectacle could only stare in disbelief. Those who had known Thunder knew that in the past, she would never have acted like that toward anyone willingly. She had refused to do such a thing even toward her Master, even when refusing meant a punishment. Yet there she was, showing submission to a badly injured heracross of her own free will.

Nightshade just smiled as he knelt down, reaching out with his good arm and lifting Thunder's head. "Come on," he said gently. "Stand up." Thunder looked at him in surprise, but got to her feet. "That's better."

As the two of them faced each other, the heracross found himself once again thinking back to the time Thunder had attacked him. This time, it was his own reactions to the incident that surfaced in his mind. He thought back to the morning after Thunder had attacked him, a time when even he, for all the patience and understanding he'd thought he had, had momentarily given up on Thunder. The words he'd said to Snowcrystal came flooding back to his mind…

_"I don't blame Thunder,"_ he had said on that day. _"I blame her master for turning her into the pokémon that attacked me."_

Realization dawned on him as he understood that what he'd said couldn't be further from the truth, further than Thunder's actions now. In all the time he'd known her, he'd always known Thunder to be honest, despite her other flaws. She always said what she was thinking, even if she kept many things hidden. Yet even if he hadn't known that, he could tell through the scyther's words and actions in this moment that she had been telling the truth. And at that time he, much like the others, had thought that Thunder was beyond any sort of help. "Thunder," he began, closing his eyes for a brief moment. "I thought...when you attacked me...that Master really did have a hold on you that couldn't be broken. I was... _very wrong._ "

"But…" Thunder began, giving him a smile that looked a bit unnatural, but Nightshade could tell it was only due to the fact that Thunder simply was not used to smiling, not any intended malice on her part. "You were right about me before that, right?"

"Thunder, you saved my life," Nightshade continued, looking sincerely at Thunder even though he was still struggling to stay standing in his weak state. "I know you mean what you say. And I forgive you."

To his surprise, Thunder leaned forward and gently butted his horn with her head, which he knew, coming from Thunder, was probably the most genuine show of affection the scyther could show anyone at the moment. Thunder still had a long way to go…but now, she was willing to change, and from what it looked like, willing to let him in instead of shutting him out.

"It was incredibly strong of you to face these things," Nightshade said. "And if you want to change, well, you're already well on your way. And I'll be right there beside you."

Thunder nodded in response. "Okay, Nightshade." She stepped past him, giving the rest of the group an unsure look.

"Did Thunder get hit on the head or something?" Blazefang whispered, leaning in toward Wildflame.

"Er…I think she got _un_ -hit on the head," the other houndoom responded.

"Well, I think we were wrong about her," Redclaw said with a smile.

"I'm not so sure…" Rosie growled.

"I'm willing to give her a chance," Alex cried, clapping her paws together. "Hooray, Thunder!" The floatzel immediately stopped clapping when Thunder shot her a glare.

"Uh…in case she's lying," Blazefang began, "Arien, you'll be able to use your psychic powers to tell us she's about to attack or something, right?"

"Not exactly," the alakazam replied, "but I don't think it would take a psychic to know to be wary if she seems agitated or angry. I suppose we can give her a chance, but we'll need to be careful. If she really will change…time will tell."

Snowcrystal, however, wanted to trust in the scyther's judgment. She had never known Thunder to be a lying or manipulating pokémon; she stated whatever she thought. She had said many terrible things about the other pokémon in the past, but that was because she had, or at least thought she had, believed them. But now, it seemed like she was finally seeing through that confusing haze, starting to see her real thoughts for what they were.

"So…are we all buddies now or what?" Spark asked, giving Thunder a grin.

The scyther gave him a faint scowl. "No…" she began, "…but…" She addressed the entire group in particular – minus Nightshade – as she finished. "I'll come with you again." She positioned herself close to Nightshade, but still seemed reluctant to step toward the other pokémon.

Justin, who'd been frozen in fear the whole time Thunder had been near them, turned to Damian. "Okay…I know Arien told you everything they said. That…that scyther's not coming with us, is she?" He glanced around nervously at the few passersby in the area, seeming nervous about the fact that none of them were close enough to the alley to see what was going on.

Damian, however, seemed on the verge of unconsciousness again, but Spark answered for him, nodding his head.

Justin's eyes widened. "You've gotta be kidding me…"

"Well…if she wanted to hurt us, she would have done so already," Damian said quietly, and everyone's attention turned to him as he tried to stand up again, using Arien for support. "Now…come on, we should get to the pokémon center…maybe that scyther could come too."

Justin only stared hatefully at Thunder, but the presence of Spark seemed to calm him enough, and he stood warily by the jolteon's side, his hand on Spark's back.

Nightshade looked Thunder over. She had a large scrape on her side from the tauros's horn in the arena fight, as well as several bruises, but compared to when he'd last seen her, she looked positively healthy, despite being so thin. He knew that _he_ was the one who looked like a wreck. He wasn't sure that an experience with the pokémon center would help Thunder much at all; it might cause too much stress to be worth it. But if she trusted him, it might be better that she stay nearby. Perhaps he could convince the nurses' pokémon that accommodations be made so that she could be more comfortable.

"Now, I know you don't like this city, Thunder," he began, "and you don't like being around humans…but if I go to the pokémon center…well, I'm sure they could help you too, if you wanted." It seemed to cost Nightshade a lot of strength to speak, and he had to pause several times, but nevertheless continued with his message. "I spent a few months in the center myself, and I promise, the humans are very kind and they know how to deal with pokémon who aren't used to it. They need to do what's necessary, but if something bothers you, they will stop if you tell them to. They will bring you food whenever you ask for it, whatever kind you'd like. When I was there, this one chansey always brought me-"

"Nightshade…" Thunder interrupted, giving him an annoyed glare. "That's a stupid idea. There's no way I'm doing that."

"But, Thunder…"

"Argh!" Justin cried out, causing all the pokémon to look at him. "Katie's not answering her pokégear!" He shook the phone in his hand, looking as if he was ready to smash it into the ground. "What on earth is so damn important that it's worth ignoring us for?"

"She's probably…talking to the police," Damian mumbled.

At this, Justin froze, his eyes widening. " _You're right._ Let's get out of here." He cast a nervous glance in the direction of the closed department store, knowing that the police would probably be there soon, if they weren't there already.

"Stay close to us, Thunder," Nightshade told her as Redclaw came over to help him onto his back again.

"You don't need his help," Thunder mumbled, looking at Nightshade disapprovingly.

"Actually," he replied, climbing unsteadily onto the arcanine's back with his one working arm, "I _do_ need it. Just like you needed us to free you from that cage." He gave her another small smile.

Thunder just muttered under her breath, coming to stand beside Redclaw. She gave the arcanine an uncertain look, but said nothing to him.

Redclaw sighed, turning and following the group as Justin began to lead them away from the department store. He knew they'd soon reach parts of the city where they would encounter lots of people, and they could attract unwanted attention if any other trainers got close enough to see Damian and the injured pokémon outside of their poké balls. He hoped no one would question them; they just needed to get back to the camp and to the pokémon center as quickly as possible without being bothered. At least it was nighttime, and there wouldn't be as large a crowd as usual. The arcanine walked carefully, hoping he wouldn't aggravate Nightshade's injuries, but it became to clear to him that avoiding that was impossible. He gave the heracross an apologetic look over his shoulder as he followed the others.

They walked through an alley that led them to a street with open shops, and therefore, trainers. Redclaw watched as Thunder backed warily away, her blades raised in defense. The arcanine wished he could simply give her directions to their camp so she could fly there quickly, but he wasn't sure he wanted Thunder running off by herself. Nightshade may have gained trust in her, but he wasn't quite so sure.

"Finally…" he heard Justin mutter on his breath, and glanced at the boy, who was at the front of the group, furthest away from Thunder, with Spark at his side. He was looking at Katie's image on the small screen of his phone. "Where were you?"

"Trying to convince the police to come," Katie's voice retorted. "Someone gave them the idea the fighting ring was in a completely different location, and without any pictures we didn't really have evidence. Apparently they thought I was 'just another kid trying to confuse them.' These people must have trainers running around giving the police wrong information or something." She gave a frustrated sigh. "Plus a lot of the officers and their pokémon were really busy investigating the library incident."

"So they're on their way now?"

"Yeah, should be," she responded. "What happened down there? Everyone's fine…right?"

"Uh…no one's dead," Justin replied. "Look, we'll explain later. I don't even have a clue what happened and I'm not sure I want to know, but I'm not going to feel safe until we get back to the hotel. But first we need to get the pokémon to a center, and Damian wants to go back to camp…" Suddenly, he felt something bump against his leg. He looked down to see Spark looking worriedly up at him. "What?" he muttered.

Spark gave a small whine and angled his head toward a large shop across the street from where they were standing. Justin followed his gaze, unsure what had caught his pokémon's attention until he noticed the flashing images on a large television screen set above the shop's doorway. It was currently set to some news station, and the Stonedust City Library, followed by shots of burned shelves in its interior, scrolled across the screen. The next image was of a newscaster, standing outside the front doors of the building. Despite the noise of the streets, her voice rang out loud enough for the gathered group to hear.

" _After analyzing fingerprints left behind recently in several parts of the library, including a passage not available to the public, it was found that these matched up with the IDs of two trainers…"_

Both Damian and Justin felt their blood run cold as, suddenly, the images that had been used for both their trainer licenses appeared on-screen. Below Damian's, several pictures of pokémon were listed. Justin's had none, as he was no longer technically a trainer, and Spark was not registered.

The pokémon under Damian's, however, were not his current team. They were listed as 'Recently Caught Pokémon,' and as the group scanned the images, they saw a generic picture of a growlithe, an arcanine, a floatzel, a houndoom, a houndour, a ninetales, and a heracross. _"If a trainer is seen with any of these pokémon,"_ the lady on the television continued, _"particularly with more than one, please alert the authorities if anything suspicious…"_ As the screen showed brief close-ups of each pokémon species, it paused on the heracross image, which, unlike the others, was not a generic image after all, but an actual photo showing a close-up of the scar over the bug type's eye, a trait that the newscaster pointed out.

" _What?_ That's Nightshade's scar…" Justin began, pointing a shaky hand toward the screen. "How did they get that image?"

"Well…" Damian began, sounding a bit more alert than he had been previously, as if seeing the pictures on the screen had somehow jolted his memory, "remember when I had to catch the pokémon…to bring them to the city when I first met them? Well…I knew the lab workers could tell what was in the poké balls that were sent through the machine." He paused as he wavered a bit, trying to steady himself with his pokémon's help. "I got to the city and was able to switch them out, then release them before the workers in the lab sent them out on the ranch. But Nightshade…" he glanced toward the heracross. "They get notified when a pokémon is in really bad shape. I had him transferred to the pokémon center as soon as I could, but they would have sent him out immediately to examine him at the lab. They must have taken the picture-"

"Then this is _her_ fault," Rosie growled, throwing a glare at Thunder. "She's the reason he was hurt back then-"

"Stop it!" cried Wildflame. "Don't you think we have enough problems without you starting something?" She glared at the ninetales, who glared right back.

"What's going on?" Katie's voice cried from Justin's phone. "What happened? Is something wrong?"

"Y-yeah," Justin stuttered, his eyes focused solely on the television screen across the street. When he'd taken the risk to invade the library, he'd never dreamed something like this would have happened. No one would have noticed a single book was missing for a while, and even then, he wasn't sure how readily the police would launch a full-on investigation because of it. Yet since the building had caught fire…all of that had changed. "I…I…there's a problem," he whispered, his face white as a sheet as the newscaster's voice blared from the television screen again.

" _Again, the names of the perpetrators are Damian Cooke and Justin Mitchell."_

_To be continued..._


	60. The Resting Place

Moonlight shone across the surface of a vast lake, but with the shouts and cries of hundreds of pokémon gathered there, the spot was far from peaceful. Swimming nearly every inch of the lake, swarming the shores and patrolling the fields around it, and circling the air in mismatched flocks, were pokémon of every shape and size. Some of the stronger ones made their way through the throng of agitated creatures, shouting orders, shuffling groups around or welcoming returning hunting parties or gatherers.

On the far side of the lake, on the edge of a rocky outcrop, stood a vaporeon. The water type's gaze was fixated on the shape of a tall mountain in the distance.

"We can reach the mountain in a day if we move quickly," a voice spoke from behind him, and the lithe shape of an espeon moved forward to stand next to the other eevee evolution. "There's no mistaking it," Solus continued. "Some of the scouts have seen for themselves; that's where Articuno is."

"And where the electric stone is, right?" a female voice asked from somewhere behind him. Cyclone angled his head toward the speaker, one of his fin ears twitching. The speaker was the scyther Silverbreeze, a pokémon who had proved loyal, despite some of her misgivings regarding Solus' torture methods. "And you're certain that's the one?"

"Very sure," the vaporeon responded, turning away. "Silverbreeze, help organize the others down there. The psychic pokémon can't keep track of everyone."

Wordlessly, the scyther stepped down from the ledge onto the rocky path that led from the outcrop of the boulders down toward smooth ground. She gave Solus a nervous glance as she did so, but the espeon didn't notice.

As soon as she was gone, the two eevee evolutions heard pawsteps approaching them from higher up in the rocks.

"It _better_ be the right one," a pokémon growled, huffing as she came to a stop behind Cyclone and Solus. "I'm done waiting. I want my stone like the others have."

Solus raised his hackles and gave a slight growl at the sight of the other pokémon, but at a look from Cyclone, he forced himself to relax.

The speaker was a manectric, a canine pokémon with spiky blue and yellow fur, and a pointed yellow crest on her head. Yet there was something disturbingly wrong with her. Over large portions of her body, she was completely hairless. Where she did have fur, it was thin and brittle looking, and rather than having a vibrant sheen like a normal manectric's, its color was dull and faded. The lack of fur showed skin that was rough and dry, either bleeding or caked with dried blood in several places. It was also weirdly discolored, having a deep, sickly green to it that gave off the impression she was seriously ill. But the manectric's eyes were bright and alert, and Solus knew that her nasty-looking appearance was the result of a human experiment, not illness. Nevertheless, he hated having to be around her. She was disgusting, and her skin looked like it was rotting. Her attitude was even worse.

"It will be, Itora," Cyclone assured the manectric, his voice uncharacteristically warm. "We've confirmed it."

The pokémon gave another irritated growl at these words, sparks flying off the tufts of yellow and blue fur clinging to her shoulders as she paced back and forth. "If any of them were wrong I hope you claw their throats out," she growled. "It took us long enough to get here." Itora gave Cyclone a piercing glare. "If it were me, we wouldn't be stopping by this lake. We'd be heading straight to the mountain _now_."

"If we rest for the night, we can be at the mountain by the time it's dark tomorrow," Cyclone said calmly, acting as if he hadn't noticed the manectric's display of disrespect.

"By the time it's dark? How would that help? You think we could surprise the bird?" Itora cried mockingly. "From below a _mountain?_ " She laughed. "You must be crazy! Unless the real reason is that you want to give all those lazy jerks down there a rest. That shouldn't be our problem. The strongest are going to have to endure worse than that if they think they're going to swipe an Attack stone right from under Articuno's beak."

Cyclone didn't respond to the manectric's question. "You want to kill off some humans, don't you?" he asked calmly. "You've waited this long. You can wait another day for this."

" _Fine,_ " Itora grumbled. "But what are we going to practice on first? We won't find any humans out here."

"I know," Cyclone replied gently. "We won't be encountering humans for some time. But I want your attacks at full strength for when we do. When we reach the deep caves, you can practice all you want on prey pokémon."

"Right, right, don't destroy pokémon habitats. I get it," the manectric muttered. "But don't pokémon live in the caves?"

"Not as many," Solus replied, giving the electric type a sneer. Itora stared right back, her eyes narrowing to slits.

"You got something to say to me?" Itora snapped at the espeon. Solus gave her a dangerous glare and looked away. Itora smirked. "I didn't think so."

"Itora, I want you to stay here with the others," Cyclone stated, giving the manectric a respectful nod as he climbed down the rock ledge and moved toward the group of pokémon.

"Sure, Cyclone," she replied with a shrug.

Itora peered over the edge, watching as Cyclone moved toward the center of the resting army. Groups of pokémon parted as he passed them, none of them even daring to lay so much as a scratch on their leader, even the ones who had been forced into joining. They knew that if Cyclone was threatened, he just might use his Attack, and it would be all over for the aggressor. The manectric pressed her claws against the rock in frustration. She wanted that sort of power. She wanted what was promised to her. She had waited long enough. This was her first chance at something good – no, wonderful, and if anyone messed it up for her, she would make sure Cyclone made them pay for it.

"Itora, try to be calm," a smooth voice stated, and the manectric turned her head toward the small but spooky looking form of a misdreavus.

The blue-green ghost type floated gently above a wide ledge next to another pokémon, a yanmega. The large flying bug type was resting, his six legs gripping a pointed spur of rock that tilted slightly upward, which gave Itora a good view of the thick scar that ran perfectly straight along his underside, starting from beneath his neck and ending almost to where his tail met his body. Smaller scars criss-crossed it, showing that it had once been stitched together with some human implement.

The misdreavus, however, bore no scars, yet she hated humans just as much as either of them. Both she and the yanmega had glowing stones hanging from tough vines that hung around their necks, a symbol of the power Itora was anticipating so badly. The misdreavus gave Itora a concerned look, and the manectric sighed. The large yanmega turned his head pointedly in Itora's direction, even though he didn't need to do so in order to see her.

"Shut up!" Itora growled at them. "You two already have your Attacks. I'm just a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that we have to go through a _legendary_ to get this one."

"Cyclone must have a plan. And we're not even going to be heading to the deep caves yet," the misdreavus went on. "Yenn and I won't be able to use our attacks before then either. You aren't going to fall behind. And there are probably others waiting for Attacks as well."

"Yeah, but Cyclone hasn't picked anyone else, has he?" Itora shot back. "We don't even know where any of the other stones are! Well, apart from the one that houndour has, and supposedly someone's got the pokémon with the ice attack locked up somewhere. But hey, I actually want to become a part of bettering the world. Put the humans in their place, you know? I can't just sit down and do nothing after what they've done. And I don't care what pokémon I have to hurt to get there."

"And neither do we," the misdreavus replied. "But we can't do anything until we have enough Attack users to stand a chance."

"It's a bit hard to wait after what they did to me, Ashend," Itora growled.

"Believe me," Ashend continued, "before this is over, the heads of thousands of humans and their pokémon are going to roll. We'll make sure of it."

The yanmega leaned down to where one of Cyclone's underlings had brought him an offering of several small prey pokémon. He grabbed the limp body of a sandslash in his jaws and snapped through its neck with his fangs, shaking it once so that the head became dislodged and rolled down the rocks to Itora's feet. "Like that," he stated. "But picture it happening to some idiot trainer." He gave a small satisfied laugh.

The electric type smirked. "I can't wait to see you do that to a _real_ human," she remarked. "A live one."

"Neither can I," the green bug type replied.

"And when we're ready for that stage of Cyclone's plan, you can do that, Yenn, but for now…let's focus on the journey ahead." Ashend's eyes flashed with an eerie glow as she turned toward the mountain.

She heard Itora give a yelp as Yenn took to the air, nearly knocking the manectric back with the force of his take off. Ashend assumed he just needed to burn off some energy, but instead he only moved toward the edge of the outcrop beside her. He was looking to the mountain, she presumed, though it was hard to tell, given that his eyes could see in so many directions at once.

"Yeah, it's easy for _you two_ to wait," Itora grumbled from behind them, resuming her restless pacing. The yanmega and misdreavus exchanged a wordless glance before looking disdainfully down at the gathered pokémon of the army.

"Worthless idiots…" Ashend muttered, her gaze turning toward a group of cowering new recruits, obviously reluctant to enter Cyclone's growing army. Beside her, Yenn gave a nod of agreement.

Solus, who had been trying to block out the conversation between the three other pokémon, flattened his ears in annoyance. Cyclone may possibly have picked good candidates in Yenn and Ashend, but he was already fed up with Itora. Still, there was nothing he could do about it, and he had made a point to ignore the manectric when he could. Sighing, he jumped down from the rock and began to make his way through the gathering of pokémon toward where Cyclone had gone. The army's leader sat near the center of the throng, where the pokémon had cleared a wide circle in the grass. The vaporeon was surrounded by several other high ranking members of the army. Solus had no trouble getting there; the pokémon parted and cleared a path as he walked by as well.

"Cyclone, is everything ready for tomorrow?" he asked as he walked into the center of the makeshift clearing.

Cyclone nodded. "Yes," he replied, not giving any further explanation.

A rhyperior, looking a bit too unnerved about the whole thing for Solus's taste, shifted his feet uncomfortably. Solus remembered him. A new recruit. One who had been allowed to join this small circle of high-ranking members through sheer strength and the fact that he'd sought out the army on his own. Unfortunately, he hadn't shown to be the smartest of pokémon. "And what, exactly, are you and the others going to do when you reach the top of that mountain?" he asked. "How do you expect to slip past Articuno long enough to get to the stone?"

The vaporeon straightened up, letting his cold glare wander over the assembled pokémon. Solus noticed that the scyther, Silverbreeze, couldn't help but flinch a bit.

"We're not," Cyclone said. "What we're going to do is simple."

A hushed silence fell over the group, seeming almost eerie despite the noise of the army surrounding them on all sides.

"We're going to kill a legendary."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Under the same moon and stars, a gloomy clearing lay empty, untouched by wild pokémon save for a few small rattata foraging in the night. Tall, battered-looking trees surrounded the secluded area on all sides.

Through the bushes on one side of the clearing, a teenage boy fought his way through the leafy vegetation until he emerged from the gloom to stand in the patch of moonlight filtering through the treetops. A nervous jolteon followed him, coming to stand at his side and casting a forlorn look at what was to be their new resting place.

Justin leaned over and gasped for breath, throwing his backpack onto the ground. Spark walked forward into the clearing, pacing anxiously around as he cast several glances to the patch of sky overhead. "It looks big enough," the pokémon's trainer muttered. "Go get the others."

Spark nodded and shot off into the trees, leaving Justin alone.

The boy crouched down, backing into the shadows beneath the trees and toward the shelter of a large bush. He shivered against the cold, his thoughts drifting back to the warm hotel he and Katie had spent their nights in since arriving at Stonedust City. It seemed like much more than a few months since he'd last camped out in the wilderness, and at the moment, he couldn't fathom why Damian preferred to sleep out in the open.

Katie was going back to Damian's old camp, retrieving his supplies and tent. She had already picked up their own supplies from the hotel; Katie had been smart enough to realize that there would be trouble if she was found and questioned – being Justin's roommate – by the police. She had gone back for the supplies the moment they'd informed her of the situation, and luckily had gotten in and out without any trouble. She had left behind just enough unnecessary items to give the impression she still planned to stay, thus, hopefully, removing suspicion.

Justin still couldn't believe what had happened. The image of the television screen above the city shop was burned into his mind. His worst fears had become a reality, and not for the reasons he'd thought they would. Almost subconsciously, he turned toward the darkness of the forest, longing for his jolteon's return.

This place was further from the city than any of their camps before. It had to be. The police would expect them to flee into the wilderness. They hadn't merely vandalized something; they had damaged, possibly irreparably, one of the most important historical buildings in the Inari region, and the rare and valuable information kept inside.

The bushes behind him twitched, and Justin jumped, only to breathe a sigh of relief as Spark came bounding back to him. He managed a small smile as the jolteon nuzzled him gently with his head.

Alex the floatzel darted in next, followed by Rosie and Wildflame. Justin found himself backing up toward them, knowing that the newest addition to the ragtag group of misfits was a scyther. One of those nasty fighting ring pokémon, too. When he found himself standing in the bright moonlight again, his thoughts shifted to wondering if the police had sent out flying types to search for him. He decided he was more afraid of the police than he was of scyther, and edged toward the undergrowth again.

However, the next pokémon to appear were Snowcrystal, Blazefang, and Arien. Both Snowcrystal and Blazefang were limping, but the growlithe seemed more exhausted than hurt. There was blood on the back of her neck, but the wounds only went as deep as her skin. The houndoom was a different story, but from what Justin could see, his wounds didn't look terribly deep. The bony ridges on his back seemed to have blocked most of the blows. However, he was walking on three legs; one of his shoulders was still glistening with blood. Justin had never liked the houndour – or now, houndoom – but he still felt worried. Would being injured make him weaker mentally, make it easier to trigger the Forbidden Attack?

As the two canine pokémon made it into the clearing, Arien arrived, walking slower than they were. The alakazam had no wounds, but he was still supporting Damian, who looked to be in a state of either shock or near unconsciousness. Justin wasn't sure which, but whatever the cause, Damian wasn't reacting to much of anything around him.

Justin turned away to let the alakazam deal with trying to find a place for his trainer to rest. He sat warily beside Spark, dreading the scyther's appearance yet opting to focus on that rather than on his more pressing fear.

Redclaw appeared next. The arcanine was moving as carefully as he could so as not to agitate the injured heracross on his back, but it was clear that it was proving to be a futile effort. Justin didn't know how badly Nightshade was hurt, but he didn't want to think about it. Nightshade was one of their strongest pokémon; they couldn't afford to lose him.

Once Redclaw had stepped into the clearing and lowered himself to the ground, Justin caught sight of movement in the darkness of the trees. He saw a flash of wicked blue eyes staring in his direction, and the shape of a scyther moved off, slinking away into the forest.

Spark, reluctant to leave his worried trainer, turned his attention away from Thunder, instead looking to the rest of the group. This was one of the times he wished his beloved trainer could understand his words; perhaps he and the other pokémon could reassure him somehow. But with Damian unable to respond much, and Katie currently fetching supplies, no one could help with that at the moment. But Spark could still be there to comfort Justin in whatever way he could, and when he felt the boy grip his fur tightly, the way he did whenever he wanted support, he knew that he was helping, even if only a little.

"So…what's the plan, Arien?" Spark asked, looking from one pokémon to another, wondering if they had any input as well.

"First, we need to conceal the camp," the alakazam responded, leaning Damian back against a thick tree. "Katie has a flying type, but all we've got now is Fernwing to help create a canopy. Anyone else able bodied, use whatever you can find to hide this clearing from all sides."

No one objected, and slowly, the uninjured pokémon got up, trudging into the unfamiliar forest. They vanished into the trees, leaving the wounded pokémon where they rested. Spark hesitated.

"Look," the jolteon began, "we've gotta find food. We have no idea where we are, and we need to know where the best hunting spots are if we're gonna-"

"Katie will get food from the city," Arien responded, cutting him off. The alakazam didn't even look at him; his attention was on Damian.

"And how long will that last?" Spark cried. "If they find out she's helping us they'll stop her. And for all we know, there could be hostile pokémon in this place! We didn't come this way when we left from Snowcrystal's mountain. We have no idea what we're up against here!"

Wordlessly, Arien released Fernwing from her poké ball, giving her the instructions. The tropius didn't argue, but merely nodded and flew off to find branches or vines she could stretch between the treetops surrounding the clearing.

"The least we can do is not leave this place unguarded," Spark continued. "We've got several injured pokémon here. I don't think I should-"

"Go," said Arien. "I've got Inferno and Todd to help as well."

Spark huffed, but stood up, feeling like arguing with the psychic type would be a waste of time. "Come on, Justin," he sighed, nudging the boy's side as a wordless means of communication. "Let's find bossy-pants some sticks and stuff."

Justin didn't need a translation to understand where Spark wanted him to go, but both of them halted in their tracks as a dark shape soared above the clearing. For a moment, Spark and Justin both prepared to dart into the cover of the trees, but as the pokémon descended, they both recognized Katie's pidgeot.

The bird pokémon was carrying bundles of supplies in his talons. Luckily, they seemed to have managed to get all of Damian's belongings. Pidgeot set the items down on one edge of the clearing and then landed. Katie hopped off his back and ran toward Damian and Arien.

"He's…going to be fine, right?" Katie asked.

The alakazam nodded, but motioned for her to leave. Katie ignored him, crouching down so that she was level with the other trainer. "Damian, what-"

"I'm just tired," Damian said softly, barely lifting his head to look at her.

"He…no longer has any severe injuries," Arien began, "but…." He trailed off, remembering that Katie could not make any sense out of his words, and he had no psychic link to her.

"That scizor did that?" she mused, straightening up. "Healing him, I mean? He can…really do that…"

"If it's a Forbidden Attack," Justin stated, "he shouldn't." Katie gave him a glare and he froze. "I meant that he shouldn't do it _again_ …obviously it's good that he did it that time!"

"What about the pokémon?" Katie asked, watching her pidgeot converse with Fernwing as the tropius returned with branches. She then ignored them to look at the group of injured pokémon, currently three pitiful-looking shapes lying in the grass. Damian's pokémon were all back in their poké balls.

"We can't take them to a pokémon center," she continued. "Or at least, not the growlithe or the heracross. They know what Nightshade looks like and he has that recognizable scar. And Snowcrystal…well, that goes without saying. Anyone who examines the wounds will see her fur is dyed."

"So what about Nightshade?" Justin began. "The growlithe isn't that hurt. But you take the others. Ignore any weird questions they ask. Say you found them in the wild or-"

"They know I was your roommate at the trainer hotel, Justin," she began. "If I turn in a heracross that looks just like the one that was registered to Damian…they're going to think I was connected to this. More importantly, they might find out I'm helping you both hide. But that's not the only reason I can't take him."

"What else, then?" Justin asked.

"Because he could get confiscated at the center," she began.

Justin remained silent.

"If they think a pokémon is connected to some crime or some criminal, they can confiscate it – keep it under their watch wherever they deem fit – until the whole thing is sorted out. He'd still be at the center but he couldn't…well, couldn't be set free. I think they usually put those pokémon up for adoption for other trainers if they turn out to have no owner or the trainer is deemed unfit. We couldn't do that to Nightshade without his consent…"

"So you're worried the heracross will get a trainer he doesn't like?" Justin blurted out. "Why don't you step in line to adopt him or something? We-"

"Did you not listen to what I was saying before?" she cried. "If I caught Nightshade, or wanted to adopt him, that would just give them another reason to be suspicious of me. I already had to be careful coming to find you out here without being seen. And don't you think it would seem really strange, bringing in that same heracross the very day they found out the names of the two trainers who set fire to the library?"

"Yeah, but-"

"And honestly, I don't know what happens to the pokémon they _don't_ put up for adoption," Katie continued. "Sure, the people at the pokémon center are great, but in these cases, pokémon that have any connection to crimes are taken away until everything's found out. And if everything's found out, they'll know I was helping you get away. Nightshade wouldn't belong to me anymore. He'd belong to the city."

"So why couldn't we-"

"You don't hear a lot about what goes on in that place, do you?" Katie snapped. "And no, I'm not talking about the fighting ring. I'm talking about the other things that go on. Not every pokémon facility is a reputable place like that breeding center you got Spark from. A lot of bad things are done to pokémon there and I don't just mean by the criminals."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Justin growled, his eyes narrowing.

"Plenty of abuse goes on in that city. And…and you know what happens if there are too many of certain wild pokémon too close to the city? They _kill_ them. If you don't believe me, I can look up the article on my pokégear because as much as the officials don't want you to hear about it, it's-"

"Okay, I get it!" Justin cried. "But don't you think it's kind of a stretch to assume they'd kill off Nightshade because-"

"No, I don't," she began. "An injured, possibly permanently disabled pokémon? Among the thousands of heracross they breed there for trainers? Why wouldn't they?"

Justin shook his head. "The nurses at the pokémon center wouldn't allow it."

"It wouldn't be up to them," Katie responded, turning away.

"You know, you're speaking right in front of them," Justin stated, gesturing toward the huddled forms of Blazefang and Snowcrystal, and nearby, the prone form of Nightshade. "We might not understand them but they can understand us. I don't think you're helping."

Katie looked ready to argue, but after a brief moment she merely turned her head and sighed. "Look, there are just too many risks. Including risk to you…and Spark. You're not supposed to be a trainer…what would happen to him?" Justin looked to her in shock, and she could tell that at least she had driven her point home.

"We'll take care of them ourselves," she said, walking over to the group of pokémon. "Damian knows the most about treating pokémon wounds; he can help us tomorrow. And I can still buy supplies from the city."

Katie examined Snowcrystal first. Running her fingers through the growlithe's fur, she found nothing but bruises, and quickly determined that they were not serious. The bite on her neck was a bit more worrying, but like Justin, she quickly realized that the puncture wounds hadn't gone deeper than her scruff. "This'll be easily fixed," she said to Justin. "I think she's mostly just exhausted from the fighting." She smiled a little as Snowcrystal licked her hand.

Katie moved on to Blazefang, who was lying in a heap beside the growlithe. She wasn't used to seeing the dark type in his much larger houndoom form. His new size made it a bit harder for her to maneuver him in order to see his wounds, but she managed it with little complaint from the houndoom.

"Most of these cuts aren't as bad as they look," she said after a moment. "At least…I don't think they are. We'll have Damian check in the morning. He's got a bad wound on his leg but I think it's mostly just the skin that's damaged. But his shoulder…that might pose a problem."

She stood up and walked over to Nightshade, suddenly dreading what she might find. The heracross's body was smeared with blood in places, and she wasn't sure where it was coming from. Now that Fernwing and Pidgeot were making a thick canopy overhead, there wasn't much light to see by. She took out a flashlight, flicking it on and turning it toward the motionless bug type.

"Turn that off, someone's going to see us!" Justin hissed in a frantic tone.

"No they won't," she replied, annoyed at Justin's paranoia. "Not unless they were standing right outside the clearing. Now, be quiet."

She shined the flashlight over the heracross, realizing at once that his worst wounds had to be internal. There wasn't much she could see just by looking at his body, and she knew that the tough shell and dark coloring would make it hard to see even the injuries that were close to the surface. She could see many of what looked like the beginnings of bruises, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

"It's hard to tell, but I think he's got some really bad internal injuries," she reported, addressing Justin rather than the pokémon around her. "And I think I've found out where the blood's coming from…" She moved the flashlight over the areas of Nightshade's body where his shell had been cracked, unable to properly analyze the open injuries due to the drying blood covering them. She didn't think it was a good idea for her to try to clean the wounds on her own. "Damian will have to deal with this," she said sadly.

Damage like this to a heracross's shell was more serious than a cut in a pokémon like growlithe or houndoom. She remembered vividly how long Nightshade had had to stay in the pokémon center when they'd first found him, after he was attacked by Thunder.

However, he had sported bad wounds before that happened, according to the pokémon. Scytheclaw had been the one to give them to him, and she knew the scizor's pincers could cut through just about anything. Nightshade was a tough pokémon; he had dealt with things like that. What worried her were the wounds she _couldn't_ see. The cracks could possibly be signs of worse damage underneath.

Yet, she couldn't bring herself to try to take him to the pokémon center. Justin didn't really understand what could happen, but he understood that it would make it far more likely that the police would follow her back to the camp. At least that would shut him up for a while. Maybe in the morning, when Damian could properly talk to them, they could really see how the pokémon felt about everything.

"I'm going to go back to the city to get some supplies," she told Justin, standing up. "I'll find the place again somehow." She looked up toward her pokémon. "Pidgeot, we're flying back now!"

Justin turned away as Katie mounted her pokémon, casting another nervous glance into the woods where that scyther was still lurking somewhere. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well with that creature slinking about, in spite of all the protection he had. The only one who seemed to have any power to reason with it was the heracross, and he wouldn't be able to do anything in his state. Perhaps, he thought, in the morning, they could use Arien and Damian to talk back and forth with him. Maybe he could convince the scyther to leave. She sure didn't seem like she wanted to stay.

Yet underneath all that, the biggest problem screamed at him loud and clear, and his mind was once again brought back to the fact that he had no idea what they were going to do next.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal woke up just as the sun was beginning to rise. Despite her fitful night's sleep, she was immediately alert, but she felt as exhausted as if she hadn't slept at all. Images of the previous night were still racing through her head – the fighting ring, the jeering trainers watching, the pokémon forced to kill and be killed, Darkfang's lifeless body, being forced to watch helplessly as Nightshade was beaten within an inch of his life, Damian getting shot in the chest – it seemed like some sort of twisted nightmare. But it had been all too real, and she had the wounds to prove it.

The previous night, Katie had treated her wounds to the best of her ability. She wasn't as old or experienced as Damian was, but she had taken care of Stormblade for a time, so she had obviously known what she was doing to some degree. The bite marks on her neck had been cleaned, and she had been given some strange tasting medicines to help with the pain and stop infection. A bandage had been fitted around her neck, and her amulet could still hang from her neck safely.

The center of the clearing seemed to have become a sort of infirmary for the group. Beside her was Blazefang, who was still asleep, curled up with his tail resting over his nose. Katie hadn't been sure what to do with some of his wounds, other than to clean and bandage them. She had seemed confident that he would heal in time, however, as long as infection was kept at bay. Across from the houndoom was Dusk. Damian's pokémon had all been sent out of their poké balls and looked over sometime during the previous night. The absol's injured paw had been treated, but instead of returning to his poké ball, he had decided to sleep outside with the others. There would have been a fourth pokémon joining them, but Scytheclaw had certainly not wanted to sleep near them, instead choosing to return to his poké ball. There was also Thunder, but she hadn't shown her face near the camp since they'd arrived.

Nightshade had been moved away from the others, near the corner of the clearing where two trees had grown very close together. Katie and a few of the other pokémon had quickly made a bed for him out of dead leaves the previous night, and when Katie got supplies from the city, she had brought back a thick blanket for him to lie on. As Snowcrystal looked in his direction, she could see him lying completely still, almost like he was a dead pokémon.

For a brief moment, alarm flared through her body, and she suddenly wondered if it were possible that Nightshade had died during the night. No one had really been able to assess his wounds properly, and they couldn't be sure what sort of internal damage he had sustained. She rushed over to him, heaving a sigh of relief when she realized that he was still breathing.

Though she realized the way she had reacted was probably silly, she couldn't help but notice that the heracross looked a lot worse than he had the previous night. Katie had obviously done her best to treat the wounds on the surface, but there wasn't much they could do for the internal ones other than to wait for them to heal. Nightshade didn't look like he was asleep, merely too exhausted to move.

"Don't worry, Nightshade," she told him. "You'll be all right."

Nightshade opened one eye weakly for a brief moment. "Thanks, Snowcrystal," he said quietly.

He looked so tired that Snowcrystal didn't want to bother him further. She quietly crept backwards and looked toward where Damian was sleeping.

The trainer was no longer there. Worried, Snowcrystal walked to the spot where he'd last been, noting that his scent was still fresh. Wherever he had gone, Arien had gone with him, and as she looked around the clearing, she realized that Katie and Justin were gone too. She heard a noise from somewhere nearby and saw Redclaw returning from the forest with Alex. The floatzel had a goldeen in her mouth, but Redclaw carried no prey.

"Where's Damian? And Justin and Katie?" Snowcrystal asked them. "I think we need to-"

"Katie went back to the city for supplies," Alex stated, setting down her prey. "You know, for Nightshade and the others. I think the other trainers left so Arien…well, Damian – since he's Arien's translator – could tell Justin what happened without bothering the pokémon who were asleep."

"Oh…that makes sense," Snowcrystal replied, though she wished they would come back soon. She knew that a lot of this would be news to Damian himself, as he was unconscious during the fight with Mausk's machamp. Nightshade now certainly needed help, though at least Blazefang and Dusk didn't seem to be in any danger or debilitating pain. "What about Scytheclaw?"

"I dunno," the floatzel shrugged uneasily. "I haven't seen him out of his poké ball. From what Arien told me he should be fine in a while though…at least I hope."

Snowcrystal was about to reply when she heard footsteps coming from the woods, and the sound of Justin's voice through the trees.

"You sure that lunatic isn't going to come after us?" he was saying, almost shouting it, and causing Blazefang to jolt awake and turn his head warily in their direction. "As if the police aren't enough, now we have to worry about some madman too?"

"He…he thinks I'm dead," came the reply from Damian. The trainer still sounded weak, but significantly less so than the previous night.

"But he probably realizes Blazefang's not," Justin responded. He emerged from the bushes into the clearing, Spark at his side.

"But he tried to have his pokémon kill Blazefang," Damian cried as he stumbled into the clearing after him, Arien beside him. "He obviously had no use for him, or else…"

"I don't know," Justin interrupted, "but I don't like it. We should get out of here as soon as we can."

"And go where?" Spark blurted out, realizing an instant later that his trainer could not understand. He looked to Arien as if hoping he would translate, but the alakazam was focused only on helping his trainer walk back to the clearing.

"Where _are_ we going to go?" Alex asked, but neither the growlithe nor the arcanine had an answer for her.

Justin pointed over to where Nightshade was resting on Katie's blanket. He turned to Damian. "You've gotta do something. You're the one who knows how to treat pokémon wounds out in the wilderness."

At this, Damian seemed to snap back into full alertness. He left Arien's side and walked shakily over to the heracross. From the look of horror on his face, Snowcrystal guessed that he hadn't been able to get a good look at Nightshade before Justin dragged him into the woods to explain things. "What…what on earth happened?"

"I thought Arien told you that," Justin replied. "He was fighting that Mausk guy's pokémon-"

"But he didn't say…" Damian trailed off, looking down at Nightshade. The bug type was almost completely unresponsive.

"That heracross is the reason you're still alive, so do something." Justin said. He looked down at Nightshade with what Damian guessed was a forlorn expression. " _We_ don't know what to do." He paused again. "And we can't take him to the pokémon center either."

"And why not?" Damian snapped, turning to glare at Justin.

"Because they're looking for any of your pokémon and they have a picture of him. That scar on his face is kind of a defining trait…it's not like he could easily be confused for some other heracross."

"So what?" Damian retorted. "I don't care if it's going to be a greater risk for us; we have to get him to the pokémon center."

"Katie says that if we do, Nightshade would be connected to the crime because he was once registered as your pokémon, and he'd be confiscated…she isn't sure what they'd do to him after that."

Damian hesitated, as if what Justin was saying had started to sink in, and he was now unsure how to respond.

"Why don't you and your psychic type ask Nightshade?" Justin continued. "See what _he_ thinks, since he's the one going to be affected by all this."

Damian turned his gaze downward. "Okay," he said, obviously trying to sound calm. "But later." He knew that Nightshade needed more rest before he could answer questions. "Right now, we need to do whatever we can to help him. Justin, grab one of the pokémon's water dishes and go find some water. Have Alex show you." He gestured to the floatzel, who still carried the goldeen.

As Justin left, Damian shakily reached a hand toward the injured pokémon, but the moment he touched Nightshade's shoulder, the heracross flinched and drew back. Even though he had treated Scytheclaw's injuries in the wild, Damian was beginning to feel a bit unsure of himself. He could clean the wounds where Nightshade's carapace had been broken or cracked, but most of the injuries were internal, and there was little he could do for that.

He looked over Nightshade, realizing that Katie had left one of her blankets for him to lie on, though now it was stained with blood in places and had several tears from Nightshade's claws. The heracross opened his eyes slowly, giving him a dazed look. Damian reached out and placed his hand on Nightshade's head. "It's all right…" he said, "you'll be all right. We'll figure this out." After a moment he stood up, walking to where his supplies had been dropped off the previous night. He came back with another blanket, which he draped over the heracross. "You can have it. I don't mind if you tear this one up too."

From where he was sitting, Blazefang tilted his head in Damian's direction. "Does he expect us to just stay here?" he asked Snowcrystal, giving the growlithe an alarmed look. "How are we going to get back to the library now?"

"Maybe Katie will-"

"Have you both forgotten that the library was set on fire?" Rosie asked, her frustrated glare traveling over the growlithe and houndoom. "What's there left to find?"

"It wasn't burned to the ground," Blazefang growled in protest. "All we'd need to do is wait for them to repair the damage and sneak back in."

"And until then, what are we going to do?" Rosie snapped. "Watch you incinerate everything that looks at you the wrong way until you're as mad as that Cyclone freak?"

"Stop!" Blazefang growled, his lips drawn back in a snarl. "If you have some sort of brilliant plan, I'd like to hear it. Otherwise-"

"Don't fight!" Snowcrystal cried, running between them. "I know you're worried, but...we're all on the same side here. We'll think of something, but we've got to work together, not against each other."

Blazefang gave a small snort and rolled his eyes, turning away from the other two fire types and curling back up on the grass.

Rosie watched him and huffed, but didn't try to argue further. "Fine, Snowcrystal," she stated. "I'll put up with these pokémon if I have to…but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"All right," Snowcrystal sighed, and the ninetales turned around to head to the other side of the clearing.

The sound of human footsteps stomping through the underbrush distracted her, and Snowcrystal turned around to see Katie walking back to the clearing. Her azumarill was beside her, helping to carry bags that she knew contained supplies for the pokémon. Blazefang immediately perked up, sniffing the air as he caught the scent of some sort of tantalizing pokémon food. Snowcrystal could smell it too, but at the moment she was a bit too worried to be very hungry.

"I brought food and medicine for the pokémon," Katie said, directing her words at Damian although she didn't look him in the eye. "You're the one more experienced with this stuff. What do we do?"

Damian remained crouched by Nightshade, thinking back to when he'd treated Scytheclaw's injuries out in the wilderness, before meeting Snowcrystal and the other pokémon. "Well," he began, "we can keep the wounds from getting infected, and give him medicine for the pain…but that's about it unless we take him to the pokémon center."

"We can't do that." she replied.

Damian turned back to the heracross. The wounds in Nightshade's shell were not cut cleanly, as the wounds he had gotten from Scytheclaw and Thunder had been, but instead were cracks created with a lot of force. If this was the damage on the outside, it was much worse on the inside. However, Nightshade didn't appear to be in any major danger, simply exhausted. Damian beckoned to Katie to come help him, and the two trainers readied themselves to do what they could.

Snowcrystal heard a sound coming from the bushes, and for a moment thought it was Justin returning with the water, but when she turned toward the sound she saw nothing. She heard a shout from Nightshade, presumably in reaction to the sting of the humans' medicines, and a blurred shape suddenly exploded from the underbrush.

"Back off!" a furious voice shouted, and Snowcrystal's eyes widened in surprised as she realized that Thunder had darted in front of Nightshade, and was staring down at the trainers furiously. Damian stumbled back frantically as Thunder made a warning slash in the air, but the scyther did not attempt to harm him.

"You're the one who needs to back off!" Wildflame growled, racing to stand protectively in front of the human. "He was trying to help."

Snowcrystal bristled, fearing that another argument was about to take place. "Thunder…" she began, trying to remember how Nightshade had spoken to the scyther. "They're just trying to help Nightshade be in less pain, okay?"

"I wasn't talking to _you_ ," Thunder spat, her eyes narrowing to slits.

The other pokémon in the clearing had begun to gather warily around the trainers, each of them watching Thunder with a sense of great unease. As much as she wanted to trust in Nightshade's judgment, a part of Snowcrystal didn't blame them for not trusting her.

"Thunder…" Nightshade's weak voice came from the leaf pile he was resting on. "It's all right…they're helping…not making it worse."

Thunder stiffened at the sound of his voice, looking at the heracross uneasily. Snowcrystal wondered if it was because of how weak he sounded at the moment, after the exhaustion of the previous night had caught up with him.

To her surprise, Thunder gave a brief nod before backing off, moving several paces back and allowing the trainers to approach Nightshade again. However, she kept a wary eye on them, and Snowcrystal could tell that she didn't trust them.

Thunder looked more stressed than she had when they'd left the arena the previous night, and she had an idea that it was because of Nightshade's condition. The scyther seemed worried, anxious, and as Snowcrystal tried to remember what Nightshade had said, she realized that Thunder probably wasn't used to feeling that way about another pokémon. Perhaps she was in some way worried that Nightshade was going to die, the way weakened pokémon always had during the course of her life as Mausk's slave.

Several of the other pokémon had started to close in around the trainer and Thunder, as if readying themselves for any sign of attack. Arien walked forward so that he was standing beside his trainer. He turned and gave Thunder an unreadable look, and when he opened his mouth to speak, Snowcrystal braced herself for another argument.

To her surprise, the alakazam seemed very calm, not at all tense and frantic like he had been the previous night. "Your friend will be taken care of," the alakazam tried to reassure her.

"Then they better do a good job," Thunder hissed in reply. "It's bad enough that we're stuck with the humans. And _you_ had better treat us with respect, understand?" She stepped forward, her blades lifting upward a small bit toward the psychic type.

"I understand," Arien replied calmly. "I'm sorry about the way I treated Nightshade earlier."

"Apologize to _him_ then!"

Further talk was cut off at the sound of a pokémon approaching, and Alex burst into the clearing, followed closely by Justin, who was carrying a bowl of water. The moment Justin stepped into the open, his eyes locked to Thunder and he began backing away, a horrified look crossing his face. Spark raced to his side, his fur bristling to spines. Snowcrystal knew that the jolteon was not going to hurt Thunder, and it was merely a way to reassure his trainer that he would defend him if the need arose.

"Calm down," Katie sighed in exasperation. "She's not doing anything. Give me the water."

Justin moved around the clearing in a wide circle, making sure to keep the other wild pokémon between himself and Thunder, until he was close enough to Katie to hand her the water.

Thunder glared at Justin, obviously noticing his unease, and the boy crouched lower beside Spark and backed off. They watched as Damian went back to tending Nightshade, waiting nervously as the tension between Thunder and the other pokémon slowly began to die down.

 

  
**-ooo-**

For the rest of the morning, both the pokémon and trainers rested, foraged for food, or helped set up the new camp in sullen silence. Once Nightshade had been left alone, Thunder had vanished into the forest again. Redclaw had taken up a role as the group's guard, and no one was quite sure whether he was looking out for hostile humans and pokémon, or for Thunder.

The whole clearing was dark and gloomy, even in broad daylight, thanks to the covering of branches the flying pokémon had woven above the clearing. Snowcrystal didn't like it. She was used to open sky. Even throughout most of their journey, they'd been in places where they'd had a lot of space to run. This felt too much like the caves they'd wandered through while trying to escape from Cyclone's army. Though logically she knew that the forest was much friendlier, she couldn't help but feel just as trapped. And she was worried for Nightshade; even though Katie had brought back several types of sap and honey from the city, the heracross hadn't even touched the bowls she'd poured it into. Snowcrystal had been around Nightshade enough to know that heracross fed often throughout the day, so she could tell this wasn't normal.

"Um…everyone?" Came a nervous voice from somewhere over near the heracross. Everyone in the group turned their heads as Damian stood up and walked to the center of the clearing. "Can I have your attention?"

"Hmph…what else have we got to do around here?" Blazefang muttered from where he lay, painfully shifting himself so he had a better view of the trainer.

"I…well, I just wanted to say…" Damian began, before pausing long enough that Katie and Justin shot him irritated looks. He sighed. "All right…I'm sorry for being incompetent. I'm sorry for ruining your lives. I'm sorry that I stink at heists, and impersonating gamblers, and…and not getting shot... I'm sorry for doing stupid and dangerous things and then not being able to come up with a solution when it goes wrong." He cast his gaze over the watching people and pokémon. More than a few of them had looks that seemed to demand him to go on. "I'm sorry that I helped burn down countless years worth of knowledge…and put us at risk of burning to death in the process." He paused. "And I'm also sorry that my pokémon got you all banned from the Pokémon Park. Scytheclaw has behavioral problems; I'll admit that now."

From beside Katie, Justin stood up from where he'd been kneeling. All the terror that he'd shown the group – of Thunder, of the police – was gone now, replaced by anger. "You… _idiot!_ " he hissed through gritted teeth. He pointed an accusing finger at Damian, stepping forward. "This is all _your_ fault!" he yelled. "You were the one who had to sneak into that library! And you didn't think they'd find our fingerprints? You didn't even think to bring _gloves_ , you incompetent moron?"

Damian looked taken aback. "I…I didn't think they'd actually arrest us for-"

"You set the library on _fire!_ You let a fire type become our distraction, against ghost pokémon who were willing to attack her! How did you think that was going to turn out?"

From where he was resting, Blazefang let out a growl, obviously not in the mood to have whatever peace and quiet he could find be disturbed. "And you agreed with him, dim-witted human," he growled, but his words were more out of frustration than anything, as Justin couldn't understand him.

"I think we'd all be safer with that psycho scyther than you!" Justin cried.

"Stop. Arguing. Now," Katie cried, glaring at Justin. "Or I'm going to fly right back to the city where I don't have to deal with this anymore."

At that, Justin went quiet. He gave Katie an unreadable stare. "What's stopping you, then?"

Katie didn't answer, but instead walked toward Damian. The pokémon watched her in silence until she came to stand beside him. "It's nobody's fault," she announced. "Snowcrystal didn't mean to set fire to the library…nobody meant for any of this to happen. But we can't start arguing about it. We need a plan."

Damian looked to Katie with grateful surprise, but after a moment lowered his gaze to the ground and shuffled his feet awkwardly. As Snowcrystal watched him, she realized that deep down, he probably knew that Justin was right, that he and the others had every right to be angry with him.

"I'm going to go look around," he mumbled to no one in particular, walking toward the trees. As he did so, he sent out all his pokémon, all of whom but Arien had been resting in their poké balls for the majority of the morning. "All of you, stay here."

"Hey," Inferno muttered, turning to his companions. "Where's he going?"

Scytheclaw shot the flareon an irritated look. "He told you to stay here, so it's probably none of your business."

"Sorry," the fire type murmured sadly.

"Be careful, Damian," Katie said to him as he reached the edge of the clearing.

Scytheclaw turned away from his teammates, still kneeling on the ground. The scizor looked completely drained of energy, and it looked to Snowcrystal like he was only still kneeling out of pride; it seemed like a wonder he didn't topple over. She could see dark bruises all around his neck from where the Machamp had grabbed him. The steel type watched as Damian walked into the forest, and then stood up.

"I'm going with him," he announced.

"Good," Rosie stated, obviously not taking into account his weakened state. "It's probably dangerous in this rotten forest."

"Yeah," Spark chimed in, a grin spreading across his face. "Trainers should always remember to bring safety scizors!" Though most of the pokémon didn't understand his joke, it got a laugh from Rosie.

Ignoring them, Scytheclaw took a step forward. His leg immediately buckled, and he stumbled to the ground, too weak to even catch himself. He lay on the ground, his eyes widened in surprise as if he hadn't expected to fall that easily.

"Scytheclaw?" Snowcrystal asked, running up to the scizor and giving the side of his face a few quick licks. "Was it this bad before, when you-"

"Leave me alone," Scytheclaw hissed, and the growlithe backed up.

"Hey, uh, she was just trying to help," Spark spoke up, the joking tone in his voice gone. When Scytheclaw didn't answer, he turned to look at Rosie, who made her way over to him. "Everyone's sure in a rotten mood," he began, "but we shouldn't take it out on each other."

"Yeah," Rosie agreed, flattening her ears as she came to stand beside the jolteon. "Take it out on Mausk and his awful pokémon."

"Yeah. Let's just hope we don't run into them again," Spark replied with a half-hearted chuckle, nudging Rosie's shoulder. She managed a small smile in return.

 

  
**-ooo-**

By the time night had started to fall, no one had yet come up with any sort of plan of action. Yet they didn't seem to mind, most of them too exhausted to do much of anything. Everyone seemed willing to let that discussion happen another day. Damian had returned from the forest, bringing a few plants with healing properties he had managed to find, as well as several types of berries and fruits. She could tell Damian was doing his best to put his knowledge to good use.

Katie walked slowly over to Nightshade from across the clearing. She had gone back to the city just before dark, bringing back more supplies as well as food for the pokémon. Snowcrystal looked up from the bowl she was sharing with Blazefang, Spark, and Rosie. She left the others to the food and crept up behind the trainer.

Katie was holding another blanket in her hands, one that looked a lot newer than the others the trainers kept with them. She moved the one Damian had given him, wrapping it around his front limbs, and carefully spread her own across the heracross's back. "It's going to be cold tonight," she said, and Nightshade tilted his head up a small fraction to look at her. Katie reached down to where he was lying and ran her hand across the back of his head, and he closed his eyes. She then glanced toward the bowls of food she had left out for him, which remained untouched. She sighed as she stood back up and then walked back toward her tent.

Snowcrystal quietly moved toward Nightshade. He had hardly moved the entire day, except when he needed to crawl into the forest to relieve himself. She knew the humans had brought him pain medicine from the city, stronger than any of the berries or herbs they might find in the forest, and though it helped greatly, it still wasn't enough.

Nightshade heard her coming before she reached him, and opened his eyes. She was surprised – and glad – to see that he didn't look distraught, or stressed. He mostly just looked tired. She could tell he was still in some pain, despite the effects of the medicine, but he looked surprisingly calm, even peaceful, especially in comparison with the rest of the group.

"Snowcrystal?" he asked quietly, wincing as he looked up and accidentally shifted his injured arm. "Is something wrong?"

"No…I…just wanted to make sure you'll be okay tonight," she said.

He smiled at her, looking genuinely touched that she was showing him concern. "Don't worry," he assured her. His voice was weak and raspy, yet still warm and gentle. "I'll get well. It will just take some time. The trainers will take good care of me."

Snowcrystal hadn't mentioned that she was afraid that Nightshade's health would take a rapid decline from the state it was already in, but he had seemed to guess exactly what she was thinking. Still, even if Nightshade was beginning his long road to recovery, she couldn't help being concerned. "I'm still worried about you," she said.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said reassuringly.

"I know that," she began, a bit confused. "But…of course we're still worried. You would be, if what happened to you happened to any of us, wouldn't you?"

Nightshade stared back at her a moment before replying, "Yes…yes of course I would. But Snowcrystal, you should-"

"It's not really bothering me," she said. "I just want to help. And besides, you spent so much time trying to protect us. Now it's our turn to do the same for you." She gave Nightshade a small lick. "We're family now. That's what families do."

Nightshade looked to her in silence for a moment, and this time, his look was filled with joy, despite his tiredness.

"I just wish you hadn't had to do that," Snowcrystal sighed.

"We'd probably all be dead if I hadn't," Nightshade replied. "But it's okay. I'm glad I could protect my family this time."

Snowcrystal looked at him, remembering what he'd told her when they'd wandered to where he and the group of heracross he'd lived with had once called their home. But Nightshade didn't look sad. Underneath the pain and tiredness, he looked happy that they were safe, grateful for Snowcrystal's concern.

And for the first time that day, she could truly believe that they would find a way through the new threats that had arrived. They always had, and she knew she wouldn't want to face a new threat alongside any other pokémon than the ones that rested around her. She realized that, despite the relatively short time they'd had to get to know each other, she felt just as at home with them as she did with the growlithe tribe back at the mountain.

Yawning, she took another look around the clearing, seeing Wildflame, who was standing guard, give her a nod, and Rosie smile at her from beneath a leafy bush. Then she curled up beside Nightshade, and soon they had both fallen asleep.

_To be continued..._


	61. Deal with the Devil

Cyclone's army had reached the foot of Articuno's mountain.

Under the pale light of the moon, many of the elite pokémon who had been chosen to accompany Cyclone paced restlessly at the mountain's foot. They were waiting to begin the journey to the summit, yet Cyclone held them back, not ready to leave until his scouts returned with information.

"You don't think Articuno's taken the stone and left, do you?" a rhyperior asked, nervously shuffling his feet as he looked up at the snow drifting down from the mountain peaks.

"There's no way the scouts would have missed it if he had," Solus answered him instead. The espeon looked agitated as he emerged from the shadows near the edge of the group. "Articuno's up there all right. And if he tries to flee, we could always send the yanmega after him. Not even an ice and flying type legendary could stand up to a Forbidden Attack, even if it's the bug one."

"Yenn is inexperienced," Cyclone interjected, not even turning his head to Solus. "He has not had a chance to use his Forbidden Attack yet; it would be very weak."

Solus just gave a huff of irritation.

Cyclone continued, "He likely couldn't strike multiple pokémon at the same time with it. Articuno's followers would surely kill him before he got far, even if he managed to take several of them down first. As of now, I am the only one who can do this."

"Then let's get this done," Solus responded determinedly, "we need to start looking for the next one."

Cyclone nodded. He straightened up, looking over each of the pokémon standing in a circle around him. "Remember," he announced, "Articuno has no means to tell that we have Forbidden Attacks on our side. He'll think he can defend the mountain from us. The scout that returned earlier told me that Articuno has hundreds of flying and ice types on the cliffs ready to fight us."

"And you plan to…" the rhyperior began.

"Kill them all if I have to, yes," was the vaporeon's reply. "But only once I'm close enough that Articuno will get caught in the crossfire. That is why I am only taking a small group up with me. I don't want a large battle to happen if it doesn't need to."

"We could always send up a lot of the weaker members," a rapidash suggested. "Let Articuno's minions waste their time on them."

"We don't need to lose any of our number unless we have to," Cyclone replied. He looked over the pokémon gathered around him. "But expect to run into trouble. Articuno may not know I have a Forbidden Attack, but even though we're taking a small group, he won't be fooled into thinking we have peaceful intentions for long."

"Should I go get Itora now?" an excadrill asked.

"Solus and I will greet her when everything's ready," the vaporeon responded, nodding to Silverbreeze. The scyther slunk off to check on one of the groups of battle-ready pokémon who were lying in wait in case Articuno or his followers tried anything funny.

"Very well," the mole-like pokémon stated. "And we're not taking either of the others?"

"No," Cyclone answered. "Yenn and Ashend must wait until they've practiced their Forbidden Attacks in the caves before they can take on such a potentially dangerous mission."

"The scouts are returning," a stocky houndoom, formerly a member of Blazefang's pack, spoke up.

Cyclone noticed the small shapes of two of the bird pokémon scouts heading their way through the nighttime gloom. "Thank you, Boneclaw," he said. He motioned with his tail for the group of pokémon to gather closer around him. "Now let's see what they have to say."

 

  
**-ooo-**

On one side of the mountain's base, a group of large, bluish stones covered a wide range of an otherwise flat field. The rocks were tall and steep, many of them forming small canyons or caves. But most importantly, they served as a shelter from the elements, from the wind and the cold moving down from the mountain.

Not just any pokémon was allowed to shelter there. The best places were reserved for Cyclone's most important commanders and higher-ups, and of course, his three chosen Forbidden Attack users.

At the moment, none of the three were in their designated resting areas. Instead, they rested on a stone ledge on the edge of a wide, open area, almost like a forest clearing among the tall rocks. Several of the army's underlings moved back and forth between the stones, either carrying food or reporting messages to some of Cyclone's commanders.

"I hate it here!" Yenn shouted, hovering in the air a few feet above the ledge and flapping his wings more rapidly in an attempt to warm himself.

Itora glanced at the yanmega and sighed, before calling a charmeleon over. "Turn up the heat," the manectric ordered, flicking her paw toward the pile of debris that was currently smoldering beneath the ledge the three of them rested on. The fire type nodded respectfully to her and blew a small stream of flame into the pit. Instantly the fire roared to life again, and Itora ordered the charmeleon to fetch more wood. She knew it might take a while; there was very little to burn so close to the ice mountain, and no one dared venture up to the peaks to bring branches from the trees.

Yenn landed back on the ledge, scooting closer to the edge where he could best feel the heat of the flames. Itora looked over at Ashend, and even the ghost type looked annoyed by the chill.

"I sure hope they don't have to go through anything like this to get one of those stones again," Yenn growled, turning the attention of the other two to him again. "I've waited too long to rip out some humans' throats."

"We all have," Ashend agreed.

"Cyclone says we need more pokémon who can use these special attacks," the yanmega continued. "How long is it going to take?"

"You've waited this long. You can wait a while longer. We're getting there," the misdreavus said reassuringly.

Itora's attention was diverted from the others as she noticed a small and frightened azurill. The tiny pokémon bounded up to a mean-looking sawsbuck to give him some sort of message. The manectric gave an annoyed huff. "Why does Cyclone even let pokémon like _that_ into the army?" the manectric asked, tearing a leg off the pidgey that one of the lower-ranking pokémon had recently brought to her. "It doesn't even make a good servant. What a waste!"

"At least it's good for something," Ashend replied, watching the sawsbuck conversing with it in low tones, looking interested in whatever the water type had told him. The sawsbuck then ordered it away, and the azurill bounded frantically toward one of the openings in the rocks. "At least it… _tries_ to do a decent job."

"Yeah, sure," Itora muttered, and glanced to her side, where the ghost type was floating above a large offering of berries and fruits. The misdreavus looked deep in thought, settling back into the silent mood she had been in ever since they'd arrived at the foot of the mountain that evening.

"You've been quiet," Itora muttered. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, dear," Ashend replied. "I was just thinking. It looks like Cyclone's only going to be taking a small group up the mountain. I sure hope his Attack is as powerful as they say…" She paused. "You may run into trouble."

"I'll be _fine!_ " Itora sighed in exasperation. "Cyclone told us that our attacks will be able to defeat _any_ pokémon." She gave the ghost type a defensive look. "Of course it's powerful enough."

"And I'm sure Cyclone will make sure they _don't_ run into trouble," Yenn added. "Cyclone wouldn't be going up there if he didn't have a good plan to steal that stone from Articuno. That's not something he would take lightly."

"I suppose we'll soon see," the ghost type replied, but they could tell she was both annoyed at Itora's callous attitude and worried about what the manectric might have to face.

A group of scared-looking pokémon approached the rock ledge. A trembling dedenne held more berries, while a persian and a pidgeotto carried prey. All three of them were staring longingly at the array of food placed on the ledge for Cyclone's chosen three, and the sight of the hapless pokémon made Itora's sparse fur bristle.

"What are you _looking at?_ " she shouted, leaping up to all fours, scattering some of Ashend's berries in the process. "Give us the food and get out of here!" The three pokémon obediently placed the prey and berries onto the ledge and left in a hurry. "And bring us better ones!" Itora watched them go with narrowed eyes and bared teeth, then once they'd vanished from sight, she sat back down, scratching at a patch of irritated skin with her hind leg.

"What's your problem?" Yenn asked her. His wings were twitching a bit, a sure sign that he was feeling nervous or restless.

"They looked at me funny," Itora growled at the yanmega, baring her teeth. "I'm tired of everyone looking at me funny. Don't _you_ get tired of everyone staring at your nasty scar?" Yenn didn't reply and Itora turned back to the new food she had been given. "And I don't want this stupid rattata they brought either." The manectric leaned her head down and proceeded to rip the prey to shreds, tossing the scraps over the ledge and into the fire. "Where is Cyclone?" she cried out angrily. "Why do we have to wait here so long?"

"I believe he's waiting for the scouts," Ashend told her, trying to hide her worry as she knew it annoyed the manectric. "He's probably trying to figure out the best plan of action as we speak, so try not to worry."

Itora just growled and continued to tear her prey apart. Yenn reached forward with one of his legs, pulling the rattata away from her. "Will you stop that?" he shouted. "You're being disrespectful."

" _You're being disrespectful_ _,_ " Itora called back in a mocking voice, trying to imitate Yenn's. "Who cares. They're just prey pokémon."

"Don't waste prey, got it?" the yanmega replied. "It's not right to kill another pokémon if you're not going to eat it."

Itora sighed in exasperation. This was one of Yenn's annoying quirks that sometimes got on her nerves. Even the previous night, when he'd beheaded the dead sandslash out of anger toward the humans, he hadn't left it that way for long before eating it. Why he cared so much, she wasn't sure. It wasn't like they were going around murdering every prey pokémon they saw for the fun of it.

"I'm not the one who killed it, genius," she shot back. Yenn was too busy eating the remains of her prey to reply. For a moment Itora clawed angrily at the stone beneath her feet, where the tattered prey used to be, then she sighed again. "I still don't know what's taking so long. I should have been on that mountain by now!"

Yenn stopped eating to look at her again. "Look, Cyclone knows what he's doing, Itora," he tried to reassure her. "If he's waiting, there's a reason. Try to relax. Cyclone and the others will probably show up to take you to the mountain at any moment."

Itora wasn't listening to him. Her attention had been drawn to a pokémon who was making his way through the maze of blue stone off to the right of their ledge. The pokémon was bipedal, with tan-colored fur and a long tail that oozed a strange green fluid at the end. A smeargle.

Itora knew that the smeargle used his tail to paint drawings of Cyclone and the other higher up pokémon, marking their sleeping areas as well as other important meeting places for the army whenever they stopped. Cyclone seemed to find that useful enough, because she had never seen the smeargle do anything else. When he wasn't using his painting abilities to help with the army's organization, he was drawing murals on any suitable surface he could find, usually depicting Cyclone or symbols representing the Attack stones. Itora was sure he was only doing it to suck up to Cyclone, which irritated her to no end.

"I really hate that guy…" the manectric muttered under her breath, before shouting, "You! Smeargle! Come here!"

The tan and brown pokémon, who had been crouched down next to one of the taller stones, turned his head to look up at her. Wordlessly he let go of his paintbrush-like tail and stood up before walking silently over. Itora had never heard him speak a word, and she wasn't even sure if he could, and he was just as silent as always when he came to stand in front of their ledge.

"Listen up," Itora shouted, her lips curling back in a snarl. "Go find Cyclone and a pokémon who can actually relay a message for me. I want to know what's going on _right now._ "

The smeargle gave her a look that might have been one of confusion, but he stayed put.

"Hey, did you hear her?" Yenn growled in irritation, his wings buzzing once before lying flat again. "She told you to do something, so just _do it._ "

The smeargle cringed back from the sight of the large dragonfly-like pokémon. He gripped his tail between his paws, glancing from Yenn to Itora nervously.

"What are you looking at?" Itora growled dangerously. Her gaze briefly darted to a patch of her own scabbed, nearly hairless skin, and then to Yenn's scars, before she looked back at the silent normal type. "You're lucky you're too stupid to talk because I bet you have something to say. I'll-"

She shot a bolt of electricity at the smeargle, whose eyes widened as he darted away, running toward the nearest exit from the rocky area as if he'd only just decided to take Itora seriously.

Yenn jumped back, his wings raised as the electricity crackled near his feet. "Watch it!"

"Sorry," Itora mumbled. "I just don't like the way that smeargle thinks he can just wander wherever he wants, whenever he wants, never helping or doing anything useful. He doesn't have a special kind of Attack like we do. He should learn his place. In fact, most of the pokémon in this army could stand to respect us more."

"I think they're a little preoccupied," Yenn muttered.

Itora was going to reply, but she was quickly distracted by the sight of the three pokémon from earlier, the persian, dedenne, and pidgeotto. They were hurriedly scampering over to her and the others, this time with new berries and prey items. Itora looked over the new prey the pidgeotto was carrying, and seemed satisfied when he dropped it at her feet.

The persian carried a slakoth this time, which he deposited at Yenn's feet on the other side of the ledge. Yenn mumbled some thanks before he leaned down and started to bite chunks out of the slakoth's head with his fangs.

Itora looked down at the plump buneary at her feet. "That's more like it," she told the pidgeotto and persian over the sound of the crunching of bone coming from the yanmega. "Remember, you bring us the _best_ food. I don't care if you're new, that should go without saying!"

"Yes, Itora," the pidgeotto stammered, as he and the others turned and headed away again.

As she watched them with satisfaction, Yenn lifted his head, licking drops of blood from his fangs. "Someone should get us some water," he muttered under his breath.

Itora didn't even answer him. She stood up to full height, picking out an armaldo that was speaking with a group of pokémon. "You there! Get water!" she shouted, and the pokémon immediately stopped what he was doing and rushed toward a gap in the rocks that led to a nearby stream. Itora turned to Yenn. "You know they have to do whatever we want. I can even make the big tough pokémon do our bidding."

"Very impressive. It's not like you haven't been doing that since you got here," Yenn replied, his words more than a bit sarcastic. But she could see that there was also humor in his words, and it looked like his tense mood was finally starting to fade. When he went back to tearing into the slakoth carcass, Itora could tell that he was at least a bit more relaxed.

Ashend, however, was less than amused. The misdreavus gave her new pile of berries a disinterested look. "Why they think I need this many berries I'll never understand," she mused. "I don't even _need_ to eat them; misdreavus like me have other ways of getting nourishment."

"Oh, come on, stop complaining," Itora replied. "Yeah, you and I don't need to eat all the time the way Yenn does, but so what? We should have food available for whenever we want it! We were chosen by Cyclone himself to be the Attack users. We deserve it."

"Speaking of Cyclone…" the misdreavus interrupted, and Itora turned her head to see a group of pokémon – headed by the vaporeon leader himself – making their way through the maze of tall stones toward them.

Yenn, who had been grooming his front legs after his meal, snapped to attention, and Itora did her best to look regal. Ashend remained as she was, casually inspecting the berries in her pile as Cyclone and the others approached.

"We're ready," the vaporeon announced, and Itora couldn't contain her excitement as she bounded down from the ledge.

"Finally!" the manectric shouted, coming to stand beside the army's leader. "Let's go then."

She heard the buzzing of wings as Yenn left his perch, hovering near the group of pokémon getting ready to leave. Ashend floated calmly over to them as well, addressing Cyclone with a tone of respect. "Do you want Yenn and I to come?" she asked him.

"No," Cyclone answered. "You two will stay here. I am only taking a small group."

That seemed to satisfy both Ashend and Yenn, and Itora knew that neither the misdreavus nor the yanmega were eager to travel across a freezing mountain. The only reason _she_ wasn't worried about the cold was that Cyclone was going to make sure there were fire pokémon around her to keep her warm the whole time. She imagined it would have been a good deal more difficult to provide enough heat for pokémon that flew or drifted through the air the way her friends did.

"So what is the plan?" Itora asked calmly, trying not to show much impatience now that they were about to be on their way. "How are we going to get past Articuno?"

"We aren't," Solus answered, the espeon appearing from the back of the group of elite pokémon. "We head to the top of the mountain, and as soon as Articuno shows up, Cyclone will take him out with his Attack." Solus's words were tense and angry, as if having to be in the mere presence of Itora was making him seethe with rage on the inside.

Itora and Ashend exchanged looks of silent surprise, a mixture of both shock and apprehension on their faces. However, they quickly suppressed it, and Itora turned back to Cyclone with an incredulous look. "Wait…you're saying your Attack is strong enough to work…against a _legendary?_ "

"This will not be the first time I've used it," Cyclone responded calmly, speaking as if he were trying to soothe the manectric's fears. "In fact, I have used it several times, before you three were brought into the army. It will be strong enough. I promise."

"And you said the Attacks get stronger with each use, right?" Itora asked.

"Yes, that is correct," Cyclone said with a nod.

"And…you're actually going to…going to-"

"Then so be it," Ashend interrupted, all surprise gone from the ghost type's features, to be replaced with a cold indifference. "Articuno never helped the likes of pokémon like us."

At this, Itora seemed much less uneasy. "That's right," she growled. "If he's standing in our way, he's on the humans' side. And you know what we've said about any pokémon on the humans' side. I don't care how powerful he is!" Her voice rose to a shout as she said the last few words.

"Wait a minute…" Yenn began, still hovering near Ashend. There was a look of shocked surprise on his face, as if he was still trying to comprehend what he'd just heard. " _'Take him out?'_ You mean you're going to…"

"These attack powers are meant to _kill_ , yanmega!" Solus growled, as if his anger had reached a tipping point. "I thought we went over that long before we'd found you your stone." The espeon's eyes had started to glow, a faint tinge of psychic energy that cast an eerie light on the ground around him. It glinted off the red Team Rocket symbol on the collar he still wore, for reasons Yenn could only guess.

"You did _not_ tell me we were going to be killing legendaries," the bug type shouted back. "How could you even think-"

With a growl, Solus stepped forward, close enough that his face would have been mere inches from the yanmega's if Yenn had been standing on the ground. It was obvious that the espeon had been greatly frustrated for some reason, and Yenn's outburst had been the final straw, because when he spoke, Solus's words dripped poison. "If you have a problem with any of this, I can easily arrange to give _you_ a turn in the torture ring!" Solus snarled. "I don't care whether you have that Attack or not! No one-"

His voice was immediately cut off as Cyclone's paw struck him across the face, the vaporeon's blunt claws raking through his fur. Solus staggered backwards in shock, staring at the vaporeon with his mouth agape.

"He is the bug type Attack stone user," the vaporeon growled, his voice taking on an uncharacteristically angry tone as he stepped toward Solus, looming over the shaking espeon. "And you will treat him with _respect._ "

Solus stared at Cyclone in disbelief before shooting a glance back at Yenn, who stared at him incredulously before baring his fangs at the psychic type in anger. The espeon heard a series of small giggles, and turned to see Itora, grinning at him with triumph plastered all over her face. The sight made him seethe with rage, but nevertheless he bowed his head to Cyclone. "I apologize," he muttered through gritted teeth.

As Solus walked to the back of the group, Yenn couldn't help but notice that a lot of the nearby pokémon who had seen the spectacle looked pleased with Solus's telling-off. In the two months since he'd been welcomed into the army, Yenn had come to learn that the sadistic espeon was universally disliked among all but some of the higher-ups. He ignored the other pokémon, focusing instead on Cyclone himself as the vaporeon took a step toward him.

"I am greatly sorry if this upsets you," Cyclone began, nodding his head politely to the yanmega. "But he is not the only articuno out there. There are others, in other regions. And at this point, the articuno in Inari has chosen to ally himself with the humans."

At these words, Yenn felt a large portion of his misgivings fading away. "I understand," he said, though his words still left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Legendary or not," Itora growled, "in the end he's still just another pokémon…and a traitorous one at that."

"We're heading out now," Cyclone told the group. "And Solus…" The espeon perked his head up at the sound of his name. "Don't let me ever hear you threatening Yenn…or either of the others again."

"Of course not," the espeon growled, and though it seemed as if he was frustrated with Cyclone, Itora and the others could tell that his anger was directed at _them_ , not the army's leader.

Itora proudly walked after the small group Cyclone had gathered. She kicked her paw out at Solus as she did so, which nearly caused the espeon to trip. As they moved toward one of the natural pathways leading the way out of the rocky labyrinth, Yenn and Ashend hovered together, watching them.

"Try not to worry," Ashend told the yanmega gently. "Cyclone knows what he's doing. Itora will be fine."

Yenn was silent, but he nodded.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Around an hour later, cold blasted Itora's face as she shakily climbed the mountain, several of Cyclone's guards surrounding her. She wasn't used to traveling at such a fast pace, and in spite of her eagerness to reach the top, she was finding that her strength was waning. And in spite of the magmar that was keeping her warm by using fire attacks nearby, she was shaking with cold. The fact that her fur was thinned out and only sparsely covered her body didn't help. Still, she refused to show her discomfort, and stubbornly placed one paw in front of another, squinting her eyes against the wind.

They were not anywhere close to the mountain's peak. She had no idea how they could keep going like this. Groups of Articuno's pokémon had already swarmed them more than once, and occasionally one of the flying types would swoop down for her specifically, as if they could tell she was being guarded. She had been able to take them out fairly easily with her electric attacks when she got the chance, but most of the time her bodyguards dealt with it before she could.

At the moment, it seemed as if Articuno's pokémon were trying to keep them from going forward rather than attacking them all at once. Maybe, she thought, they were saving their biggest, strongest forces for the rest of Cyclone's army. They'd assume that the army was waiting to attack, she figured, and wasting their energy on pokémon who, although strong, were few in number, must seem like a waste of time. At least she hoped. Itora wasn't keen to fight a huge number of the ice and flying types at once.

The pokémon of the mountain were scared, she could tell. Not of her or Cyclone's small group, but of the army waiting below. They had probably never seen a collection of pokémon so grand, pokémon that could exploit every weakness any of the ice mountain pokémon had. She thought that they must know, deep down, that they could never win in a confrontation. Articuno must know too, she reasoned, but they had seen no sign of him yet.

Maybe he was hiding, Itora thought. The fastest scouts had been tracking Articuno's movement long before the army had arrived at the mountain; the legendary had never tried to flee. She imagined that once he realized what was waiting for him, he knew it was too late. With the amount of flying types Cyclone had on his side, they were sure to be able to catch up to an articuno and, at the very least, take the stone if he'd tried to escape with it. Perhaps he was just a coward, curled up in a mountain cave somewhere sniveling behind his wall of warriors.

Or maybe, she thought, he stayed behind out of some pathetic loyalty to the ice types who couldn't fly. She snickered to herself at the thought; it was quite a silly thing for a legendary to do. She herself made a point _not_ to care about other pokémon. Ashend and Yenn were the only exceptions to that rule.

At the moment there was a calm, a lull in the attacks. Cyclone kept pushing them on, not willing to let anyone stop for a rest. One of the pokémon, already exhausted from the climbing, gave an annoyed grunt. "And why couldn't we send flying types to do this?"

"Like I said," Cyclone responded without looking back. "There is no need for senseless bloodshed."

Itora knew that he was talking about the death toll the army would take if Cyclone's flying types had tried to attack Articuno right away. The only reason Cyclone would have even let them try was if Articuno had made the choice to flee.

Itora glared at the pokémon who had complained. "What's the matter?" she said in a mocking tone. "Too hard for you? I can do it and I barely have any fur. What's the matter with _you?_ "

"Quiet," Cyclone said, and Itora closed her mouth, knowing that if Cyclone had spoken, it must be for something important.

Up ahead, the line of bird pokémon waiting on the higher cliffs seemed to have shifted. More pokémon seemed to be adding to their ranks, and as she squinted, she could see far enough in the nighttime darkness to notice black shapes moving closer and closer to the waiting pokémon watching them. They were forming a line, a barrier, and one even more ominous and threatening than before. In spite of her nature, Itora found fear growing in her mind. It looked as if they were about to be attacked.

What happened next was the last thing she would have expected.

An icy wind, stronger and much more powerful than any she had encountered before, washed over them, causing her to shriek in pain as it bit at her exposed flesh. Some of the other pokémon nearly tumbled backward from the blast, and Itora could hardly see through the snow that swirled into the air as thickly as a sandstorm.

The freezing blast died down almost as quickly as it had begun, and the manectric's eyes widened as she realized that, standing on a spur of snowy rock, only a short distance from the traveling group, was the legendary Articuno.

Itora had never before seen a legendary pokémon, merely heard descriptions and seen human pictures of them. They had been the subject of many stories she'd heard as a pup, and many a time she had pictured them in her head, but seeing one was different. Articuno was larger than any bird pokémon she had ever seen, his icy blue feathers both stunning and fierce at the same time. He seemed to embody the element of ice, completely in his element among the freezing mountain peaks. And he was glaring straight at them, furious with them for what they had done. Once again, she felt afraid.

Yet this pokémon, legendary bird or not, stood between her and the stone that would help her bring down the humans. She narrowed her eyes and told herself that, legendary or not, Articuno was just as much a piece of scum as the pokémon that willingly battled for trainers and lived among human cities.

Most of the other pokémon in her group seemed frozen in shock, scared or uncertain. Cyclone was the only one out of all of them that remained completely calm as he faced the great ice bird.

Articuno took a step forward, standing on the very edge of his rock. His talons crunched through the snow to click loudly on the stone beneath, and though his wings were folded at his sides, every pokémon watching could tell that he was ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"Leave this place," Articuno demanded, and though the side of the mountain was howling with wind, his voice stood out clearly above everything else. "Do not threaten those who live on this mountain any longer. Take those pokémon waiting at the bottom of the mountain and leave now."

"I am sorry," Cyclone answered, his voice much quieter, less charged with emotion. Itora could barely hear it over the wind, but Articuno seemed to pick up on the vaporeon's words just fine. "But I have no intention of doing that."

Articuno gave no warning. There was no reply to Cyclone's words, no hesitation before he leaped into action. The legendary bird shot off from the rock spur directly toward the vaporeon himself, talons outstretched and mouth open, ready to launch an attack.

As the gap between the legendary and army leader closed, Itora could hear Cyclone whisper a few words:

"Very well."

And then his eyes began to glow.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Sometime during the night, Nightshade woke up.

He was not sure what had roused him, whether it was pain or simply some noise from the forest, but as he became more aware, he realized that someone was trying to sneak into the camp. He tensed, wondering why any human or pokémon would be snooping around their clearing, before he realized that the black shape was Thunder. He let himself relax, feeling Snowcrystal shifting in her sleep beside him, but the white growlithe didn't wake up.

Thunder crept silently around the sleeping groups of pokémon, who were so exhausted that not a single one of them stirred, and came to stand beside Nightshade. The heracross realized that she was holding something in her mouth, a scraggly clump of branches that had been cut from a bush. The scyther set it down next to him, and Nightshade quickly noticed that the branches were covered in berries. "I brought this for you," Thunder whispered.

Nightshade looked down at the branches, and recognized the berries immediately. They were a type that all young heracross were warned about and told to avoid from a very young age. "Thunder…" he began quietly. "These berries are poisonous."

Thunder stared back at him in disbelief, before looking down at the branches. Angrily she chopped downward with her scythe, slashing them into pieces. Snowcrystal's eyes flew open and she jumped, giving Thunder an alarmed gaze. "Those stupid-" Thunder began.

"You didn't eat any, did you?" Nightshade asked, shakily attempting to sit upright.

"Why would a scyther eat _berries?_ " Thunder snapped. "I was trying to get food for _you._ "

"I know…" Nightshade said calmly. "And it's okay. That was very nice of you."

Thunder didn't seem convinced, merely frustrated that she had gotten something wrong. She stood there in silence, still fuming at her own mistake.

"Don't worry about it," the heracross continued. "You're not used to the wild and couldn't have known. But really, I'm proud of you for trying. That was a very nice thing you did."

Thunder didn't answer, but instead looked around at the other pokemon. "How long are we going to stay with this group?" she muttered. "Until you're well?"

"Thunder, I…I plan to stay with them," Nightshade answered, causing Thunder to shoot him a look of surprise. "I want to help them fix this mess the Forbidden Attack has caused, and, well, these other pokémon are my family."

"Your family?" Thunder repeated.

"I hope that, with time, you can learn to trust them as well. They are good pokémon."

Thunder looked like she was about to argue, but only for a moment. After that, she seemed to calm down. "If that's what you want," she said with a shrug, starting to walk away from him and Snowcrystal. "I'll keep looking out for you." Before they could say anything more, she had disappeared into the trees, taking the berry branches away with her.

"Where's Thunder going to go, if she doesn't stay here?" Snowcrystal asked, wondering what would happen if Thunder got tired of watching out for Nightshade or was driven away by the others.

"I'm not sure," Nightshade replied. "But I think that, deep down, she does want to stay. She just isn't sure what to do about the rest of the group." Tired of trying to sit up, he lay back down again. "I'll just have to convince the others to give her another chance. She really is trying to change."

"I just wish they could see that," Snowcrystal said, laying her head down on her paws.

"They will," Nightshade replied, his voice beginning to sound even more tired. "I think it will just take time. I have a feeling we'll all need each other's help for whatever lies ahead."

Snowcrystal nodded, but didn't reply, not wanting to distract Nightshade further when he seemed so tired. She looked up at the makeshift canopy they had woven over the clearing, the tangle of branches and leaves that blocked out the sky and the stars. Everything seemed uncertain now, and she had no idea where they could look next for answers. Perhaps they would need to go to another city's library, or seek out more pokémon that could help them. She just hoped that, sooner rather than later, they would have some sort of direction, a plan.

 

  
**-ooo-**

A cold wind howled, but there was no longer any sound of a struggle. The side of the mountain where Cyclone and his followers had faced Articuno had been completely transformed. The whole area beyond where the small group of pokémon stood, extending far up the mountainside, was barren and lifeless.

The sparse pine trees that dotted the rocky ground had been stripped bare, their leaves burned away and their trunks scorched from the acid that had poured from the sky like rain. The snow had melted away wherever it had struck, leaving large swaths of dark brown earth exposed to the sky. Even in the darkness, the small band of pokémon could see the bodies of the ice and flying types who had tried to defend Articuno from Cyclone's attack. They were just lifeless dark shapes on the mountainside. And now, there was silence. No one was trying to come after them. Not anymore.

The group was waiting for Cyclone's return, and they did not dare step on the ground that had been touched by Cyclone's Attack. In places, there were even pools of acid that had collected, some of it almost looking as thought it were starting to eat through the rock. None of them really wanted to look at where the burned corpse of the legendary bird Articuno lay, his once majestic wings and tail feathers lying twisted on the ground. In spite of knowing what was going to happen, in spite of preparing for it, none of them had really gotten over the shock of seeing a legendary killed before their very eyes. And there was no mistaking it – Articuno was as dead as the prey pokémon Itora had been given at the army's makeshift camp. The legendary had still tried to attack Cyclone even as the attack hit him, but it hadn't taken long for the storm to bring him to the ground, and then…

It was so easy. Itora had never guessed it could be so simple to take down a legendary, let alone _kill_ one. And it was all because of the power that Cyclone had gained, had practiced somewhere on his own until it was capable of doing what she'd just seen. She had to admit that…it scared her a bit. She was just glad that it was Cyclone that had that sort of power and not some other pokémon.

Then they saw Cyclone himself coming, strolling proudly through the rocks and what remained of the snow. Itora was jolted out of her stupor as she noticed with immense relief that Cyclone was carrying a bright orange, glowing stone in his mouth. It was the same size as the ones Ashend and Yenn carried around their necks, and she perked up in excitement.

This was it.

Ashend was right, the manectric told herself again. Articuno had gotten what he'd deserved, being a traitor to the name of pokémon. And as disturbing as the dead legendary was, she knew she had other things to focus on. She stood tall and proud until Cyclone reached her, dropping the stone at her feet.

At a nod from Cyclone, she reached out with her paw, carefully touching the edge around the stone. The soft glow emanating from it intensified for a few moments, but nothing else happened. She paused, looking uncertain, before she glanced to Cyclone in confusion.

"Touch the center, Itora," the vaporeon calmly instructed, acting as if there wasn't a dead Articuno lying in front of them.

Leaning down, Itora slowly reached toward the orange stone again. She suddenly felt a bit afraid, trying to remember if Ashend or Yenn had described gaining the Attacks as painful or not. Yet she quickly overcame her hesitation, and did just as Cyclone had said, put the tip of her claw right in the stone's center.

Immediately, it felt as if something, some sort of invisible force, was surging through her body. It almost felt like electricity, but… _wrong_. Almost as if she were a water type being struck with a thunderbolt attack. It didn't actually hurt, the way a real thunderbolt would, but it was unbearable all the same. Itora may have screamed, but it was as if her jaws were sealed shut, and no sounds were coming from her throat.

A word shot through her mind, almost as sharp as the electricity-like feeling itself, sounding almost like a _voice_.

_Voltgale…_

Itora only had a split second or two to feel confusion in response to it, for almost as soon as it had entered her mind, she felt everything going black.

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the legendaries…I do not see legendaries as this big "club" that always works together and will jump to the rescue if one of their own is threatened. Legendaries in this story, like any pokémon, can choose to work together, but here that usually involves the ones that are NOT guarding some other dimension or are responsible for creating things, because those ones aren't directly involved in whatever Cyclone or these other pokémon are doing.
> 
> I see Arceus as a "god" that is responsible for creating parts of the pokémon world, but he is not a god who generally chooses to interfere with things. So he lets pokémon do as they wish and in my own headcanon, he's far more concerned with the Sinnoh region (as that is the one he's focused on and is confirmed to have created) than he is with the others. I don't see him (or any of the other "big" legendaries) as a big hero that can swoop in at any time whenever something really bad happens. That's extremely instant-solution-y and boring and doesn't reflect on canon at all, considering all the other crap that's threatened other legendaries in the games and anime. Plus I think Arceus and other major legendaries are busy keeping the universe safe/stable at the moment. They're not going to mess with Cyclone unless he somehow finds one of them and tries to throw the balance off of everything.
> 
> If anything, it's the other legendary birds/legendaries guarding Forbidden Attacks in the region that are going to be mad. Not that they can all swarm to Cyclone's army at the moment, though.


	62. Change of Heart

At the foot of the mountain, Cyclone's army waited for their leader and his small group to return. Through the nighttime darkness, none of the pokémon could be sure exactly what had taken place on Articuno's terrain. They had seen the storm clouds gather, the way they did when a pokémon used rain dance, only much bigger. But now, they had cleared, and all activity from the mountain birds seemed to have stopped. They could make out areas where the snow seemed to have melted, but none but the scouts were close enough to see what had become of Articuno.

Already, some of the scouts were flying back and forth, but the only pokémon who had received any information yet were the higher-ups. The rest of the army was left in the dark.

But not all the pokémon had been stunned into silence. Quiet whispering passed through various groups huddled together as they waited, some sounding worried, others hopeful. There were a few shouts as some demanded information from the commanding pokémon, but the cries went ignored.

"I can't believe they managed to kill him already," Ashend whispered quietly as the scout who had given her and Yenn the information flew off, leaving them almost alone in the field of towering rocks. The few pokémon who were currently waiting in their clearing were well out of earshot, and the misdreavus caught a few of them looking at her and the yanmega hopefully, as if thinking they might actually stop what they were doing to tell them something.

"I do hope Itora's all right," Yenn replied, looking toward the mountain. Even with his excellent vision, he couldn't make out the spot where Articuno supposedly fell. It was swallowed in the shadow of the mountain's looming peaks, seeming even darker now that it was well into the night.

"Cyclone wouldn't let anything happen to her," Ashend replied, but her expression was unreadable as she looked toward the snowy mountain as well.

"Something about this isn't right," the yanmega said tensely, flying up to a higher spur of rock to get a better view. "We should be fighting humans, not killing legendaries."

"Cyclone knows what he's doing," the ghost type responded. "At least after this, we can leave. You want to use your Attack, don't you?"

"Of course." The yanmega shivered, but he wasn't sure if it was from the cold or not. "I just can't wait to get out of here."

The misdreavus didn't answer, instead casting her ghostly gaze into the clearing around them, the large swath of grass surrounded by ominous rock. "I wasted years of my life being Team Rocket's slave, at the mercy of both them and the trainers who often tried to stop us. I've waited a long time to make them pay for it. It's not even about Cyclone's goal. But if helping him will get me to where I want…I'm willing to go through with anything he says."

"I know," Yenn sighed. Trying to calm himself, he forced his wings to lie flat and curled his tail around the rock he rested on. "Come to think of it, these 'Team Rocket' humans were the ones that had Solus too, weren't they?" he pondered. "That's where his collar with that red symbol comes from?"

"Oh, don't compare me to that miserable fleabag," the misdreavus responded, but there was a lighthearted, almost jesting tone to her voice, one that she reserved only for Yenn and Itora. "From what I understand he was nothing but a spoiled Team Rocket brat of a pokémon, who ran crying to Cyclone when he got abandoned in a damaged building."

At this, Yenn laughed in response. "That doesn't surprise me."

"He's not like you and me," Ashend continued, the somber tone in her voice returning. "If I were in Cyclone's place I'd have kicked him out of the army ages ago."

"You and me both!" Yenn laughed, tucking his legs beneath him as he settled down on the rock.

Ashend didn't give him such a joyful response. "I wanted to wring that scrawny rat's neck after he threatened you this evening."

"Aw, you don't have to do that," Yenn replied with a small smile, realizing that Ashend's mood was starting to dampen. "I wouldn't want you to get tired wasting your 'ghostly powers' on _that_ little runt."

"I guess you're right," Ashend replied with the hint of a smile. "It would be a waste of my time."

The two of them shared a small laugh, but they quickly grew more solemn as they waited for Cyclone's party to return. Ashend was beginning to become unnerved herself, wondering if maybe Yenn was right to worry for Itora. And it did, in spite of what she believed in, feel a little unnerving that Articuno was actually dead. She had to admit that Cyclone had gone a lot farther than she thought he would, but she knew that their leader believed it would pay off in the long run.

"You know…" Yenn began, trying to break the silence. "Getting rid of Solus for real wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe we could convince Cyclone to banish him or something. It doesn't really sit right with me that he tortures pokémon, even if they _are_ traitors. Whatever he does in those 'torture rings' of his…well, all I want to know is what sort of horrible thing you'd have to do to get sent to _him_."

Ashend sighed. "Yenn, don't worry about it. Cyclone's got it under control and he wants to protect us all. Besides, we'll never have to see it."

"You're defending Solus?"

"Of course not. I'm just saying that Cyclone knows what's best, and he runs this army for a reason. I'm all for getting rid of Solus, if that ever becomes possible, and bringing in a new pokémon to deal with the threats. But for now we'll just let them handle it. It has nothing to do with us."

"I just don't like it, okay?" Yenn replied sharply. "After all the time I spent being tortured by humans in that lab, I really don't like the idea of pokémon in this army becoming _humanlike_."

He looked like he was about to go on, but instead he went silent, just noticing that he could see movement through the nighttime gloom at the mountain's base.

"Are they coming back?" Ashend asked, noticing that something had stolen her friend's attention. She peered into the night, but her vision was nowhere near as good as the yanmega's, and she couldn't see them.

"I think so," Yenn replied, before turning his attention to a noibat who was passing by, headed toward a bored looking nidoqueen who he recognized as one of the commanding pokémon. The noibat was probably on an errand for the large poison type.

"You! Noibat!" Yenn cried, and the small purple bat came to a halt, fluttering her wings to stay airborne. Yenn uncurled himself, standing on all six legs as his wings started to hum. "Go find Cyclone and bring us back the news." The small bat looked confused, as if she wasn't sure whose orders to follow – Yenn's or the nidoqueen's. "Now!" Yenn shouted, and she hurriedly flew off, in the direction of the mountain.

"Let's hope she actually has the sense to do what you told her," Ashend remarked disdainfully. She knew that Yenn was worried, but Cyclone didn't want either of them leaving the clearing in the rocks until they could be sure there wasn't going to be any trouble from Articuno's followers.

They watched the small pokémon leave, and the nidoqueen who had been waiting for her got up in a huff and went off to find some other pokémon to get whatever she wanted. Having nothing to do but wait, they settled down on the rock ledge again, both of them too tired from all the excitement the past few days to do much else, especially considering they had stayed up all night and the previous day. Even the nocturnal Ashend was looking exhausted.

Although the rock walls blocked much of the cold air, the night was still chilly, and Yenn found himself edging closer to Ashend, even though he knew the ghost type could provide no warmth to him. Still, even just being close to one of his only friends was comforting.

He looked up at the mountain, seeming gray and haunted under the light of the moon and the stars. Earlier, he had been able to see the shapes of many bird pokémon blocking out the stars around the mountain, but now, there was nothing. "This place gives me the creeps," he muttered. "Ever since we got here, something's just felt wrong. I don't like it."

"Oh, don't worry, sweetie," Ashend replied. "The mountain pokémon won't dare attack us. Not after they've seen what Cyclone can do."

"Let's hope not." It still felt strange, thinking that Cyclone's Attack was powerful enough that even Articuno could not stand up to it. Yenn wondered just how strong the vaporeon _was_.

He saw the noibat returning long before he heard the fluttering of her wings. He and Ashend waited silently until the small pokémon reached them. "Well?" Yenn demanded as the purple bat-like pokémon flew up to their rock ledge, looking worn out.

"Cyclone wants both of you to follow me," the tiny pokémon squeaked. "No one else!" she then cried at the other pokémon milling about the clearing, who had all moved closer to the noibat out of curiosity. "Just you two."

"Hey, I told you to tell me-"

"They killed him!" the pokémon cried fearfully. "They killed Articuno." Obviously she had no idea that the scouts had informed Yenn and Ashend of this already, and she looked a little shocked at the complete lack of surprise on their faces. "They found the…stone they were looking for. The electric one." She could see that both the misdreavus and the yanmega were looking impatient, and blurted out, "No one was harmed, though! Your friend…the manectric…wasn't harmed."

She settled down into silence, and Yenn and Ashend relaxed. The noibat, relieved that she'd stumbled upon the thing they'd both wanted to hear, turned and began to wearily fly toward one of the gaps in the rock walls. "I'll take you to Cyclone."

Yenn just nodded, and Ashend sighed as she drifted through the air to hover beside the noibat. "We're quite capable of finding him ourselves," the ghost type began, her voice full of disdain, "…but if you must, then at least try to show us some respect."

Yenn gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh, forget it," he muttered. "Let's just follow the stupid bat to Cyclone and find Itora already." He was already moving, taking to the air and beginning to follow the frightened noibat. Although the smaller flying creature moved at a pace far too slow for him, he held back, not wanting to leave Ashend behind.

"No need to be rude," the misdreavus responded, a little annoyed. Despite her small size and strange way of moving, she managed to catch up with them and match the noibat's pace quite easily.

"Yeah, sorry," Yenn mumbled. "I just hope Itora actually found what she was looking for."

It didn't take long for them to reach the place where Cyclone and the pokémon who had come with him had gathered. They could fly above the majority of the crowd, and any flying type army pokémon quickly got out of the way and made a clear path for Yenn and Ashend through the air.

It didn't take them long to realize that every single member of Cyclone's small party had returned mostly unscathed. Cyclone himself did not have so much as a single scratch on his body, and Itora was proudly carrying a glowing orange stone in her mouth.

But the gathering group of army pokémon coming to welcome them back was focused on something else entirely. Further back, in the shadow of the rocks at the very base of the mountain, was Articuno's body, solid proof that Cyclone had kept his grisly promise. Somehow, one of the pokémon in the group had managed to drag the legendary's corpse down from the mountain to where it lay in front of them. Most of the body was in shadow, but what he could see of the burns that ravaged the ice type's body, from where the acid had struck, made Yenn freeze.

He was sure his wings were the only part of his body that moved for several seconds. Beside him, even Ashend stiffened, looking as if the sight disturbed even her, despite her feelings about Articuno. But there was also a coldness in her eyes, a calm resolution that what had been done had been done for a worthy cause.

To Yenn, it was different...seeing Articuno dead. He had never seen a legendary before. Articuno had been little more than a concept in his head. Something he knew existed but never thought would have anything to do with him. But now here he was...real... _and lifeless._

Yenn could only think of the fact that they – that the army – had killed him. Something about it was so wrong…legendaries like Articuno sometimes protected pokémon, and from the looks of it, the pokémon on the mountain had been living peacefully under his reign until they'd arrived. Was Articuno really standing for the humans when he guarded that stone, or had he had other reasons, other beliefs, that had made him do it? Surely Cyclone would have tried talking to Articuno if he believed that could have at all helped?

He couldn't imagine what other motive the ice bird might have had…but killing what had appeared to be the guardian of countless wild pokémon? He hadn't imagined Cyclone would have been willing to do something like that.

As he thought these things, he suddenly realized that he didn't want to be there anymore, that all he wanted was to get away from the sight of Articuno's body. He couldn't even pinpoint exactly why he felt so strongly about it, but at the moment he didn't care. Without saying anything, he tore away from the astonished crowd, and sped back toward the area where he and Ashend had been waiting before, toward the big rocks and where their own personal shelters had been arranged.

He didn't stop to see if Itora or Ashend reacted to him leaving. He noticed several other pokémon glance at him as he zipped by, but they knew better than to question him.

He quickly entered the rock maze and flew past the clearing, keeping low to the ground so as to not attract too much attention; even if the other pokémon wouldn't bother him, he didn't particularly like being stared at. Turning away from the place where he and Ashend had been resting minutes before, he headed down a narrow passage. It was flanked on either side with rock walls, almost like a miniature canyon. Once there he slowed down, aware that he couldn't be seen by the main body of the army there.

Cyclone hadn't just killed Articuno, but the wild pokémon that had been protecting him. In spite of everything Cyclone stood for, Yenn felt a surge of anger take hold of him. They were supposed to be _protecting_ the wild pokémon, not killing them. Wasn't that what this was all about? The type of violence the army leader had unleashed on that mountainside should be reserved for the humans who deserved it.

If Cyclone had killed the mountain pokémon for prey, he would have felt differently. But this wasn't an attack driven by the need to survive. This was _wrong_.

And Cyclone had murdered a legendary. He almost couldn't believe he'd actually done it, even after seeing the body.

He was told Articuno had chosen to take the humans' side, but had anyone actually confirmed it? Did Cyclone even really know what he was doing?

"Okay, calm down…" he told himself, feeling a hint of panic start to rise within him. Luckily it was small, and he managed to push it away. "Cyclone has to know what he's doing-"

He paused, for he had reached the end of the path formed by the walls of the 'canyon,' and realized that there were two large bird pokémon perched above him on the rock wall, a talonflame and a staraptor. He tensed, annoyed that he hadn't even noticed them until just then; yanmega were supposed to notice their surroundings at all times. He didn't like that they'd caught him at such a vulnerable moment, but the two flying types only bowed respectfully to him as he flew past.

If the bird pokémon had noticed his odd behavior, they hadn't said anything, and Yenn knew they wouldn't dare. Once the initial unease had faded away, he felt oddly satisfied with it, in spite of the situation. Cyclone made sure that he was treated like a king here. Seeing bird pokémon bowing to him was so different, so much better than his fearful days as a wild yanma or what had seemed like an eternity of torture at the hands of humans. He remembered his days before he evolved, when he was very young and still small enough to need to fear predators. Those same predators that hunted him as a yanma and fled from him as a yanmega would now serve him the moment he demanded it.

He soon reached the makeshift shelter that had been set up for him. It was a cave of sorts in the rocks, though it was open on two sides, providing an entrance in both the front and the back. A crude drawing of a yanmega was painted in smeargle ink on the rock above it. Several vines had been hung over both entrances, an attempt to keep out the cold. Even with the measly protection, his shelter was still far warmer than anywhere else in the army's current camp.

He made his way inside, instantly greeted by the tantalizing smell of blood from fresh prey that had been laid out along a rock ledge on one side of the room. In his current mood, he was in no hurry to eat it, but he knew that it would be given to other pokémon in the army if he left it alone for a few hours, so he wasn't worried.

A persian and an audino stood on one end of the room, the persian holding a starly in his jaws, obviously having come there to provide more food in case Yenn didn't want the ones that were already offered. The audino had probably come bringing more fresh water, but at the moment Yenn didn't care about either of them. He had come there to be alone, but he knew that even if he sent those two away, he'd just have to order another set to leave when they inevitably came to check if he needed anything a while later.

"Did we…did we do something wrong?" the audino asked nervously, obviously sensing something was amiss, but trying to sound cheerful and helpful at the same time. "Do you need anything?"

Yenn didn't bother answering. He flew straight past them and out the other side of the shelter, finding himself beneath open sky again. To his annoyance, there were a few other pokémon milling about in this area, some of them looking a little lost. He resisted the urge to yell at them for wandering around where they shouldn't be and flew on, into another narrow canyon-like path created by the rock walls around him. He knew from exploring earlier that day that it led to a dead end. No one was likely to be lurking around there.

As soon as he turned into the canyon opening, he could see that something had been painted on the far wall. It was another one of that weird smeargle's murals. Yenn had no problem seeing the details from a distance, and he paused to look before moving closer. It was a huge circular drawing, almost reminiscent of a human's painting. Lining the outer edge were pictures of pokémon, one of every type. There was a smaller drawing next to each of them, what looked like a jewel with a symbol representing the type. At the top was a houndour, and instead of a symbol, the houndour was spouting a white flame, streaks blue and black and purple twisted into it. What the smeargle had used to paint that part of the drawing, Yenn didn't know, but it was the only part that was colored something other than green. In the center of the painting was Cyclone, standing beneath a rain Yenn knew must represent his secret Attack.

He flew closer, wondering just what had possessed the odd smeargle to create such a detailed painting in a dead end in the middle of a bunch of rocks. It struck him as a bit weird, and he flew right up to the base of the painting. It was taller than he was long, and a part of him had to admire the smeargle for whatever tactic or skill he had used to reach the higher places on the rock wall.

There was a drawing of a yanmega on the makeshift mural, and a manectric, and a misdreavus. Him, Itora, and Ashend. He figured they simply had symbols drawn beside them instead of actual attacks because their Attacks had not been used yet. No one seemed to be sure of what their attacks would do exactly, not even Cyclone. But the top drawing…that was the lost houndour. The one Cyclone had tried to recruit but who had refused and attacked, threatening to burn them all with Shadowflare.

The houndour was a dangerous threat to the army, but as far as Yenn knew, no one knew his whereabouts. Yenn had never seen the houndour; that had all happened a bit before he'd joined the army. But Cyclone had told him everything.

A part of Yenn worried that the reason the houndour had refused so adamantly was because he was allied with the humans, maybe even trainer owned. Blazefang, they'd said his name was. Yenn suddenly grew more concerned. If the humans had a pokémon with one of the secret Attacks on their side, the army was in trouble.

"Yenn?" a familiar voice called from close by, and he spotted movement to his right as Ashend phased through the rock wall, letting her transparent body float toward the yanmega before becoming solid again. "What are you doing here?"

"Do you think Cyclone really needed to kill Articuno?" Yenn asked instead, dodging the question. For a moment there was no sound between them save for the dull humming of Yenn's wings. "Do you?"

"There was no other way he could have gotten the stone, dear," Ashend said sadly. She kept her gaze downcast as she moved closer to him. "I know you didn't like them killing wild pokémon. Cyclone says we need to trust him for now. It will all work out."

"That was a high price to pay for his plan to work, then," Yenn muttered.

Ashend seemed confused. "You see the bodies of the pokémon you eat every day. Why is this any different?"

"I don't _kill_ anything I'm not going to eat. And no one will be able to eat Articuno after what-"

"This is for our _survival_ , Yenn."

Yenn paused. When she put it that way, something did start to make a bit more sense.

"For the survival of us pokémon," Ashend continued. "If we continue to let humans run everything, pokémon are going to suffer and die until we stop them. And if this is what it takes…"

"We have to do some pretty nasty things, don't we?" Yenn finished.

"You won't have to do anything you don't want to," Ashend continued. "I'll admit this is hard for me to understand…but if this really bothers you, you don't have to be a part of it. Cyclone will take care of it. But you want to fight with us, don't you? Want to help us take the lands that belong to pokémon back?"

"Of course I do!"

"And you want to make the humans pay for what they've done," the misdreavus continued, her eyes involuntarily flashing to Yenn's scar before she quickly averted her gaze, looking into Yenn's eyes instead.

"Trust me, thinking about it is the only thing that's been keeping me sane," the yanmega replied, and the light of anger in his eyes returned. "I'm not giving that up regardless of who Cyclone goes after. I just wish he'd…"

"Articuno's dead and it's time to move forward," Ashend continued, trying to choose her words carefully so as not to upset him. "You don't have to agree with everything Cyclone does. But we promised Cyclone we would fight the humans, and I want you to be there beside me when we do."

"And I will be," Yenn replied sincerely, but Ashend could tell that he still doubted, still wasn't sure if he truly believed what she was saying.

"We'll make Articuno's death worth it in the long run," the misdreavus continued, a smile beginning to form.

Yenn watched as Ashend began to head back down the narrow path, waiting for him to follow instead of taking a shortcut through the wall again. He knew that, regardless of how uneasy he was about the whole thing, he'd come too far to back down now. Even if he'd wanted to, it would be such a waste.

He took one last look at the smeargle's odd drawings, the light from the red gem on his amulet casting an eerie glow on the dark gray rock, before he turned and flew after Ashend. The sooner he found something to take his mind off of what Cyclone had done, the better.

Maybe he would feel better when they got to the caves where he could practice his Attack. Though that would take them uncomfortably close to Stonedust City, Cyclone had assured them that he would make sure there was no human contact with the army. As much as he wanted his revenge on the humans, he knew the army wasn't ready yet, and when he was honest with himself, he wasn't sure he was ready yet either.

  
**-ooo-**  


Morning seemed to bring a sense of unease over the group of trainers and pokémon sheltering in the clearing. Most kept to themselves, either resting or taking short walks in the forest. They had quickly discovered that they didn't need to spend much time foraging for food; Katie could bring back all the supplies they needed from the city.

Scytheclaw sat half slumped against the tree, finally tiring of his poké ball enough to stay out in the clearing. However, this meant he had to endure being around the other pokémon, which he wasn't too keen on. To his relief, they had left him alone so far. He still felt weak, but his strength was returning. He already felt much better than he had the previous day. Perhaps it helped that his healing power didn't actually injure him when it caused him so much pain.

"How's Nightshade doing?" he heard Rosie ask. The ninetales walked over to where Snowcrystal was waiting beside the heracross.

"He's fine," the white growlithe said. "He fell asleep again."

Scytheclaw looked in Nightshade's direction. Despite his injuries, the blue bug type looked peaceful. He knew that Katie had brought back the best pokémon medicine she could buy, and it seemed to be working like a charm as far as keeping infection at bay and pain under control. The scizor felt a little strange as he looked at Nightshade, remembering that the heracross had saved his life down in the underground. A part of him felt like he should thank him, but he knew there was nothing he could do at the moment, so he put it out of his mind.

"Oh, well that's good," Rosie replied. "So, uh…wanna go find some berries with me and Spark?" She looked over her shoulder at the jolteon who was waiting by the line of trees on one side of the clearing. "I know we've got lots of food, but I thought that we could do it for, you know, fun. Maybe it'll cheer us up."

Snowcrystal perked up immediately. "That's a great idea!" she said happily. "Let's ask Wildflame if she wants to come."

Rosie and Snowcrystal bounded across the clearing together to where Wildflame was resting, and Scytheclaw leaned his head back and sighed. At least he could relax fairly comfortably; the injuries he had received from the machamp would have still hurt quite a lot if he hadn't been given the pain medicine. Luckily Katie made sure they had plenty of it.

"Hey!" a voice by his side whispered excitedly, and he jumped in alarm.

"What the-"

It was Alex. The floatzel had somehow crept up on him without his noticing, and was crouched beside his tree. "I was wondering if you'd want to come look for berries with me. We don't have to go with the others if you don't want to."

"Why would I want to do that?" Scytheclaw growled.

"We could bring some back for Damian, maybe?" Alex asked.

Scytheclaw didn't understand why, but suddenly anything sounded better than waiting in the clearing, thinking about how much trouble his trainer was in or what they were going to do about the Forbidden Attacks. Even the thought of his healing power was bothering him, and he realized that he needed a distraction. "I can't believe I'm doing this…" he sighed as he sat up.

"Great!" Alex said with a grin. "I've walked around the nearby forest a few times. Thought I saw some lum berries. Do you like lum?"

Scytheclaw sighed again, rubbing his sore neck. "All right, whatever, let's just go."

They headed off into the forest, and Scytheclaw soon found that, in an odd sort of way, the floatzel's upbeat attitude was a pleasant change from everything that had happened recently. Perhaps he only thought so because he was just so shaken. But at the moment, he found himself almost enjoying her company. He didn't want to admit to himself that he felt similar to the way he did when Damian had first found him, lost, confused, and wanting to be around someone who liked him without expecting him to act strong.

Alex moved slow enough to allow him to keep pace with her, but she never once mentioned Scytheclaw's injuries and weakness, which he was glad for. They traveled in near silence for a short while, enjoying the warm sunlight that flickered through the leaves of the trees. At least it was a pleasant early summer day.

They soon stopped at a small stream, pausing to drink while watching a couple of linoone scampering through the undergrowth. Scytheclaw could barely remember what it felt like to be a wild pokémon with nothing to worry about other than getting enough food. Before Forbidden Attacks, before humans like Mausk…

But at least he had Damian now, and he hardly even thought about his lost leadership anymore. It seemed so long ago, and the pokémon in the canyon now just seemed unpleasant to him when he thought back to them. He figured that getting away from them was probably a good thing in the long run. In the end, they hadn't seemed to have cared much about him.

Three months ago, he would have thought the idea of joining a human was absurd, appalling even. He hadn't expected to bond with Damian. When the trainer had stumbled across him in the wilderness, however, it had been at a time when he had nothing anymore, nothing to lose. He had first agreed to join Damian purely because he had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do. He had assumed Damian wanted him because he was a rare evolved pokémon. But he had been wrong. Damian soon showed that he cared about Scytheclaw, in the way even his most loyal followers in the canyon hadn't. It had made him see the trainer in a whole new light very quickly. It had even changed his mind about humans, made him realize that they weren't all thoughtless and selfish the way his old trainer was.

"Hey, Scytheclaw, I found the berries!" came Alex's voice, and Scytheclaw cringed, suddenly wondering why he had been desperate enough for a distraction to agree to wander the forest with _her_.

He didn't move from where he was, and there was no need, because he could see the berry trees through the underbrush across the stream. Alex didn't seem to mind that he wasn't coming to join her, and set about plucking every berry she found from the branches.

He focused on something else until he heard her shout from the berry trees, "Um…Scytheclaw? Can you help me carry these back?"

"Don't feel like it," he muttered loud enough for her to hear.

"Okay, fine! I'll bring them back myself!" the floatzel cried, and Scytheclaw turned his head away again, ignoring the frantic scraping sounds as Alex tried to gather up all the berries.

A minute or so later she emerged, and Scytheclaw could only stare at her. Unable to hold all the berries in just her paws, she had piled them around her neck, using her arms to hold them between her head and the yellow floatation device that circled around her body. The berries were piled so high that they covered half of her face.

Scytheclaw almost laughed. "You look ridiculous," he said.

"I do not!" Alex retorted in a mock-angry voice. "I'm only doing it this way because you wouldn't help." She staggered over to the stream's edge, trying to find a good place to jump across without dropping the fruit she carried. As soon as she reached the water, she stared down at it, then burst out laughing. "You're right! I do look ridiculous!"

In spite of himself, Scytheclaw had to admit that it was refreshing to see someone _laughing_ after everything they'd been through. Although he tried not to let it show, he was starting to think that maybe having Alex around wasn't so bad. At least she wasn't angry at him all the time like some of the others were. In fact, for whatever reason, she seemed to enjoy his company, and he admitted reluctantly that perhaps he shouldn't be so mean to her.

He sighed as he reached down to pluck a few berries from the stream, which Alex had inevitably dropped. "Here," he muttered, dropping them onto the pile she was carrying once she reached his side of the stream. "Let's take these to Damian."

As they walked back, Scytheclaw was a bit annoyed about the whole thing, feeling in some irrational way that he should still hate all these pokémon. Yet Alex herself hadn't been around when Nightshade and the others had come to his canyon, so perhaps he didn't need to blame her. If he could get along with Arien, he could get along with her.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," he muttered under his breath as they headed back to the camp.

  
**-ooo-**  


By mid-afternoon, the tension in the air seemed to have faded, and the pokémon seemed less worried about what they would do next, many just grateful to have a rest. Scytheclaw sat on the edge of the clearing, tuning out most of them, but catching bits and pieces of conversation here and there.

"Well, the obvious thing to do is find a legendary," Katie was saying. "Apart from Articuno, I mean. And well, you know how easy _that's_ going to be. But if any _pokémon_ is going to know about the Forbidden Attacks…"

"So how do we go about finding one?" Justin asked.

"That I don't know. There's all sorts of rumors of roaming legendaries, but we need to find one that's staying in one place. Maybe wild pokémon further from the city would know."

"Yeah, well there's a reason legendaries make their homes in places humans don't know much about," Justin said hopelessly.

"We'll figure something out," Katie insisted.

Scytheclaw stopped paying attention to what the two younger humans were saying. He leaned his head back, wondering if he should head out into the forest again to try to find a quiet place to take a nap.

"Scytheclaw?" a concerned voice sounded from somewhere to his left, and the scizor quickly opened his eyes and turned to see Damian looking at him. "Something's wrong, I can tell. What is it?"

If anyone else had asked him something like that, Scytheclaw probably would have just yelled at them. But seeing that it was his trainer, he relaxed. He shook his head, wishing – for what seemed like the millionth time – that he had a way to speak to Damian that didn't have to involve a psychic type like Arien.

"Are you worried about what happened down there?" Damian said, quietly enough that no one else in the clearing would be able to hear him. "With your healing power?"

Scytheclaw hesitated, but he shook his head again. As much as he hated recalling the image of his trainer bleeding out in that underground hellhole where the scum of Stonedust City gathered…that wasn't what was bothering him. It was more that he was just uncertain of his future, of Damian's future…

Yet something about what Damian said distracted him from the anxiety. Something he'd almost forgotten amidst all the commotion. And it brought him back to the pain he'd felt while trying to heal Damian down in the underground. That horrible pain, that had to be like…

Suddenly he decided that he wanted Arien there. He shot an urgent look at Damian, who seemed to understand instantly, and called the alakazam over.

"You have something you want me to tell him?" Arien asked calmly, giving the scizor a respectful nod.

"Yes," said Scytheclaw, "but we need Katie. Go get her. And…well, I guess everyone else is going to have to know too. But I don't want to announce it to them. You deal with it."

"Scytheclaw, what's going on?" Damian asked as Arien went to fetch Katie. He knew the scizor couldn't give him a clear answer until he was ready to tell the psychic type, but he couldn't help asking all the same. "You're acting weird. Is something…"

"I'm here," Katie said, standing beside Damian with Arien at her side. "What did you guys want me for?"

"Well I'm…I'm not sure," Damian stammered, and he glanced at Arien, who looked to Scytheclaw expectantly.

"Okay, here's my message," Scytheclaw began, standing up straight in spite of his exhaustion as he faced the alakazam. "First of all, I want everyone to know that I'm aware of how weird I'm acting. But before anyone starts mocking me about it, I'd like to know how they expect any pokémon to act normally after what I saw down in that city."

Arien just stared at him with a baffled expression. Damian and Katie seemed to pick up on his confusion as well, because they both gave the scizor puzzled stares.

"I didn't see everything," the scizor continued, "but I know a lot of pokémon died in horrible ways down there. And while I don't particularly like other pokémon…" He paused, making sure to give Arien a look of annoyance as he did so, causing the alakazam to sigh. "…I don't really like to see them suffer like that. I have to admit that the world is a pretty awful, nasty place."

At this, Arien looked about to object, about to correct him or dismiss his pessimistic attitude by pointing out that not every city was like Stonedust. Scytheclaw didn't give him a chance.

"…And…well, I guess I'd like to make it a little less awful and nasty."

Arien looked genuinely surprised, and even Katie, who was completely out of the loop, knew something very unusual was happening. Scytheclaw had paused, as if struggling with a decision, and Damian quickly whispered to her the gist of what he'd said so far.

"He wants to make the world a better place? What, does he want to give me a hug or something?" she joked. She couldn't imagine anything more ridiculous or unlike Scytheclaw than that, but at a glare from the scizor she fell quiet.

"Tell them this…" Scytheclaw instructed Arien. "And tell them they need to get moving fast because I want to get this all over with as soon as possible, and I'm sure everyone else does too."

"All right…" Arien began, a sudden respect for Scytheclaw beginning to form in his mind.

"Tell them," Scytheclaw continued, "tell them that I've decided to heal Stormblade."

_To be continued…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, before I get any further into the story of these new characters on Cyclone's side, I need to clear something up about one of them:
> 
> Ashend is not dead. She did not have a previous life, and she was not turned into a ghost pokémon.
> 
> My interpretation of ghost pokémon has always been and always will be that they are not actual ghosts, but instead creatures with mysterious abilities that people and pokémon associate with ghosts. Hence the name "ghost type." And considering we've seen actual pokémon ghosts, like cubone's mother, and that same situation told us that pokémon have an afterlife, this points to the fact that pokémon that are dead stay dead (and if they didn't, there would be no need for the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town).
> 
> The whole "dead pokémon becoming ghost types" is a fun thing to play around with in some stories, and I've seen people do cool things with it, but it won't be a part of Path of Destiny's canon. I don't even see this sort of thing in Pokémon canon either (save for things like phantump/yamask which I honestly see as more common myth than fact in-universe in the pokémon world, again because there are plenty of examples of human ghosts in pokémon, and these pokémon still seem to act very much like, well, pokémon. This is just my interpretation of it).
> 
> So long story short, Ashend, like any other pokémon, can die. Considering ghost types can be damaged in battle, faint, etc. it makes sense to me that they can also be killed, considering they can breed and be born like other pokémon.
> 
> Having anyone who dies just coming back as a ghost type would pretty much be the biggest instant solution ever, and you guys know how I feel about those.


	63. Scytheclaw's Sacrifice

A heavy silence fell over the clearing after Damian announced to the group what Scytheclaw planned to do. The scizor stood at the clearing's edge, not liking the sudden attention he was receiving from the rest of the pokémon. He had hoped that they would all focus on Damian instead of him, as futile a hope that was. Instead, all eyes were suddenly fixed on him, looks of shock and bewilderment on their faces. He tensed, already not liking how things were going. He expected them to bombard him with questions, start openly expressing their disbelief, or accuse him of messing with them. But what they did next surprised him.

Snowcrystal, then a few of the other pokémon, began to cheer for him, offering words of encouragement. As he looked around the group, he could see that behind their newfound joy, they also knew the risk it posed to him, and the looks many of them had seemed to say 'we'll be right here with you.' Scytheclaw wasn't used to such loyalty from other pokémon; even those who had served him when he'd ruled over the canyon hadn't ever acted like this. It was quite baffling.

"Scytheclaw, I knew you could do it!" Snowcrystal cried, running up to him with her tail wagging. He stepped back before she could get too close.

"Scytheclaw, are you sure about this?" Redclaw asked after the initial excitement had gone down. Though a part of Scytheclaw still considered the arcanine an enemy, he could tell the fire type was worried for him.

"Believe me, I've thought about it," the scizor replied sharply. "But even after healing Damian a few days ago, I don't have any physical wounds from the 'healing power' itself…or the Forbidden Attack, or whatever it is. If I can do this and get it over with, I'll be fine. But this is the _last time_ I do this. If any of you get a limb ripped off, you're on your own."

"Scytheclaw," Arien began, the alakazam seeming as shocked as anyone else, even though he'd been the first to hear, "you don't have to feel pressured to-"

"You think I'm doing this _because these pokémon were begging me?_ " Scytheclaw shouted in exasperation. "Don't be ridiculous. As if they could-" He broke off, sighing. "You know what? Forget it. Think whatever you want. And thanks for having faith in me," he muttered sarcastically at his teammate.

"I'm sorry," Arien told him, but the scizor only rolled his eyes.

"Look, I don't really know this…Stormblade pokémon," Scytheclaw continued, "but I want to help him if I can. And I don't want anyone interrogating me about it either. Don't ask me why, just be grateful I'm doing it and don't bother me about it. Do you want me to change my mind?"

The pokémon fell silent, though Arien could tell from the look in Scytheclaw's eyes that there was no chance of changing his mind. He was sure of what he wanted to do and determined to see it through to the end.

"I know some of you are concerned about me," Scytheclaw continued. "That's real touching." The scizor paused to look over the group of assembled pokémon. It wasn't clear if he was being sarcastic or not. "But I don't want all of you crowding around me when I do this. I just want Damian, Katie, and Arien…because he can translate for me. Other than that he'd better keep quiet." He shot the alakazam an annoyed look.

"Okay, Scytheclaw," Snowcrystal said warmly. "We'll do whatever you want. And…thank you. You don't have to do this, but thank you for choosing to."

"You can thank me after this," Scytheclaw muttered as he turned away from her to face the forest. "We need to find a good spot where we won't be disturbed," he said, more to Arien than anyone else.

"Scytheclaw…I have to admit…I'm worried about you," Arien began.

"Good. You should be," the scizor snapped back. "But this is my decision, my risk, and I don't want your lecture."

"Then I apologize again," said the alakazam. "And I know it's a bit too early, but thank you for what you're trying to do."

"And remember, nobody needs to cry over me," Scytheclaw growled. "Damian was dying when I healed him. This should be easier. If not, then so be it. Tell the humans to fetch Stormblade from the pokémon hospital now."

Arien nodded and did as he said, speaking to Damian through his mind. Scytheclaw watched him until Damian began talking to the other trainers, so he knew the task had been complete.

It wasn't long before Katie was mounting her pidgeot to fly back to the city. Justin looked nervous as he watched her, but even he seemed relieved that now there was a chance Stormblade's suffering would end. He didn't look excited to have the scyther back though, and he gave a half-hearted wave as the pidgeot took off, launching itself and Katie into the sky.

All around the clearing, the pokémon were talking. Many of them, such as Snowcrystal and Rosie, who had known Stormblade for longer, were practically celebrating. And Spark, who had known him longest of all, looked the happiest any of them had ever seen him.

Away from the part of the clearing where the others were gathered, Scytheclaw settled down to wait.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Not long after she left, Katie returned with Stormblade's poké ball. When Justin asked her how she convinced the workers at the pokémon hospital to let her take him, she merely replied that she had told them that she wanted Stormblade to see the outside world one more time.

"You won't get in trouble for not bringing him back, will you?" Justin asked.

"No," Katie answered, as if a little shaken. "They think that I'm going…to let him pass away here."

Justin didn't reply. She walked past him through the stunned group of pokémon. Justin still looked entirely uncomfortable with the whole thing, but Katie ignored him. Whether he believed Stormblade was innocent or not, she didn't care. They'd deal with him later.

"So where does Scytheclaw want to do this?" she asked Damian.

Damian pointed out the direction, and she followed him into the trees.

They walked farther than Katie expected, and she figured that Scytheclaw must not want anyone to see him like…like whatever he had looked like when he was healing Damian. Damian had told her that Scytheclaw insisted that it was just him, her, and Arien that were present when this happened.

They reached a dismal, secluded clearing that was darker than the one they were currently camping in. Arien already waited there, as did Scytheclaw.

Scytheclaw sat up straighter as the trainers walked toward him, not sure what Katie was thinking about what he would soon try to do. He watched her with wary eyes as she and Damian came to stand in the clearing. Katie held up a poké ball that looked just like his. A luxury ball. Scytheclaw tensed as she released the pokémon inside with a beam of light.

Stormblade's motionless form materialized on the ground, and Scytheclaw stared at him. The scyther was deeply asleep, whether from a sleep powder from one of Katie's pokémon or something else, he wasn't sure. He could tell from a glance that whatever wounds Stormblade had had that weren't from Shadowflare were completely gone. Despite his curiosity, he was glad the bandages were covering the Forbidden Attack wounds themselves.

The thing that struck him as strangest of all was that Stormblade looked…peaceful, almost like there was nothing wrong with him at all. He knew it was an effect of whatever had put him to sleep, but it was strangely unnerving all the same. It gave him the odd impression that Stormblade was just 'not-quite-dead.'

"All right," he began after a few moments, "let's get this over with. I want you all to stand back."

"Be careful," Arien said.

Scytheclaw just shrugged and knelt down by Stormblade. He knew exactly what he had to do. For some reason it suddenly occurred to him how odd it was that he would know how to use the healing power so naturally, even if it didn't involve any physical movement. It seemed to come from somewhere else. Maybe, he thought, this was what using a psychic attack felt like. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, focusing his energy on calling up the healing power.

As he started, he could tell that it was much like what it had been when healing Damian. A white-hot, agonizing pain spread throughout him, making him feel as if every nerve in his body had been set alight. He gritted his teeth, keeping his eyes firmly closed as he focused solely on his task. He was determined to brave his way through it, and then it would be over. At least there was no raging battle around him this time, and he could already tell that his mind was much clearer. Getting the attack to work was easier than it had been in the underground, as he now had his full attention to devote to it.

While Scytheclaw worked, Damian, Katie, and Arien stood still and waited. The scizor occasionally let out a scream or a growl when he felt his ability to cope with the pain slipping. Damian wanted to be by his pokémon's side, but Arien had told him that Scytheclaw wanted them to stay back. He could only watch.

Katie quietly scooted closer and unwrapped one of the bandages from Stormblade's wing. Her eyes widened in shock.

"This is…bizarre…" she said, barely above a whisper.

Damian craned his head for a better look, and realized that Stormblade's wing looked more whole than it had when he had first seen him; even the parts that had been burned away were growing back. The healing was starting at the edges, moving slowly inward. If he wasn't so worried for his scizor friend, he would have marveled at the fact that he was watching a Forbidden Attack wound, something that was supposed to never heal, vanishing before his very eyes.

Katie was thinking hard, deciding that Scytheclaw must have been right, that healing a wound that was not pushing the victim toward death at that very moment must be easier. She knew from what Damian had told her, according to the pokémon who had been in the underground, that it had been much harder for Scytheclaw to heal Damian's gunshot wound, and had taken longer to have any sort of noticeable effect.

Scytheclaw wasn't aware of what the trainers were thinking or saying; he was concentrating on his task alone. He was getting to the point where he knew it would be hard to keep conscious, hard to keep himself from fainting because of the pain. He braced himself for it, knowing what was coming.

Then he started to feel strange.

It wasn't even that the pain had increased by any substantial amount, just that there was something acutely, disturbingly wrong with him, his mind…or something else.

He opened his eyes, trying to focus on one of the trees or the trainers, wanting to have something to concentrate on to keep him from slipping further into…whatever it was. He almost felt detached from the pain, overwhelmed by fear and confusion at whatever this new strangeness was. A thought raced through his mind. _'Am I going insane?'_

Then everything went black.

The forest vanished. The trainers and the alakazam vanished. Everything was gone, as if Scytheclaw had fallen into some sort of dark void. He didn't know where Stormblade was, if he was still using his healing power, or if he was even awake anymore or in some sort of crazy dream where nothing existed.

Then whatever small part of his mind was still functioning told him that he was falling unconscious, and he clung to that one bit of reason, realizing regretfully that he had failed, and he would have to try again later.

Then an entirely new wave of pain hit him. This one was far more intense than anything he'd ever experienced before, even when using the healing attack. Scytheclaw felt as if he had been thrown in a volcano, like he was melting down in the hot magma while somehow still being kept alive. He couldn't tell if he was moving his body anymore, but he was sure that if he was still on the verge of consciousness, he was screaming. His vision was no longer black; there were bright flashes of light and shadows that looked like they might be images, but they were moving far too rapidly for him to see.

Then, somehow, though it all, he heard a voice.

" _Failing…failing…"_

It was not Damian's voice. Nor was it Katie's or Arien's. He had never heard the voice before, and it seemed to be coming from inside his head rather than from somewhere near him. In spite of his terror, he almost welcomed it, as it was a distraction from the pain. The words it spoke next sounded like they would be almost comically nonsensical if it weren't for the sheer panic that was racing through his mind.

" _It's failing...it's failing...pass it on...pass it on..."_

The images of light and shadow flashed more rapidly across his vision. Everything seemed to grow more twisted, like his mind was trying to make sense of what was happening but failing miserably. He could hardly think due to the pain, and couldn't even begin to try to understand what the voice was saying.

Then the voice got louder. It shot like a lightning bolt through his mind.

" _You are going to die."_

All the lights and shapes in his brain seemed to vanish, plunging him into complete darkness. He wanted to scream – no, to hear himself scream – but he didn't even know if he was capable of it anymore. He was sure he was beyond help, that the healing power had killed him and these were the last few moments he would ever know on this earth.

" _Stop,"_ the voice said.

Scytheclaw could hardly register it anymore. He just wanted to finally fall completely unconscious, to let whatever happened happen and be away from the pain.

" _Stop. STOP. STOP!"_

He didn't know what it was telling him or what he was supposed to stop. He wasn't even aware that he was doing anything, and if he was, his body wasn't under his own control anymore.

Then, just when he thought he couldn't take the pain anymore, he finally slipped into complete unconsciousness, and everything went black for real.

"SCYTHECLAW!"

The scizor jolted upright, his eyelids flying open. The first thing he noticed was that it was darker. His armored body was soaking wet. It took him a moment to realize that it was raining. And the voice that had shouted his name…that was Damian's voice, not the weird one he'd heard in his head.

"He's alive!" came a gasp from somewhere ahead of him. Snowcrystal's voice.

"Scytheclaw…" Damian gasped, throwing his arms around the scizor and beginning to cry into his shoulder.

"Damian, stop!" Katie cried from somewhere nearby. Scytheclaw's vision started to come into focus and he saw her standing there, her pokégear in her shaking hand.

Damian let go of Scytheclaw and backed up, and Scytheclaw found himself slipping back into a lying position. He had no idea how he'd been able to sit up in the first place. However, he felt no pain, just weakness. He could tell that his body wasn't damaged physically, at least not in the sense that he was injured, he was just incredibly weak and exhausted, like he'd been after healing Damian. Whatever had almost killed him, it was over now. He had survived it, broken out of its hold before it finished him.

"What happened?" he managed to gasp, hoping that someone would give him answers and not just tell him to rest. He didn't think he could relax without knowing what they'd seen while everything had gone strange for him.

Luckily, Damian seemed to realize this, and answered immediately. "You stopped breathing," he said. "After you fell unconscious. Everything stopped getting worse once all of Stormblade's wounds were gone but…if it had taken longer we…we might not have been able to revive you."

"It was that Forbidden Attack…the healing thing…whatever," Katie interrupted. She held several items in her hand, which Scytheclaw guessed were revives they had used to try to save him. From the looks of it, they had gone through quite a few before one finally worked. Even then, he knew it must have taken him a long time to wake up; what had happened to him wasn't a brief fainting period from a pokémon battle. "As soon as it stopped, we were able to do something, but it almost didn't work…"

Their explanation didn't quite match up with the voices in his head, but it at least gave an explanation of what had happened to his body while he'd been dead to the world. Scytheclaw was suddenly unsure he wanted to hear more, realizing that the others had no knowledge of any strange voices, and they'd told him the basics of what had happened anyway. He felt like it was all so bizarre, realizing that he should be in far worse shape than he was after such a near death experience. He guessed that the healing power ending, finishing its work, had almost completely reversed the effects. And apparently just in time. A few more minutes and he would probably be dead.

He knew the others must have realized this too, because no one was offering to take him to a pokémon center. He was glad for it, because he certainly didn't want to be locked away under investigation while the police searched for his trainer.

"What went wrong?" he heard Justin ask from somewhere nearby. "Did that happen because he was trying to heal Forbidden Attack wounds?"

"I don't think so." It was Katie that spoke. "The Shadowflare wounds healed like any other…" She glanced down at Stormblade's poké ball, which she held in her hand. "It worked. All the burns are gone."

"Well, then what-" Justin began.

"I think it's like the other Forbidden Attacks," Katie said. "Well, maybe Scytheclaw has better control over when he decides to use it, but this time when it started, it didn't stop until it was finished." The pokémon and trainers around her looked at her silently, the confusion and unease noticeable on their faces. Scytheclaw realized just then that nearly everyone had gathered around him; only Nightshade, Thunder, and Redclaw were missing from what he could tell.

Blazefang, who was watching from a place further away from the others, shrank back against the bushes. Fear showed clearly in the houndoom's eyes.

"And I think," Katie continued, "that like the other Forbidden Attacks, it gets worse every time it's used. Only this one gets more and more destructive to the _user._ "

Silence fell over the clearing again.

"I don't think it was bad for Scytheclaw in the underground because Damian's wound was killing him," she went on. "I don't think the severity of the injury matters. The point is that it gets harder each time, takes more energy, until it gets dangerous." She took a deep breath, absent-mindedly shoving her pokégear back in her pocket. "This time it almost killed him. And next time it will."

"Wait…" Scytheclaw rasped, realizing he had to tell them what he'd experienced. "Before I blacked out I heard a voice." He paused to catch his breath, suddenly finding it even more exhausting to talk. After a moment, he felt a small bit of his strength return. "The voice said it was failing…by 'it' I guess it meant the Forbidden Attack…and that I was going to die."

"I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean," Arien began. The alakazam folded his arms as he stared at the ground. "But Katie's right. Next time it _will_ fail, and you _will_ die. You can't afford to use it again. Ever."

"Believe me, I won't," Scytheclaw growled, feeling a bit of annoyance that Arien would have to tell him that. "But I'm asking…why did it _work?_ Why is Stormblade healed if it was supposedly failing?"

"I don't know," Arien said quietly.

"This doesn't make any sense…" Scytheclaw mumbled, barely above a whisper.

"Blazefang!" Wildflame shouted, whirling around to the houndoom. "You have a Forbidden Attack…have you ever heard any weird voices?"

The eyes of the pokémon, who could understand her, turned to Blazefang, who turned his gaze toward the wet ground. "…Yes," he muttered.

There was a stunned silence as the others stared, no one saying a word until Wildflame blurted out, "Well, what did it say?"

"Nothing like that…" Blazefang whispered. "It was different. I heard a voice once. Just once. When I first got the attack. It said 'Shadowflare' and that's it. I never heard it again."

"Did that happen to you?" Wildflame asked Scytheclaw.

The scizor shook his head weakly. "No…this is the first time I heard it."

"Yeah, otherwise we'd know what his Forbidden Attack was called, wouldn't we?" Spark mused. "That's really weird…"

"Well what did you expect was going to happen?" Rosie shouted suddenly. Spark and Wildflame looked at her in confusion for a moment, before they realized she was mainly addressing Scytheclaw. "It's a Forbidden Attack! Of course something would go wrong when you used it!"

"Are you even sure?" Blazefang interrupted, taking a step closer to the rest of the group. "What Scytheclaw described sounded weird to me, and I've lived with my Forbidden Attack a lot longer than he has."

"It almost killed him!" Rosie called back. "Look, I'm glad Stormblade's okay, but we all knew we were messing with something that's-"

"I'm not saying it's not dangerous!" Blazefang growled. "Just that something's off. Something's missing here. I wouldn't have thought it would kill him either, based on what he's said. Scytheclaw was never like me; he didn't slip and lose control. He could _always_ control it. That doesn't sound like a Forbidden Attack to me."

Rosie's shoulders slumped, as if all her anger had suddenly left her. She just looked confused and lost. "Well…well, that's because it works differently. It doesn't attack, it heals. It was probably created to be allied with Forbidden Attack users."

"Then why would it kill the user, huh?" Blazefang cried. "Why didn't it do something like take the life force from some other nearby pokémon to heal? That would sound more 'Forbidden Attack' to me."

"No one knows!" Arien almost shouted at the others, who quieted and turned their attention to the alakazam. "Right now, we need to get back to the camp." He looked to his trainer, sending him a message through their psychic link, and Damian nodded.

"Scytheclaw, return," Damian said in a shaky voice, holding up the scizor's poké ball, which incased him in a beam of light before drawing him back inside. The other pokémon stood up from the muddy ground, letting Arien and Damian walk ahead of them, and the group headed back.

 

  
**-ooo-**

It rained harder that night. Scytheclaw lay inside Damian's tent with the rest of his teammates, minus Fernwing. He let the others celebrate Stormblade's newfound health, after they had been sure that he would be all right. Scytheclaw knew that all he needed now was rest.

He felt relieved that it was all over, that he'd done it. That he'd saved a pokémon from what was probably a fate worse than death. He couldn't use the healing power anymore, and he could only hope Damian wouldn't ever need it again. In spite of how awful it had been to use it, not being able to made him feel a bit scared, knowing that he would be helpless if something awful happened to his trainer again.

Another part of him felt a bit weird that he'd used his last chance to heal anyone on Stormblade. He didn't even know Stormblade. He barely knew why he had been so determined to heal him. But what was done was done, and he realized that if he'd been using the healing power in another dangerous situation like in the underground, the trainers wouldn't have had the chance to revive him.

In the end, he decided that he was too tired to think about it, and curled up in his own corner of the tent. It wasn't long before he fell asleep.

 

  
**-ooo-**

A little ways out into the forest, while the others slept, Stormblade, Spark, and Snowcrystal walked alone. Stormblade had wanted to speak to the pokémon he was closest to first. Snowcrystal watched in awe as Stormblade walked so easily, acting as if he had boundless energy. It was like every ill effect from his injuries, or from staying in the pokémon hospital, was completely gone. The scyther himself still seemed in a daze, barely able to process what had happened, like he thought he was still in a dream. The first thing he had done was thank Scytheclaw after everything had been explained to him, although the scizor had seemed a bit annoyed with the attention.

"Well, I honestly don't remember much," Stormblade was saying as they walked through the trees, ignoring the rain that splattered down on them from above. "Just bits and pieces. I don't really remember you visiting me in there. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," said Spark with a shrug. "Not your fault."

"I remembered something about Thunder being captured…couldn't remember where I heard it from…I'm just glad she's back now," Stormblade continued, though he still sounded worried for her.

Snowcrystal doubted that Thunder would warmly welcome him. At least she was confident, as Nightshade was, that she wouldn't do anything to harm him, even if she somehow felt she had a reason to.

"Even all those days traveling are a blur," Stormblade mused. "Like a bad dream. Now that it's over, I feel like I've just woken up or something. Or…"

"…Like you were raised from the dead," Snowcrystal finished without thinking. She realized a second later that that was probably an awkward thing to say. Stormblade, however, just looked at her seriously and nodded.

"Well…yes." He stood up straighter, surveying the forest. "Well, maybe not like that. But from certain death…I still can hardly even believe it happened. I didn't know anything about a healing Forbidden Attack. It's like I…" He paused, trailing off, and Snowcrystal and Spark turned to see what had caught his attention.

It soon became clear, and appearing from the bushes was another scyther.

Thunder.

Snowcrystal hadn't been expecting to run into her; she would have thought Thunder would have given any of them a wide berth. It only just then occurred to her that the other scyther didn't even know about Stormblade's reappearance and Scytheclaw's healing.

"What are you doing here?" Thunder asked, warily stepping closer until she was a few paces from Stormblade. She examined him, confused, before apparently realizing it must have been Scytheclaw's doing. She stepped back, still looking at Stormblade in disbelief, probably thinking back to whatever Nightshade had explained to her about Scytheclaw's healing power. "You're still coming with us?" she asked, the tone of her voice indicating that she wasn't sure what to think.

Stormblade looked happy to see that Thunder was much healthier now; she only bore the wounds from her fight with the tauros in the arena, and none of them were severe. He seemed like he wanted to speak to her, but was keeping quiet out of fear of irritating her.

"Just don't mess with Nightshade," Thunder growled as she turned and began walking away from them. "I'm not going to hurt you or your friends, but I don't want you bothering us either." Then she darted away and was gone.

"Nightshade?" Stormblade questioned, barely overcoming his shock at Thunder's sudden appearance. "What-"

"Uh…wow, that's a long story," Spark sighed. "We'll fill you in though. A lot's happened in the two months you've been gone."

"Two months…?" Stormblade repeated, giving Spark a surprised look. "Was I really gone that long?"

"Yeah…didn't you-"

"I…I don't remember much from after Katie took me to that fancy pokémon center. Bits and pieces here and there…but I thought…it couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks."

"Didn't you notice it was summertime?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Sort of…" Stormblade mused. "I'm not sure. I thought it must have gotten warmer early or something…"

"It'll take some time to get used to everything again," Snowcrystal told him. "Don't worry about it." She knew that being put in the pokémon hospital must have been a confusing experience, and Stormblade had probably spent most of his time sleeping. It was no wonder he didn't remember much. Though Stormblade himself seemed perplexed at the whole thing, she knew, she could just tell, that he had returned to normal. Any memory issues he had wouldn't last long, and in fact he was probably healthier than all of them after being healed by Scytheclaw's power.

"Well, maybe it's a good thing I don't remember much," he chuckled lightheartedly. "But at least we're all together again. Along with those new pokémon and humans, who seem-"

"And Justin?" Spark asked suddenly, sounding worried himself.

"I'm not worried about Justin," Stormblade said wish a shake of his head. "The things he's done…I forgive him. He doesn't have to apologize to me or even associate with me. He's helping all of you guys, and I say that's evidence enough that he's changed."

Snowcrystal knew that Stormblade would probably find it hard to feel anger after having just gone from near death to pristine condition in the space of a few minutes, but his comment still took her by surprise. Then again, she realized, Stormblade was right. Though she still thought Justin had a lot to answer for, he had begun to change his ways. He now wanted to help them instead of trying to harm or capture pokémon for his own good. It wasn't enough to make up for what he'd done, but it was a good start. She felt her respect for Stormblade grow.

"Well, how about you two tell me what's been happening," Stormblade continued, looking at the growlithe and the jolteon expectantly.

"It's not all happy stories," Spark warned him.

"I figured," Stormblade replied. "But I still want to learn what the rest of you have. At least if I know what's been going on, I can help you move forward."

"Well," began Snowcrystal, "we don't actually know what we're going to do next, but we think we might start searching for more legendaries. When we figure out where to go next, I'm sure we'll have a much better chance with you by our side."

"That's right!" Spark enthusiastically agreed. He and Snowcrystal exchanged glances as they walked through the forest, both of them thinking of how to begin explaining all the events that had taken place during Stormblade's absence. "Now, as for what's happened since you left…"

 

  
**-ooo-**

The next morning, Scytheclaw woke early. Staring up at the roof of the tent, he could see sunlight outlining the drops of water that clung to the material. He sighed, realizing that someone was going to have to patch up the cover of branches they'd hung over the clearing; it must have shifted if that much sunlight was coming through.

He sat up, having to lean against the tent wall for support, and realized that his trainer had already left. The four of his other pokémon that were small enough to fit in the tent were all asleep except for Arien. Ignoring them, Scytheclaw thought back to the previous day. He was amazed at how he only felt tired and weak, and even that was fading. However, he knew that last night had been the last time he'd ever be able to use the healing power.

Arien noticed him stirring, and turned to him. "Are you having second thoughts about what you did?" the alakazam asked.

"Yeah, sure," Scytheclaw muttered sarcastically. "I should have left that guy rotting in the pokémon hospital until he died." He shot Arien an angry glare. "Geez, nobody thought I would die if I used it, but I'm alive now and he's alive and we're all one big, extremely dysfunctional 'family' like the stupid growlithe said. Let's _move on_ already!"

"I was just asking," Arien responded politely.

"I was kind of sick of doing things I regret," the scizor told him angrily. "So when I made the decision, I made sure that I was as certain as possible that I wouldn't regret it. For a psychic type, you seem pretty bad at reading my motivations. And honestly, I'm sick of everyone talking about it, and it hasn't even been a day." The scizor glared at him silently for a few moments, and then he continued. "Most of all, I'm sick of everyone assuming that I do nothing but make mistakes, and that every decision I make is going to be something I regret."

"All right, I'm sorry," the alakazam sighed. "I know you have your reasons." He paused. "Though you could be a little nicer about it."

"Look, this _is_ me being nice. If I weren't being nice, you'd have your face bullet-punched in right now."

"I'm sorry if I bothered you," Arien said sincerely. "I didn't mean it. You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to." He turned away from Scytheclaw, and, figuring the scizor probably wanted to sleep more, got up and headed toward the tent exit. Then he heard Scytheclaw speak again.

"You thought I was healing Stormblade because they told me to. Why didn't you think for even one second that…you know, maybe I wanted to do something good for once. …Like Damian."

Scytheclaw wasn't even facing him anymore, so Arien reluctantly turned away before stepping outside.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Damian returned to the clearing after collecting more berries, adding them to the pile of lum berries Scytheclaw and Alex had brought for him the day before. Some of the pokémon ventured closer, and he watched Fernwing scoop up a mouthful and start chewing happily.

He smiled at his tropius, about to tell her where he'd found several more plants growing when the sound of arguing from Justin and Katie started to reach him from across the clearing. He cringed, hoping that this time, whatever it was would be resolved soon.

"Okay, I get it, you don't like scyther," Katie was saying. "But if Stormblade wanted to kill you, he had plenty of chances while you were his trainer. You know that's irrational, right?"

"Well…maybe, but I can't see how you'd trust-" Justin began.

"Okay," Katie sighed, rolling her eyes. "So the big blade-armed bug thing is going to kill us all, but the four-legged white thing with a blade on its _head_ that is Damian's absol isn't? Come on, plenty of trainers own scyther."

Damian knew the argument was only going to escalate, so he stepped in. "Justin, you don't have anything to worry about, trust me. We've got plenty of pokémon to protect you. You've got Spark. He's fast like a scyther too, and he's got a type advantage."

Justin still didn't seem happy about Stormblade coming back, but he visibly relaxed. "Yeah, I guess," he muttered. "But we're going to have bring both of those scyther along, aren't we?"

"Well, yes," Damian said. "If Thunder wants to come. But-"

"Well, we'd better find out where we're going in the first place," Justin interrupted. "Do you still have that thing's poké ball?" he asked Katie.

"Yeah. Damian told me Stormblade and Arien talked about it and Stormblade wanted me to keep it around for now," she explained. "But I'll release him whenever he wants me to."

"Good," Justin muttered under his breath.

"You know, we do need some more supplies," Damian interrupted. "Maybe you should go back to the city and get some more pokémon food, Katie?"

"Gladly," she answered, walking to the edge of the clearing where she released her pidgeot.

"But, Katie, wait a minute!" Justin cried, but to no avail as Katie and her pidgeot had already taken off. He sighed, having wanted to at least talk to Katie about keeping the scyther in his poké ball whenever possible. Now, however, her quick flight away left him wondering just how long she was even going to stick around to help them. He and Damian were the ones who got them all in trouble, not her. He wasn't even sure she had much of a reason to stay.

As his friend vanished from sight, beyond the small patch of sky he could see through the clearing's makeshift covering, he staggered backward. He felt like he was reminded once again that while Katie could return to the city, he and Damian could not. Worst of all, he wasn't sure how long they would be able to avoid the police either.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Katie walked briskly through the streets of Stonedust City. She had dismounted her pidgeot further away from her destination than usual, wanting to take her time with the walk. She wasn't keen to return to the clearing and argue with Justin about Stormblade so soon.

She could hear whispers among the people walking through the crowd that moved between the buildings. She was used to the City's residents acting strange after the library incident, but this time they weren't talking about that. They were talking about an underground fire, exchanging unsettled words about how the last of it had finally gone out completely.

Katie knew they were talking about Shadowflare, but if anyone recognized what it was, no one in the crowded streets around her seemed to know. There was no mention of 'Forbidden Attacks' or anything like that. She was a bit confused, wondering why the underground fire had suddenly caught everyone's attention. Maybe something had been leaked about its strange nature or the amount of time it took to burn out, and it had spooked them more than the library fire had. Or maybe it was the combination of both events, plus the attack on the pokémon center a few months ago, that had gotten them so afraid.

It made sense, she realized, and she wondered why she had even questioned it. Of course they'd be afraid of any one of those things. She and the others had been so caught up in the fear of the Forbidden Attacks and trying to stop them that she'd never really thought about how ordinary civilians felt. They had seemed so safe in comparison – no fear of crazed pokémon ripping the world apart with Forbidden Attacks, no madmen trying to kill them – but she knew that if she were in their place, she would feel afraid too.

She heard a few words about the fighting ring being closed down too, people being arrested, though she knew better than to assume Mausk had been caught. If anyone could make an escape, it was him. She doubted either he or the fire itself would have left any traces of his identity in the underground tunnels, and she wasn't sure if the police even knew who he was by name. From what Damian had learned from the pokémon, Mausk did most of his dirty work training his killer monsters in some abandoned town a ways north of Stonedust. Or at least, that's where they'd first seen him. Who knew where else he went. That was probably only one place of many.

Katie's mind stopped wandering when she began to notice something strange. There were no signs, no news broadcasts, no talk at all of Justin or Damian. It wasn't just the people who walked by who seemed to have forgotten it. As she passed by some newspaper stands, she couldn't see any headlines about them or the library. There was nothing on the screens covering the larger buildings either.

She would have thought something like the library incident would still be big news, that they would be broadcasting the information on the culprits as often as possible until they were found…or at least until a more sufficient amount of time had passed than a few days. Had the search for them been called off?

Maybe, she thought, they were just too preoccupied catching the pokémon abusers from the underground fighting ring. Either way, she wanted to be sure it was safe for Damian and Justin to return before she told them to risk coming back to the city.

She made a mental note to herself to check with someone, maybe the people who were working on repairing the library itself, and ask them what was going on after she was done getting supplies.

She soon reached the little shop that she bought supplies from, a tiny building dwarfed by the skyscrapers that was run by a kind elderly couple. They sold both pokémon food and medicine and knew her by name, and she always made a point to give them as much business as possible.

She stepped inside, the bell on the door ringing and alerting the owners waiting behind the counter. She could see that, at the moment, she was the shop's only customer. She exchanged a brief hello with them before walking over to the medicine shelf. After she'd gotten what she needed and picked up some more food as well, she stopped at the shelves displaying pokémon treats.

As she looked through them, she noticed the television in the corner of the shop was starting to blare news about the mysterious underground fire. Deciding she was sick of it, she straightened up. "Hey, can you turn it to something else?" she asked, trying not to sound too rude.

"Oh of course," the man said, pointing with a remote and switching the channel to another.

Katie resumed looking at the pokémon treats, reading their labels and stopping at a shelf that held small containers of a sweet jelly-like substance that was labeled for heracross and pinsir as well as other bug types that ate sugary foods. She picked one up and examined it, wondering if Nightshade would like it.

As she continued to glance along the shelves, she began to pick out words from the background noise coming from the television on the other side of the shop. Curious, she turned around, realizing that it had been changed to another news station, but one that wasn't as depressing.

" _Just three days ago, explorers returned from a strange land lying to the northwest of the fabled Stonedust City,"_ the reporter was saying.

Katie felt a bit of panic at the thought that the white growlithe, Snowcrystal's tribe, lived on a mountain north of the city. But she quickly saw that the images on the screen showed not a barren snowy mountain, but a dry and dusty desert. Relaxing, and feeling a bit intrigued, she walked closer to the television set.

" _While they did not find the vibrava colonies they had set out to study, they got some very interesting footage that some believe might be confirming rumors about a legendary pokémon in the area."_

"A legendary…" Katie breathed, quickly flipping up the screen of her pokégear and holding it up to the television, immediately starting to record a video of the screen. It was one thing if the news was just reporting rumors, but if they had footage of something that might be a legendary…

For about a minute the channel simply reported on the expedition itself, the search for some random group of vibrava. Then the actual footage was brought onscreen, this time showing the dry, cracked earth suddenly jutting out into space, forming the edge of a massive cliff.

Though it was hard to tell from the angle the video was taken, it looked like the drop off could go down for hundreds of feet. Right on the edge of the cliff was a stone arch, looking like it was just big enough for two rhydon to walk through side by side. However, if any pokémon did, they would plummet to their deaths; the steep drop was right on the other side.

However, this arch was the focal point of the video footage, and Katie kept recording. She wondered how, in such clear daylight with nothing around but dust and rocks, anything in the recording could be mistaken for a legendary. She almost set down her pokégear, but decided to wait and see what happened.

She could hear muffled sounds of the explorers talking, wondering if the vibrava were down on the cliff side somewhere, when the footage cut to a view over the cliff, where the desert gave way to some grassy plains far below, looking fresh and green in the early summer. The next portion of it was skipped over, following, for some reason, the path of a starly flying toward the desert from out over the plains. It fluttered over the explorers' heads, seemed to be frightened by them, and flew back toward its home, swooping beneath the arch.

Where it vanished.

Katie stared at the screen, knowing that what she'd seen hadn't looked like the pokémon had simply been edited out. It reminded her a bit of how psychic pokémon used teleport, but there was something different about it. No sign of the powerful energy psychic types used to transport themselves and others.

" _Rumors about the mysterious 'vanishing arch' have been circulating for years, but this is the first clear video footage ever taken,"_ the news reporter continued. _"Cases of pokémon vanishing into thin air have been recorded for decades…"_

"Do you need anything?" one of the shop owners called over to Katie.

Katie shook her head. "No, I just want to see the rest of this and I'll be done." She turned back to the screen.

" _This is no psychic type move. This seems to be something else entirely,"_ one of the scientists being interviewed on the news station said. _"None of our psychic types detected any sort of psychic energy at all. We tried for several days to get anything else through the portal – if that's what it is – without any success. None of the flying pokémon who went through were whisked away like that starly. I never believed any of the rumors until I saw it that day. And I really do think that this could have been made possible through the involvement of a legendary."_

Then it was back to the regular reporter again. _"No one is sure what lies on the other side of the arch, or why only certain pokémon vanish. The people who took part in the expedition believe that certain conditions must be met. One such condition may be the time of day, or the type of pokémon, but we simply don't understand…"_

Katie stopped the recording, realizing that she wasn't going to get any supposed legendary footage. She felt disappointed, wondering if the video had been staged and if she'd been crazy for thinking it might help them. And yet…

Something about it felt right, like it might hold answers. She felt strange, like something was somehow drawing her to the land she was seeing on the screen. It was almost like a voice, or a feeling, inside her was telling her there was something there.

And that that something could help them.

She didn't know what the cause of that inspiration was, but she felt like she should listen to it. And whatever the reason was, she could figure it out later. Turning around, she headed toward a small section of the front of the store that held books.

There were a lot of exploration guides for trainers, but it took her a while to find one that showed anything of the lands north of Stonedust. She wasn't surprised; few trainers ventured so far into the wilderness that they'd be days from a pokémon center, and though the book she found only had a basic map of the fields and forests and deserts – and Snowcrystal's mountain – beyond Stonedust, she took it to the counter anyway.

As the old man rang up her purchases, she felt a bit of relief that at least the small tribe of growlithe hadn't been discovered yet, and no one even knew to go up there to look for strange-colored pokémon. Yet with the snow melting on the mountain and Articuno missing, she wasn't sure what would become of them in the future.

After she paid for her items, Katie dashed at the door, fumbling for her pidgeot's poké ball as she thought about what she'd tell the others. Somehow, she'd have to convince them that this might be where they would have to go next, and she hoped they would trust her judgment well enough.

In less than a minute she was soaring above Stonedust City's skyscrapers, heading back to the forest. She knew they couldn't just wait around any longer. Blazefang didn't always have a good hold on his Forbidden Attack, and they needed to find a way to put a stop to it before he got worse. And they needed to do it soon. Leaning in close to pidgeot to avoid having the wind resistance slow them down, she kept her eyes fixed on the small line of trees in the distance, where her friends were resting.

She was so enthralled with her discovery that she forgot all about asking people about the lack of news coverage on the library incident.

_To be continued…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this means…no more instant healing! Any wound a character gets will have to be dealt with (if possible) the old fashioned way, because if Scytheclaw tries to heal anyone again he's gonna die.


	64. Going Forward

"I'm telling you, I think this is where we need to go. I don't know why I'm so sure, I just am." Katie took a deep breath as she waited for a response from Damian and Justin. The pokémon were listening too, and she knew she would need to have Arien and Damian translate their opinions as well.

"Do you even know _what_ legendary we're looking for here?" Justin asked, folding his arms and not looking very impressed.

"No," Katie replied. "I don't know where that portal – if that's what it is – leads to."

"And why are you so convinced?" Justin argued back. "We all watched that video you recorded. And while, sure, it's weird…it's probably fake, or isn't actually anything-"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but right now it's not just our best bet, it's our only one." Katie looked around at the watching group of people and pokémon. Justin was standing with Spark and some of the other wild pokémon on one side of the clearing. On the opposite side were Stormblade, Nightshade, and Damian, with the rest gathered somewhere in the middle. Stormblade in particular looked interested in what she was saying, and she chalked it up to pure curiosity; a lot of what the scyther had heard in the past day was completely new to him. He did look far more optimistic than the others, but she supposed anyone would if they had just been completely cured of a debilitating wound.

"What about the pokémon?" Damian asked, echoing Katie's own thoughts. "We should see what they think."

"Oh come on, _we're_ the trainers here!" Justin retorted.

"And some of them aren't even our pokémon," Katie snapped. "Damian's right. Besides, this was their journey before it was ours." She gestured to the pokémon to start talking together and stepped back, waiting until Damian could translate their overall opinion.

Justin gave Katie an annoyed look, but he sighed and turned his attention away from the group of pokémon, who had already broken up into worried chatter.

"Should we really be wandering off somewhere this soon?" Rosie spoke first, looking over each of the pokémon around her.

"I think we should try to find the place," Stormblade answered confidently. "There are pokémon with Forbidden Attacks out there. We need to find answers before anything gets worse."

Blazefang glanced at the scyther, not sure he wanted to make eye contact with Stormblade in spite of the fact that his Shadowflare wounds were gone. He looked away, letting the other pokémon carry on the discussion.

"What about Nightshade?" Redclaw asked, pointing his cream muzzle at the heracross, who was watching the group while resting against a tree.

"I intend to come with you," Nightshade replied, sitting up a little straighter. "I'll go in one of the trainers' poké balls if I need to."

"Well you kind of have to," Rosie pointed out. "Katie told us you couldn't be taken back to the pokémon center. But I still don't see why we have to leave right now… We should at least let the injured pokémon rest for a few more days."

"All right, everyone, just calm down," Redclaw stated, seeing that some of the pokémon were beginning to look agitated. The arcanine took a deep breath. "I agree with Stormblade. I think that if Katie believes we should find this desert place, we should. It's better than waiting here. But Rosie is also right. We should take a few more days to prepare and give the injured time to rest."

"I agree with Redclaw," Wildflame announced, raising her voice so that every pokémon could hear her over the chatter. "If this is a legendary, it doesn't seem to want to be found by just anyone. If it created some sort of portal, then that must lead to its domain, or at least something that might give us a clue. What if it's one of the legendaries guarding another Forbidden Attack? What if it knows more than Articuno does?"

"And if it doesn't…?" Blazefang asked, edging closer to his former pack-mate. "What'll I do then?"

"Then we look elsewhere," Wildflame answered him. "But I'd rather start looking as soon as we can than wait for a better opportunity to come up."

Beside her, Blazefang nodded. The fear of his own Forbidden Attack was surfacing again, leading him to realize that he felt the same way as Wildflame.

In one spot on the clearing, Scytheclaw sighed and lowered his head. When he spoke, he didn't try to stand up. His body was still too weak, but in spite of that, he acted as confident as he could. "I know _I_ want answers," he began, giving Rosie a glare. "I want to know why any of this happened to me. And I want to know as soon as possible."

Stormblade gave Scytheclaw a respectful nod. "And I thank you for-"

"Save it for later, okay?" Scytheclaw snapped at him. "We've got more important things to talk about right now."

Stormblade looked taken aback, but Alex moved toward him, whispering, "Don't mind him, he's just grumpy." The floatzel gave a small chuckle that made Stormblade relax.

"I'm…not sure about this," Spark muttered.

"Why, because your trainer isn't?" Scytheclaw growled, turning his disapproving glare on the jolteon.

"No, I just…I think Rosie's right that maybe it's a little too soon," Spark replied. "I mean, Nightshade's injured, Blazefang's injured. We-"

"I can travel just fine!" Blazefang suddenly shouted with an anger that surprised Spark, bits of flame spurting out from between his teeth.

"If you get tired, Blazefang," Snowcrystal cut in before Rosie could reply, "one of the humans can always catch you and release you later, right?"

"Not exactly," Arien interjected, speaking for the first time since Katie's announcement. "Blazefang technically still belongs to Mausk. Logically speaking, he isn't even a wild anymore. Unless his poké ball is destroyed or deactivated, he can't be caught."

"I said I don't need it!" Blazefang argued, a hint of fear showing through his voice this time. "All I want to do is find out how to get rid of Shadowflare. I need you to help me do that, and if we have an idea of where to go, then let's go there, before I…I…"

"Go insane?" Scytheclaw stated bluntly, looking the houndoom in the eye. "Yeah, I'd be a bit worried about that too if I couldn't control my Forbidden Attack."

"Look," Blazefang said, addressing the group as a whole, "sometimes I get…well, I'm not sure how to describe it. It's like my ability to rationalize things gets skewed. Things that are really bad seem like good ideas. And in those times…I really want to use Shadowflare. When I'm in danger, it's like I have to fight myself in order to not use it. Most of the time, I can't hold it back for long. And it's only gotten worse. How much longer am I going to have any control at all?"

The rest of the clearing was silent, and Blazefang looked over the pokémon one by one. Each of them looked worried, even a bit frightened, by his statement.

"Look, none of you _have_ to come with us," Blazefang continued. "This isn't a vote. Anyone who wants to can leave."

Several moments of silence passed, and the pokémon glanced at one another worriedly or sat deep in thought. Justin tapped his foot impatiently as Katie replayed the footage on her pokégear to herself and Damian and Arien exchanged psychic words.

"Well, I'm sure not leaving," Alex announced. "I say we go to that portal."

A few pokémon murmured their agreement, until Redclaw barked, "Then why don't we take a count of who _doesn't_ think we should go. Rosie?" He looked at the ninetales, who faltered a bit under his gaze.

"I never said I didn't," Rosie began. "I just said that…maybe we shouldn't head off so soon. I'm worried about Nightshade."

"Don't worry," the heracross said in reply, and both Rosie and Redclaw quieted to listen to him. "We'll figure something out. But whatever decision you make, don't choose one way or the other because of me. If it's too much trouble to bring me along, I'll deal with whatever happens at the pokémon center."

" _No,_ " someone said before anyone else could speak, and all the pokémon in the group turned their heads to see Wildflame making a straight path for Nightshade. "We are _not_ leaving you behind. No way. You've looked out for us, and now it's our turn. And don't say you _want_ to be left behind because none of us are going to believe that." The houndoom stamped her paw down into the dirt as she gave Nightshade a stubborn glare. "The humans have got luxury balls. No one's going to drag you along through a wasteland. We're sticking together."

Snowcrystal nodded in agreement as she stood beside Wildflame. "Like family."

"Oh, please," Scytheclaw muttered, rolling his eyes.

Nightshade however, looked genuinely surprised and touched at Wildflame's words, and as he looked around at the group, he could see that the pokémon he'd traveled with felt the same. Even Stormblade, who hadn't ever been able to really know him because of the Shadowflare wounds, gave him an eager nod of agreement.

"Well," Rosie sighed, "I guess he'd be okay in a luxury ball, but what about the rest of us?"

"I'm sure you can have one too if you want," Wildflame said with a shrug, and Rosie gave her an annoyed glare.

"No thanks," the ninetales muttered.

"Thank you," Nightshade said, turning the group's attention back to him. "I would love to come with you. As long as you're sure-"

"Sure that what?" Spark interrupted. "You think you're being a burden. Well, why don't you think of it this way instead? We want your knowledge. Your common…or well, not-so-common sense. We want someone who's knowledgeable about healing plants and a voice of reason against idiots like them-" He shot glares at Blazefang and Scytheclaw, who either glared back or just made a sigh of exasperation. "-So you can say that we're actually _using you._ That better?"

"No," Nightshade responded, "that sounds completely absurd. Or, well, it would be if you were serious." He gave the jolteon a smile to let him know that he appreciated the joke all the same. "But I suppose it's just-"

"What did you tell Thunder, Nightshade?" Snowcrystal interjected. "You told her that she could rely on you – on us – right?"

"Yeah," Wildflame agreed, happy that others were on her side. "She learned it, now it's your turn."

At that statement, Nightshade paused, the truth of what the houndoom had said setting in. His expression went from one of worry for the others to one of more understanding. "I suppose you're right. Thank you for being there for me."

"Yeah, it's like Snowcrystal said," the houndoom began, nudging Nightshade gently with her shoulder. "We're a pack now. A family."

"Okay, no," Scytheclaw growled, "what we are is a bunch of random pokémon coming together in one big group and attempting to actually do something."

"Eh, so he's the grumpy uncle," Wildflame said with a shrug, which got a weak laugh out of Nightshade.

"Yeah, Uncle Scytheclaw saved Stormblade's life," Spark called out with a grin, "so he's kinda stuck with our admiration whether he likes it or not!"

"I think it's time we stopped the chatter and started shedding some light for the trainers," Arien interrupted. "What do you want me to tell them?"

The group briefly exchanged more words, but the general consensus was that trying to find the legendary was the only course of action that made any sense and gave them some glimmer of hope. Arien quickly relayed this final information to Damian, who told Justin and Katie.

"See, the pokémon understand," Katie told Justin.

"They're _pokémon!_ " Justin cried. "Of course they think the stuff they'd see on TV is always real. They'd-"

"Well, if they trust humans, they'll trust other pokémon too, right? What if we find that starly or another pokémon who knows what happened in that desert? That's _something_ even if this is all a hoax. And the further we get from Stonedust the more likely some isolated pokémon is going to know something. If any of the pokémon around here knew anything, we'd have found out by now."

"You can always stay behind, Justin," Damian added.

"And do what?" Justin sighed. He turned to Katie. "You know what, fine, I'll go, but if there's nothing there I'm going to be very, very angry with you."

"Anyway," Damian interrupted, trying to change the subject before Katie could get angry at Justin again, "the main concern the pokémon have is whether or not it's too soon to leave…I think the root of the issue is what we'll do about the injured pokémon."

"A desert won't be hard for a fire type to cross," Katie said. "Blazefang should be okay. If he gets tired, well, I was thinking of getting packs for some of the larger pokémon to carry our supplies. He can ride on Fernwing or something. Scytheclaw and Dusk both have poké balls. Snowcrystal's only got some scratches and anyone can carry her if she really needs it. And Nightshade…" She paused. "I think Justin should catch Nightshade."

"Why me?" Justin asked, more perplexed than anything.

"It'll be easier if he's not registered with me or Damian," she explained. "In case anyone from the cities finds out. They've already connected him to Damian and the library burning down. It's better if you do it, since you're not officially a trainer."

"Well, okay," Justin said with a shrug.

"I've been thinking a lot about this," Katie continued. "The desert isn't very far from here. I've got this map." She reached into her backpack to pull out the book she had bought at the small shop. "It's actually only about a day's walk from this forest."

"Sounds pretty convenient, doesn't it?" Justin asked, a tinge of uncertainty in his voice.

"We're up north of Stonedust," Katie replied. "There are a lot of areas beyond this point that people don't know much about. There's got to be plenty of secrets hidden in them, too. The white growlithe are one example. It's not much of a stretch to think weird stuff could be going on all around these places. Trainers don't usually come this far. If I were a legendary, this is one of the places I'd think to go."

"All right, sure," Justin said with another sigh. "Look, I'm not trying to argue, it just…seems a little weird that there'd be another one so close to where Articuno was."

"Not really," Katie replied. "I think what's in that desert is a portal. It might not even lead anywhere up north at all."

"Hope it doesn't take us to some otherworldly dimension," Justin mumbled uneasily. "And how are we going to get it to work for us?"

"We'll figure something out," Katie replied. Somehow, despite Justin's doubts, she felt confident about them being able to uncover the desert's secrets. "As for supplies," she continued, "we're going to need a lot. Lots of water. I'll bring a water pokémon with me, and we've got Alex. We'll also need a lot of pokémon food. Redclaw and Fernwing can carry large amounts of this. My scolipede can carry some too."

As she listened to the humans talking, Snowcrystal felt more confident about their plan. At the very least, they wouldn't have to worry about finding enough to eat or drink. With the humans on their side, they had all the food they needed and more, and they could take care of the injured pokémon without worrying about pushing them too hard. Also, with a group so large, they could fend off most any dangerous wild pokémon they happened to come across.

"All right, let's do this then," Justin said, still somewhat reluctantly. "I might as well help you guys out. I just have one request."

"And that is?"

"You or Damian are carrying the heracross's poké ball. I don't want to be on the receiving end of that other scyther's violent rage."

  
**-ooo-**  


Katie went back to the city for their first round of supplies after the discussion was over, and the clearing became alive with activity as the pokémon talked back and forth, some excited, others still apprehensive. However, there was still an overwhelming sense of relief among them now that they finally had some direction. It was a direction that seemed a bit more solid than just looking up books in a library, even if they were venturing into unknown territory.

While the pokémon gathered into small groups to rest or talk to each other, Blazefang slipped away from the rest. A few of the group members had wandered out into the forest to collect berries or to stretch their legs, and he knew one in particular had wanted to feel what it was like to run free again.

As soon as he was out of the clearing, the houndoom caught Stormblade's scent easily and raced along the trail as fast as he could, though his wounded shoulder and leg slowed him down, causing more pain than he expected. He grudgingly noted to himself that he would probably have to let Fernwing carry him when they started their journey.

As he walked, he noticed that he was loudly crunching twigs beneath his paws, no matter how much he tried not to. He wasn't used to forests, and he realized with annoyance that he'd probably be useless hunting here, especially if he was trying to chase something down in places where the woods grew thickest. He could, however, still use his sense of smell excellently, and the scyther scent was easy to pick out from the rest.

He had even crossed Thunder's scent at one point, but he made a point to stay clear of her. Nightshade may have welcomed her back, but that didn't mean _he_ had to. He was relieved that her trail had veered off in another direction; she seemed to have gone deeper into the forest this time. No one had seen her all day.

Blazefang picked up the pace as soon as the scent grew stronger. The forest was denser here, and he found himself having to scramble clumsily over rocks or bushes, a feat that was made difficult by the claw wounds the pyroar had given him. He soon wound up finding the scyther he was looking for in a place he hadn't expected – a shallow stream in one of the darkest areas of the forest.

Blazefang was relieved to see that the stream was only about a foot deep, but it was wider than several houndoom standing end-to-end. The trees here reached far over his head, their branches interlocking as high up as the roof of a three-story human building.

Stormblade had been cleaning his blades in the stream, standing in the center of it as he enjoyed the feeling of the cool water. He lifted his head to look at Blazefang, not seeming at all surprised that the houndoom was there. Blazefang figured that the scyther had easily heard him coming.

Stormblade barely reacted, just stared at the fire type with an unreadable expression. Slowly, Blazefang stepped forward, placing his paws into the slow moving stream and making his way to the scyther until they stood almost face to face.

"Stormblade," Blazefang began, and as he watched the pokémon he had injured all that time ago, Stormblade didn't move. There was wariness in the bug type's eyes – no, something more than that – but Stormblade stood still. "I'm…" Blazefang continued, resisting the urge to look downwards and instead focusing on the scyther's eyes. "I'm sorry for what happened. For what I did to you. I should've…I should've tried harder to fix it, but instead I just…"

He trailed off. As he watched Stormblade, who still gave no response, he could see that Stormblade didn't look angry. The scyther wasn't running away, wasn't yelling at him or even asking him to leave. He just faced Blazefang, waiting to see what he would do.

"I regretted using the attack the moment after it happened," the houndoom said, raising his voice and hoping that he sounded as sure as he really was. "I didn't know what it would do, but I should have…helped the others figure out something. I don't know what. I should have at least tried to make up for it. And Stormblade, I promise I'll try from now on." He bowed his head a little in a show of respect, the same way he had once addressed his tribe leader.

What Blazefang had just done was something he never thought he'd find himself doing. But he hadn't been able to relax since using Shadowflare for the first time. It was something that had haunted him for so long, he felt ashamed that he hadn't tried to at least do _something_ before Katie had taken Stormblade away.

When Stormblade spoke, his voice didn't sound doubtful or suspicious, merely confused. "You don't sound like the Blazefang I knew."

"Believe me, I'll take that as a compliment," the houndoom muttered. "But hey, even if I was, everything I was trying to work for is over now. The houndour tribe doesn't need me anymore; Articuno's not coming back. And being a leader was something that was never going to happen to me, but-" He paused, realizing how self-centered he was beginning to sound. He hadn't come to Stormblade just to make the scyther listen to him rant. He had something more important to do. "But that's not important right now." He paced back and forth a few times, ignoring the chilly water that splashed his black fur. Then he stopped, looking Stormblade in the eyes again. "I just…I just really want you to know that I'm sorry. That I should never have done it. You can take it or leave it, it's up to you."

He wasn't sure how Stormblade was going to react, all he knew was that he was done running away from things like a coward. As much as he had been reluctant to journey with Snowcrystal, the time he'd spent in the underground had shown him that these pokémon were willing to put their lives on the line for another. There was a part of him, and it was steadily growing stronger, that wanted to be like that.

"I sure hope you're sincere," Stormblade said, stepping away from Blazefang and walking toward the shore. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, I just want to be sure. If you've really changed, it would take more than coming here to apologize."

"I know," Blazefang said. "If it takes you a while to trust me, then I don't blame you. But I'll do my best."

"Well," Stormblade began, a hint of a smile forming on his face. "I believe you. Let's see you start working on it."

The two pokémon gave a nod of respect to each other and parted ways, Blazefang heading back along his own trail toward the group, and Stormblade running off to enjoy the feeling of racing through the forest once again.

  
**-ooo-**  


"Are you sure this is far enough?" Thunder growled, glancing suspiciously back in the direction of the camp.

"It'll be fine, Thunder," Nightshade answered her. He glanced down at the blankets the trainers had set out for him when he'd made it known that he'd wanted to talk to Thunder. In spite of his insistence that she would not harm him, he knew they were still waiting tensely, ready to come to his aid at the first sign of a struggle. He had made sure they would be far enough away that they wouldn't hear any of his conversation, but they had insisted on being close enough to hear a shout.

They had trusted him enough to bring him to this much smaller clearing, where he had told Thunder to wait for him. And although his injuries had only barely started to heal, the couple days of rest had brought back a little of his strength.

"All right, fine," Thunder muttered, still not entirely happy about the others being so close by. "I just wish you didn't have to stay around _them_ for all those human medicines."

"Well, Thunder-"

Before he could finish, Thunder had darted to the nearest tree and sliced deeply into its trunk, then moved on to the next one. In no more than several seconds, all of the closest trees surrounding them were oozing sap. "I can help you too," Thunder stated firmly. "Not just them."

"You…you don't need to do that to all the trees," Nightshade said with a lighthearted chuckle. "And it's all right; I don't need any food right now."

"Right," the scyther growled. " _They_ brought you plenty."

"Listen, Thunder," Nightshade began. "The others are searching for a legendary that might be able to help us. And I'm going with them."

"Why?" Thunder spat back. "What does that have to do with us?"

"I want to help them," he replied. "And right now I need their help as well. But you see, if I'm going to travel with them, I'll need to be in a poké ball. Justin-"

" _What?_ " Thunder cried, looking shocked and appalled. "You're going to just…to just hand over your freedom to the humans?"

"No, no, of course not," Nightshade said quickly. "I'll be released as soon as I'm well enough to travel on my own again. I agreed to this; they are not taking away any of my free will." He sighed, seeing that Thunder still showed the same suspicion. "Please try to trust my judgment. I wouldn't have agreed to this if I didn't know they would keep their word."

"What if they're lying to you?" Thunder growled, and Nightshade could tell her anger was still building beneath the surface.

"You've seen them help," Nightshade replied, reaching out with his good arm toward the scyther. "They had no reason to help me other than that they wanted to. They went down to the fighting ring and rescued you and Blazefang. I trust them, and while you don't have to, I hope you'll at least trust that I know what I'm doing."

Thunder was silent, realizing she was not going to change Nightshade's mind. She knew, as much as she hated to admit it, that Nightshade was likely to get an infection and die without the humans' help. She also knew, when she thought about it, that staying around three isolated humans was better than being taken into the city of thousands looking for treatment.

"You don't have to agree with me," Nightshade continued, "and I wouldn't want you to trust them just because I do. I just want you to give them a chance."

"Fine," she muttered, but not in response to Nightshade's most recent statement. "Let them carry you around like a slave. But if they ever turn on you, or don't keep their promise, I'll-"

" _Don't_ hurt them, okay?" Nightshade said firmly before Thunder could even finish. "They're my friends. But I'll tell you this…" At these words, a bit of the anger faded from Thunder's expression as she waited to see what he would say. "The poké balls these trainers have aren't like the ones Master has. Pokémon can learn to come out when they wish. I'm sure one of the trainer's pokémon can easily teach me how, if that helps."

"Then I want to see what poké ball they're using before they use it," Thunder snapped. "I want to make sure they're telling the truth and then I want to see you come out of it on your own after they've captured you. And if they think of going back on what you made them promise…"

"They won't," Nightshade insisted, trying to sit up straighter. "Please…try to trust me. I wouldn't be doing this if I thought the humans posed a threat." He paused, considering something else. "And they'll have to let me out often for food and water. I'd also rather sleep outside the poké ball. You'll be able to see me at night."

Thunder locked eyes with Nightshade, her tone serious. "Fine, I'll trust you. But if the humans don't let you go when all this is over…I'll free you myself."

"That won't be necessary, Thunder, but thank you," Nightshade told her. "I promise I'm in good hands."

"If they do as they say," Thunder growled, but Nightshade's confidence seemed to be wearing her suspicion down. "When are we leaving?"

"I think as soon as they're ready," Nightshade answered. "I know this was sudden. It was really sudden for everyone. I'm sorry I didn't have much warning other than that. But Thunder, I believe that once they help Blazefang and Scytheclaw, these humans and pokémon can help us too."

Thunder almost laughed, but couldn't muster up enough enthusiasm to. "Well, when you're healed, you and I won't need their help." She turned around, facing the direction of the camp with a wary gaze. "Tell them when you're ready to be _captured,_ because I'm going to make sure they don't try anything funny."

Nightshade nodded to her, but she didn't turn to face him, so she didn't see the worried look in his eyes.

  
**-ooo-**  


Two days later, everything the trainers could think of to prepare for the journey had been done. They had stocked up on food, water, medical supplies for both people and pokémon, as well as anything else they felt they might need while the injured pokémon rested. Katie had organized most of it, and Damian, who was the most experienced at wilderness traveling out of all of them, had added plenty of suggestions of his own, and now the pokémon stood, packs strapped to the backs of the largest ones.

Redclaw glanced to his left at Fernwing, and the tropius grinned at him in response. They were both carrying large amounts of food and water, and to Redclaw's right was Katie's scolipede, who was also carrying a bulky pack of supplies. Several of the others carried smaller packs, and even Snowcrystal had insisted she help bring something, so there was a small first aid kit strapped to the growlithe's back.

Damian had volunteered to carry the luxury ball now containing Nightshade, and he tried to give Thunder a reassuring grin as the scyther watched from the sidelines, her piercing eyes staring into his. Damian, with the help of his pokémon, had already shown Nightshade how to break out of the poké ball of his own free will, but it was clear Thunder still didn't like the idea.

"So, uh…this is it, I guess?" Justin asked, looking around the group of pokémon and nervously fidgeting when his gaze passed over the two scyther. "We're just going to walk out in the middle of some desert?"

"Yes," Katie replied curtly.

"We'll walk until it gets dark, camp out, and we should get to the desert the next morning," Damian explained.

As soon as he said it, his confident gaze wavered, and he glanced nervously away for a moment. Katie and Justin exchanged glances, wondering what was wrong.

"Uh…Katie?" Damian began. "You…you don't have to help us, you know. You can go back to the city. Justin and I can find our way on our own and really…" He paused and took a deep breath. "You don't exactly have a reason to be wandering around the wilderness with us anyway."

Katie cast her eyes down and stepped forward. To Damian's surprise, he felt her placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," she said, "I'm coming with you. I've stuck with you guys this far, and I'm going to go the rest of the way. If there's anything we can do to stop that…psycho vaporeon from killing thousands of innocent people, and anything we can do to help Blazefang and Scytheclaw…well, I want to be a part of it."

Damian looked up at Katie, both shock and gratitude clear on his expression. Justin looked immensely relieved, and Katie's scolipede brightened visibly, as if glad she wouldn't have to turn around and leave after being promised a part in the journey.

"Well, I'm ready if you all are," Katie said, straightening up. "Let's go."

Many of the pokémon gave cheerful cries, eager to leave the wilderness by Stonedust City's outskirts behind. It had felt like ages since they'd last been traveling, moving toward a solid goal, and there was a part of each of them that longed to keep going…

…And to find the answers they had so long waited to unearth.

  
**-ooo-**  


The first stretch of the journey passed uneventfully, and they set up camp as soon as the sun began to set. According to Fernwing and Katie's pidgeot, who had flown on ahead, Damian had been correct. They would reach the desert by late morning.

With the help of the fire types, they soon had a steady campfire going. The trainers and pokémon all sat in a wide ring around the flames, apart from a few who had wandered off on their own. The forest had thinned out, and now there were only a couple large trees here and there. Most of the land was scattered with boulders, reminding them a bit of the old camps they had stayed in back when they were searching the library.

As they conversed among themselves, Thunder waited back with Nightshade. The fact that the humans had kept to their word throughout the day seemed to have calmed her, and she wasn't even shooting glares in their direction much anymore.

"Why do they care so much?" the scyther growled.

Nightshade glanced at her from his position on the ground, where the humans had set up a comfortable bed for him.

"Why do they want to help that Blazefang houndoom so much? After all the things he did."

"Pokémon can change, Thunder," Nightshade replied weakly. "Like you did."

"Maybe," Thunder scoffed. "But he's got a Forbidden Attack. He's dangerous."

"He still has a lot of control," Nightshade replied, "and it only seems to activate when he's in physical danger. He is not a threat to us now."

"But he will be."

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Nightshade said, but there was some worry in his voice. "Blazefang doesn't want to hurt us. He doesn't want to hurt anyone needlessly. We all made the decision to help him, and we decided to take the risks."

"Like you did with me?" Thunder said suddenly, causing Nightshade to look at her in surprise. "I guess I can understand that," the scyther admitted quietly. "But what I don't understand is why _him?_ Why do you care about him?"

"I care about pokémon in need," Nightshade said. "And I help when I can. The other pokémon would too. Stormblade didn't even know you when he set you free on the night they found you chained to a wall."

"Hah, Stormblade," Thunder laughed bitterly. "He's only alive because of a fluke anyway. Honestly, Nightshade, pokémon like me, and I suppose like you, know much more pain than even they ever will. Why should we even bother with them?"

Nightshade sighed. "I thought like that once. But trust me when I say that it never got me anywhere. Nor will it help you. Maybe you still need to understand that Mausk – Master – was wrong."

"I do," Thunder hissed. "I would never, _never_ listen to what that monster says again."

"There's still things he taught you that you believe," Nightshade insisted, and the look on Thunder's face told him that if anyone else had said that to her, she would have started screaming insults at them. "Things that weren't commands said out loud. Those are harder to unlearn."

Thunder looked like she was ready to argue, but decided against it and just rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she muttered in exasperation, making it clear that she was tired of talking to him for the night. "I'm going to get some food." Without waiting for him to reply, she stood up and walked over to Redclaw, snapping at him to give her some of the pokémon food in the pack lying beside him, and the arcanine hurriedly obliged.

Soon tiredness overcame the group and they let the fire burn low, not needing much heat to help them through a fairly warm night. The humans retired to their tents along with some of the pokémon, and the others curled up together on the ground or found a spot to themselves. Somewhere, off in the distance, a starly sang one last song as the last of the fire's embers grew cold.

  
**-ooo-**  


By late next morning, the group stood in front of the sprawling, dusty plain of the desert, the grassy fields and rocks directly behind them. The dry ground ahead of them was brown and featureless, no sign of plant life or pokémon to be found. Katie, who had become more or less their guide for the desert journey, stood at the front.

It struck her as strange that there was a desert this far north. She supposed it was probably much colder in the wintertime, but right now she could feel the early summer heat beating down on her, so different from the nightly chill of the forest she had become used to.

Looking over the scorched brown earth, she noted how much of a huge contrast it was from the places they had left. Even the fields of grass and trees they had just passed by seemed to end abruptly, like part of the earth had been cut out and replaced by this desert. The line between the dry ground and grassy plains stood out so bizarrely against the rest of the landscape that it made her feel odd, like she was standing right on the place where two squares met on some giant patchwork quilt.

She didn't feel like the desert was bad or dangerous, though, or at least not more so than any other desert. She had no foreboding feelings, no restless unease at the sight of it. It just felt weird. Not in a _wrong_ way, just in a way that left her baffled.

"If a legendary's out here somewhere, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised," she told herself. She turned to face the others. "Let's get started. We'll have Alex and my azumarill cool everyone down if it gets too hot later."

"Drink plenty of water, don't die, yada, yada, yada," Justin said mockingly.

"Oh, shut up," Katie said with a grin, pushing him away from her in a jesting manner.

Snowcrystal pushed her way to the front of the group, pausing to adjust the straps of the pack holding the first aid kit to her back. "How long do you think it'll take us to reach this portal?" she asked no one in particular.

"If Damian and Katie are right," Arien answered her, "then five or six days. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on how well we make time."

"Wouldn't it be funny if we came across those vibrava the scientists were looking for all that time?" Alex asked jokingly.

"Only if they could tell us where this portal thing is," Scytheclaw responded. " _Then_ it would be funny. Otherwise, no."

Stormblade, who now looked more fit and healthy than a lot of them, took a step onto the dusty ground. "Let's go then," he said. "Let's find out how this Forbidden Attack mess can be stopped once and for all."

The pokémon needed no second bidding. Even the humans, who couldn't understand his words, could hear his meaning loud and clear. With a new determination, the traveling party made their way over the dividing line between plain and desert, taking their first steps on the sun-scorched earth, toward their glimmer of hope.

_To be continued…_


	65. The Wasteland

"Okay, okay," a voice rang out, carrying far across the flat and desolate land. "My turn. I spy, with my little eye, something…brown."

"Spark, everything in this desert is brown!"

The jolteon turned to his ninetales friend with a grin of excitement. "What, you give up?"

"No!" Rosie retorted. "Okay, fine, the dirt. You spy the dirt."

"Which patch of dirt?" Spark teased. "You gotta guess the right one or you lose!"

Rosie rolled her eyes. " _That_ patch, over there!" She pointed with her paw, and Spark laughed.

"You gotta be more specific than that!"

"Okay, how about these three specific grains of sand that landed on my paw?" Rosie said mockingly, shoving her paw in front of Spark's nose for inspection.

"Nope!" the jolteon said smugly. "That was three guesses, so you lose!"

"Okay, okay, _fine,_ " Rosie sighed. "I spy…with my little eye…Justin picking his nose!"

"What?"

"Ha!" As Spark turned his head, Rosie tackled him to the ground. "Just kidding!"

A few of the other pokémon halted as Spark and Rosie tumbled over and over before jumping to their feet and chasing each other in a wide circle around the group.

"Hey!" Redclaw called out to them. "Try and save your energy. We'll be walking for quite a while."

"Aw, you're no fun," Spark muttered as he and Rosie stopped their roughhousing and trotted back to the group.

Rosie sighed and then turned to Spark. "Well, that 'I spy' game you showed me wasn't much fun either. There's nothing around here to look at. The only thing that stuck out to me among all this brown was some stupid cloud."

"I gotta agree with you there," Wildflame mused, walking up beside Redclaw and the two younger pokémon. Like the arcanine, she was carrying a pack of supplies, though one much smaller. "This place is probably the most empty landscape I've ever seen. And we'll be walking through it for days. Let them have a little fun, Redclaw."

"I just hope we find something, and don't have to walk all the way back with nothing," Rosie sighed.

"Oh come on," said Spark, "lighten up. Who doesn't want to spend days trekking through a sweltering desert with a bunch of sweaty, stinky pokémon?"

"Speak for yourself. I'm a fire type!" Rosie said proudly. "The heat won't make me sweaty and gross like you."

"Hey, are you guys going to catch up?" Stormblade's voice called from up ahead, and the four pokémon turned to look toward him, seeing that the main group had passed them up while they'd been distracted.

"Coming, Stormblade!" Wildflame shouted back in a mock sing-song voice, aiming a grin at Redclaw. "Race you."

Without waiting for a response, she shot off, and Redclaw bounded after her, shouting, "That's no fair; you're not carrying as much as I am!"

Spark and Rosie watched their antics with amusement, both of them glad that at least everyone was in a considerably lighter mood. It made the walk through the desert seem like much less of a chore.

Most of the other group members were closely clustered together, Damian and Justin taking the lead. Arien walked between them, ready to alert his trainer if any of the pokémon needed something. Scytheclaw, however, was in his poké ball. The heat was simply too much for the scizor, and he had yet to recover his strength. Damian also carried Nightshade's poké ball, making sure to keep it in plain sight so that Thunder, the only one who wasn't walking close to the group, could see it.

Thunder was keeping her distance as much as she could, while still staying close enough to see Nightshade's poké ball and to come to his aid should she need to. She could at least be fairly confident that she could take down the humans and their pokémon if it came to fight, and she also reminded herself that Nightshade could be right and that they were no real threat. And, as much as she hated to admit it, she needed their food and water. If she wanted to keep her only friend safe, she was going to have to put up with them.

"Thunder!" a voice cried from over in the group, and the scyther turned to see Snowcrystal calling to her. "Why don't you come over here with us?"

Even as Thunder watched her, the angry or worried stares of the other pokémon told her that Snowcrystal's request wasn't a popular one. Not even bothering to give an answer, Thunder looked away from the growlithe and carried on, keeping the same amount of distance between herself and the others.

Over at the back of the group, Snowcrystal sighed, watching as Thunder acted as if she hadn't even heard. "This isn't working very well," she said quietly.

"Let Thunder do what she wants," Rosie muttered. "We don't want her stabbing anyone else."

"Rosie! She promised…" Snowcrystal said sadly. "She promised she wouldn't hurt us, and Nightshade trusts her!"

"Yeah, well, maybe she shouldn't make promises she can't keep," the ninetales muttered. "And anyway, if she's not over here getting angry at us, she's not very likely to try anything, is she?"

"I guess not," Snowcrystal replied unhappily.

"Then she's better off over there," Rosie said pointedly.

"Look, Thunder's not trying to hurt anyone," a voice interrupted, and they both turned to see that Stormblade had slowed down to match his pace with theirs. "But let's leave her alone for now. She probably just needs more time to feel comfortable around us."

As Stormblade left them to walk toward the front of the group again, Rosie leaned in closer to Snowcrystal and whispered, "He's probably only saying that because she saved him back in that muddy cave. Still doesn't change what she did to Nightshade though."

"I don't know," Snowcrystal muttered back. "I think more pokémon should give her a chance like he does."

Rosie gave her an eye roll. "Just don't get yourself killed trying to befriend her."

Snowcrystal didn't feel like replying. Instead, she cast her gaze skyward, watching the bulky shape of Fernwing the tropius gliding far above them. Blazefang, who was still weak from the wounds he'd received in the underground, had been strapped to the tropius's back so that he could ride most of the way. She briefly wondered how the houndoom felt about being so high above the ground the whole time, but seeing as Fernwing wasn't heading back down with any bad news, she figured he was fine with it. She could also see Katie's pidgeot up ahead, scouting out the way for them.

"Try and relax, Snowcrystal," Redclaw told her, interrupting her train of thought. "We'll find a way to work things out. But for now we need to focus on just finding this stone arch thing."

The growlithe nodded and followed the arcanine, feeling a bit better after hearing that he understood, and that the tension surrounding Thunder seemed to have faded a bit.

Up in the air, ahead of the group, Katie clung to her pidgeot's back as she peered ahead. She could feel the hot desert wind whipping against her skin, and occasionally had to shield her eyes from dust as she scanned the landscape below. It was still as blank and featureless as it had been when they'd first reached it, the only things that could be called landmarks being a few small boulders. Even those were few and far between, and if she didn't have her pokégear to navigate, Katie would have worried about getting lost.

So far, she could see no change in the land up ahead, and she reluctantly accepted the fact that it would probably look like this the entire time until they reached the cliffs. She had to admit to herself that she did feel a bit silly for dragging the others out into a wasteland based on a news airing and some hunch, but she just couldn't give up in case something _was_ out there.

Her pidgeot gave a sharp cry, which she knew meant that he was tired, hungry, or both. She glanced over his side at the pokémon and trainers below, spotting her scolipede, who was carrying much of the food.

"Okay, let's head back for a little break," she told her pokémon, and the flying type wheeled back down to join the other adventurers.

 

  
**-ooo-**

They had a brief meal, rested, and then, after Alex and Katie's azumarill had cooled them down, set off again. Damian had convinced the group that they would keep going into the night and rest well into the day, so that they could travel when the worst of the heat was over. The other pokémon agreed willingly, knowing that the only reason they hadn't started out travelling that way was that they had all been too anxious to find out if Katie's theory was right, and had begun their journey as soon as they could, starting off in broad daylight. Luckily, with the water pokémon and all their supplies, walking in the desert during the day was simply uncomfortable, not dangerous. It helped that the water pokémon were able to cool them down, and would be able to use their water attacks for at least a while longer.

As they continued to trudge across the cracked earth, Snowcrystal noticed that her fur had turned brown from the dust. Some of it had also gotten in her nose, and she found herself sneezing for what felt like the hundredth time. She shook herself, feeling dirt flying off her coat and into the air. Even after that, she didn't feel any cleaner.

She squinted as she peered into the sky again, watching the path of Fernwing and Katie's pidgeot. She envied them a bit, knowing that they were up in the wind, which had to be cooler. Snowcrystal was a fire type, but her native land was the cold of the snowy mountain. Here, it almost felt like her internal fire was overheating her, even though she knew it had died down because of the scorching temperatures around her.

Up ahead, she could see Damian walking with a piece of cloth over his nose and face, and Justin was copying his example. Alex's usually bouncy demeanor had faded, and she plodded along with her head low. Even the fire types who were used to warmer climates were uncomfortable, and every so often she heard one of them cough from the dust.

She was so focused on putting one paw in front of the other, forcing herself to think of the promising reward of their next break, that she hardly noticed Wildflame approaching her until the houndoom nudged her side.

"Snowcrystal, there's something I want to tell you," the houndoom whispered. "Let's hang back."

Snowcrystal nodded and the growlithe and houndoom slowed their pace and let the others pass them. Everyone else was too focused on walking to pay them any mind, and they were soon out of earshot.

"Okay, what is it?" Snowcrystal asked, speaking low in case anyone could still hear them.

"Well…" the houndoom began, "I really should have told you this a long time ago." She took a deep breath. "When I first joined your group…I lied about being kicked out of Blazefang's pack because I was evolved. You see, Blazefang sent me to you guys, told me to gain your trust and figure out if you knew anything about Articuno. And I…I knew that attack he and the other houndour led on you was going to happen. But I didn't know he would go as far as he did. I thought it would be a quick battle where I'd pretend to fight them off easily, so you'd trust me more. But I should have told you."

Snowcrystal stopped walking, staring back at the houndoom. She was at a loss for what to say. For the past few months, she had believed Wildflame's story. She had even wondered what would become of Blazefang if his old pack back near the mountain saw that he had evolved. She felt betrayed, and yet also confused. Wildflame had always acted so loyal, and now here she was saying it had all been an act from the start.

Yet…Snowcrystal also knew that, whatever had happened in the beginning, Wildflame had changed since then. That had been proven again and again. The houndoom had even risked her life for her. Now, the only thing that made her feel hurt and betrayed was that Wildflame had lied to her about it all for so long.

"But I swear, that didn't last long," Wildflame continued. "Things changed really quickly, and I realized there was no point in…I mean, I had nothing against…I just…I realized I was wrong." She hung her head. "I was stupid. Blazefang and I shouldn't have even been following you in the first place."

Snowcrystal didn't reply, and instead waited for Wildflame to go on.

"But I promise things are different now," the houndoom said seriously, lifting her head and looking Snowcrystal in the eyes. "They were different for a long time. I've only wanted to help you for so long…and I'm so sorry about what I did. I'm completely on your side now. I'd never try to hurt you or drive you off your land or anything like that."

Snowcrystal knew from the houndoom's words and the look in her eyes that Wildflame was completely sincere. Even though the news had come as a shock, she could tell that she was already beginning to forgive her friend. "I wish you'd told me sooner, Wildflame," she said, barely above a whisper. "I would have understood."

"I know. I was wrong," the houndoom said regretfully. "But listen, Snowcrystal. When all this is over, if Articuno won't come back, then I'll help the growlithe tribe find a new home." She looked Snowcrystal in the eyes again and smiled. "That is a promise. And I intend to keep my promises."

"R-really?" Snowcrystal replied, astonished. "Are you sure?"

"Of course. The mess they're in is partly my tribe's fault," Wildflame replied. "And even if it wasn't, I'd still do it because they're your family, and I know how much family means to you." She gave Snowcrystal a grin of amusement. "You consider all of us family. Even _Scytheclaw_. That shows it must mean an awful lot."

Snowcrystal gave her a small laugh. "Thank you, Wildflame."

"I understand if you don't want to trust me for a while," the houndoom said. "Or ever, even. What I did was really wrong. I'm sorry for that, and I won't blame you if you don't."

"Wildflame," Snowcrystal began, "I know you were trying to fool us in the beginning, but you saved my life from a forest fire made of _Shadowflare._ No amount of deception could be worth doing that! I know you're on our side now." She leaned closer and touched noses with Wildflame. "But you need to go tell the others," she said. "They deserve to know too."

"That was my next plan," Wildflame said with a grin. "Thanks for giving me another chance."

 

  
**-ooo-**

During the next rest, Wildflame's confession got mixed responses. The pokémon who had been a part of the group when Wildflame had first joined were uncertain of what to think at first, and those who hadn't been there were more surprised than anything.

Rosie had reacted with anger, not taking the news as well as Snowcrystal had. But when Wildflame didn't object, and instead agreed that she had the right to be mad, Rosie calmed down a bit, though it was clear she wasn't sure if she was ready to forgive just yet.

Stormblade had been angry as well, but he quickly gained a certain respect for Wildflame for deciding to be honest and coming clean about everything.

Spark, however, took the whole thing in stride. "Honestly, that happened so long ago...it feels like I can hardly even remember it," the Jolteon mused. "But hey, Blazefang's done a lot worse and I know _he's_ not going to murder us in our sleep. A lot's happened since then, Wildflame, and you've proven yourself many times over, so I trust you. Just, uh, try not to lie to us again, all right?"

"Yeah, I won't," Wildflame responded. "If you guys need a while to trust me again, I get it. And I'll show you that I'll be honest from now on."

"Well," began Redclaw, "I don't know if I'm entirely sure yet of what happened, but I believe you. If Blazefang and Scytheclaw can learn from their mistakes, I see no reason why you can't too."

Near the edge of the group, Blazefang shuffled his paws nervously. He knew he had nothing to confess; all his misdeeds were well known among the others. Yet his past actions still haunted him.

"Hey, Blazefang," Wildflame called to him, causing him to look up. "Let's try not to ruin the lives of other pokémon for our own agendas anymore, right?"

She was grinning at him, trying to lighten the mood, but Blazefang still felt as if the subject had brought up a lot of bad memories for the original members of the group, and he didn't particularly feel welcome.

"Oh come on, Blaze," Wildflame sighed in irritation. "Stop being ridiculous. It's true. If you want everyone to respect you, then start acting like a decent pokémon. We both owe that to them."

"I knew it," a low voice hissed from somewhere outside the circle of resting pokémon, and they all turned their heads to see Thunder standing there. "You're a liar. You're probably all liars," the scyther hissed. To their surprise, she didn't look angry at Wildflame in particular. Her distrustful glare was directed to the group as a whole.

Nightshade looked up from the bowl of honey he was lapping at, taking care not to move his damaged arm. "Thunder, Wildflame's trying to make things right. She's not a liar anymore."

"She already lied once," Thunder growled. "She's still a liar."

"Wouldn't that mean _you_ could still attack Nightshade or the rest of us?" Rosie growled angrily at the scyther. "If Wildflame's apology doesn't mean anything, why should we think yours does?"

"Rosie!" Nightshade hissed.

"All right, that's enough," Arien said, rising to his feet. He looked at the humans, who had interrupted their meal to stare at the pokémon in confusion. "We can't have any fighting now. Rosie, apologize."

"Sorry…" the ninetales muttered, avoiding the alakazam's gaze.

Thunder looked visibly angry, but to the surprise of the group gathered there, she slowly forced herself to relax. "I don't need you to believe it," she snapped at the ninetales. " _I_ know. Nightshade knows. You're not worth arguing with." With that, she turned and walked away, leaving the last bits of her food behind.

"Oh great," Blazefang muttered. "With her around, this is going to be a long walk."

"Should I…try to talk to her?" Stormblade mused.

Nightshade shook his head. "Not now. I think the best we can do is show her that we trust her. That's all she'd probably want you to do now."

Stormblade looked a bit surprised, but he nodded.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The rest of the day passed without any trouble. As they traveled further into the desert, they started to see a few scraggly bushes here and there, as well as a couple of trapinch and one scavenging fennekin. Other than that, there had been no signs of life. There definitely hadn't been any sign of water.

Now, they walked through darkness, grateful for the chill of night as they made their way across the dusty earth, the sky filled with countless stars above them. Snowcrystal found that, in spite of the fact that the white growlithe of the mountain were used to traveling a lot in one day, she was growing exhausted, and it was hard to stay awake. She figured it must be the exhaustion of the underground fight, or simply the heat of the day, or both.

She soon found herself talking to Wildflame again. As a pokémon with more nocturnal tendencies, Wildflame had little problem staying awake, and decided to talk with Snowcrystal to help keep her focused. Somehow, they got on the subject of where they would go once their journey ended.

"I hope Articuno can come back," Snowcrystal said tiredly. "But I guess if not, we'll have to find a new home."

"Yeah, but remember, I'll be there to help you guys," Wildflame replied.

"I wonder about the others too," Snowcrystal mused. "I mean Spark, and Stormblade…everyone here."

The houndoom was silent, and for a few minutes they walked, the light of the stars and moon bright enough to show them the way without any need for fire to provide light. Then she spoke again.

"I'm not going to go back to my tribe once this is all over," Wildflame said softly. "I don't like how Firedash – that's our leader – was running things. Blazefang can go back if he wants, but if that's what he chooses, I'm not going with him. Most of the houndour I got along with are in Cyclone's army now, but even if they weren't…" She sighed. "I dunno. I guess I wasn't a good fit. Never liked all the strict rules. I've been thinking about this for a while now…and I guess I realized I never did really want to go back."

"Do you think you'd like to find other houndoom and houndour?" Snowcrystal asked. "Join a pack or start one of your own, with your own way of doing things?"

"I don't know." Wildflame stopped walking, her eyes turned toward the hundreds of stars above them. "To be honest…I'd really rather stick with you guys. You're more of a pack than my houndour tribe ever was. You, Nightshade, Spark, Rosie…all of you. I think I'm even going to miss Scytheclaw a little." At this, she gave a small chuckle. "I guess when we're done journeying together, and I've helped the growlithe settle into their new territory, I'll tag along with whoever wants to find a new home somewhere warmer. Stick with them."

Snowcrystal felt a sadness creeping over her. "I wish there was a way we could all stay together," she said.

"Yeah, me too," Wildflame admitted. "But hey, if we can survive all _this,_ we could probably do anything. Maybe we can figure something out."

Snowcrystal smiled at her. She started to reply, but stopped when she noticed that Wildflame's attention had become fixed on something up ahead.

"Oh, they're stopping," the houndoom mused. "Guess we're spending the night here. Come on, let's go join them."

The growlithe followed the larger canine as she bounded toward the group, who she could see were unloading supplies from the pokémon. She felt proud that she had carried the first aid kit with her the entire day, and hurried to catch up with them.

A campfire was already burning merrily. The trainers were starting to set up tents and spread blankets on the ground, and a few of the pokémon had already curled up to go to sleep. Rosie was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep leaning against Redclaw's side, and the arcanine didn't feel like disturbing her. A few of the others looked as if they were drifting off as well, lying down on the first blanket they reached.

"Wait a minute, everyone," Stormblade said suddenly. The tired scyther was instantly alert, so the others knew he had noticed something. "There are pokémon coming our way."

All of the pokémon and trainers looked in the direction they'd been walking from, where Stormblade's focus was directed. Even Redclaw stirred, which woke Rosie. Quietly, they all stood up and peered out over the dark desert landscape, some of them moving forward for a closer look.

At first, they saw nothing. Then they noticed black shapes moving slowly their way from a distance, only noticeable by how they blocked out small patches of stars.

At once, everyone stopped what they were doing and stood still, watching the strange figures that headed their way. No one spoke for several seconds.

"What are they?" Rosie asked, breaking the silence.

"I'll fly up ahead and see what those things are," Katie suggested, obviously guessing what the pokémon's question had been, but she needn't have volunteered.

"Wait a minute…I see them," Justin said. The others looked harder, and as their eyes adjusted to the gloom away from their campfire, the light of the stars and moon illuminated the shape of the pokémon following them. "They're cacturne."

"How come we didn't see any of those guys during the day?" Rosie asked.

"They come out at night," Arien answered, nodding to Damian as the boy got out his pokégear and began to search for information on the strange pokémon.

"It says they follow travelers lost in the desert, searching for prey that's been weakened by the desert heat," Damian explained as he looked at the screen.

"Those things want to _eat_ us?" Snowcrystal whispered.

"They probably don't even know what we are," Redclaw replied as he kept his eyes on the distantly moving cacturne. "And just assumed we'd be weak."

"Well, we're anything but," Spark said proudly. "A lot of us are fire types, and we've got Thunder. Those things wouldn't stand a chance."

At the jolteon's words, Snowcrystal relaxed, feeling a bit silly for having been scared. With the group as large as it was now, there weren't many wild pokémon that could easily pose a threat to them when they were all together.

"Let's send them a warning, then," Redclaw growled. "Fire types, follow my lead."

The arcanine lifted his head and shot a blast of flame into the air. The bug types shrank back from the heat as Redclaw's fire column grew higher and higher, and was soon joined by those of the other fire types. Even Snowcrystal added her own, and though it was weaker than the others, it added to the overall brilliance of the display.

After several seconds, they stopped their attacks. They waited and watched, until they could see that the shapes in the distance had stopped their movement.

"Well, I don't know how well I'm going to sleep at night knowing those things are out there," Rosie muttered. "We may have the advantage, but they creep me out."

"We'll rest a lot during the day, too," Arien instructed. "For now, someone should be keeping watch at all times until daylight."

The pokémon tiredly agreed, and Arien relayed the message to Damian. They settled down to sleep, the humans and a few of the pokémon in the tents, and the rest outside on the blankets that Katie and Damian had laid down. Redclaw agreed to take the first watch and sat facing the direction of the distant cacturne. His form was tall and unmoving, like he was a stone statue guarding a palace.

Snowcrystal curled up in her own spot on one of the blankets, looking once more at the countless bright stars before she closed her eyes. Before she knew it, she had drifted off into sleep.

 

  
**-ooo-**

There was no trouble from the cacturne that night, and when morning came, the eerie pokémon were gone. Damian and Katie had come to the decision that they would change plans; they would fight through their exhaustion and travel through the morning so that they could go straight to resting throughout the hottest part of the day.

Wearily they stumbled to their feet, packing up all the supplies and preparing for another long trek. After months of resting near Stonedust City, none of them were very used to walking so far in one day. Only Damian was lively and energetic, feeling far more in his element out in the dusty desert than he ever had in the city.

Justin, however, was not nearly so thrilled. "Katie, you better be right about this," he muttered as he toyed around with his phone, sitting beside Redclaw as he took a break from loading the arcanine's pack with the extra blankets they had used for the pokémon. He gave a grunt of frustration as he realized that there was clearly no signal for his phone so far from the cities, but he knew that Damian and Katie's pokégear would work for quite a fair distance longer.

"Hey, are you gonna help?" Katie's annoyed voice called to him from the other side of the arcanine.

"Yeah, I'm helping," he muttered, standing up and shoving the phone back in his pocket. He grabbed some of the blankets and started shoving them into Redclaw's pack.

The arcanine, sensing that Justin was upset, leaned his head toward the boy and licked the side of his face several times, much to Justin's disgust.

"I think that's all of it, Damian!" Katie called after she had strapped the first aid kit to Snowcrystal's back again. "We can get moving!"

Justin shoved the last of the blankets into the pack opening and zipped it closed. "And here we go again," he muttered. "Miserable desert, day two."

He and the others were soon off, hoping to cover plenty of ground before the worst of the heat set in. Katie set off on the back of her pidgeot to scout the way ahead as usual, and Fernwing lifted Blazefang into the air. Most of the others stuck together in a tight group, hoping that the long trek would turn out to be worth it.

 

  
**-ooo-**

"Cyclone, we're really close to Stonedust City," Solus said uneasily, coming to perch on a rock beside his leader. "I don't like it."

"If a human comes this way, they will be dealt with," the vaporeon replied calmly. "Everyone here has orders to stay away from Stonedust." He turned his gaze toward a group of hills lying some distance away from where they were sitting. "Those hills are riddled with caves, and they're the perfect spot for our new trainees. We will stay here for a little while."

"Well, at least the scouts haven't seen anything strange," Solus growled. "They've seen some rocky plains and forest further west, and beyond that there's a desert. Didn't say there were many pokémon that way."

"Nor humans, I am told," Cyclone replied. "We don't need to worry about the city."

"Cyclone," Solus began, annoyance showing clearly through his voice. "We've been traveling double time for the past few days to get here, and plenty of the pokémon are still with Silverbreeze and the other commanders trying to catch up. Are you sure this was worth rushing for those three…uh…"

"I wanted their training to start as soon as possible," the vaporeon leader replied. "That is why I put them in the lead group. In fact, they should be using their Forbidden Attacks now."

Solus knew that Cyclone only ever used the attacks' true name around him and some of the commanders. If he was using it now, that meant that he knew there was no one near enough to hear them. Solus leaned closer, his eyes narrowing. "About the new Forbidden Attack bearers, I've been listening in on some of their thoughts. Couldn't get much without them noticing, but one of them seems a bit…ah…confused about your motives. I think we ought to set him straight."

Cyclone didn't turn to face the espeon. He was looking out over the fields and the hills ahead of him as if admiring the pleasant summer day. When he spoke, he only said one single word. "Noted."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Beneath the hills where the first wave of the arriving army rested, an array of caverns lay nearly undisturbed. The cave system was not large enough to be confusing to the pokémon who entered it, and most rooms were lit by openings in the ceiling that formed natural skylights.

Three large caverns, linked together by one smaller room, had been set aside for Cyclone's chosen three pokémon to use their Attacks for the first time. Prey pokémon had been brought in and set loose in the caverns for each of them to hunt, and Ashend, Yenn, and Itora had made short work of them.

"It was _amazing!_ I knew electric attacks were powerful, but I never thought I could do something like _that._ "

Itora dug into her prey, feeling that it tasted so much sweeter after what she had accomplished. "I barely even had to try. I mean, I don't even think that attack could _miss._ Just one huge lightning bolt. Dead. It went right to where the buneary was. I didn't even see where the prey was hiding before I used the Attack; so I couldn't have aimed it if I tried!"

Yenn was beside her, eating his own prey, a starly. Ashend had not yet returned from her cavern, so the two of them were currently alone. Yenn, knowing he wasn't going to get a word in edgewise while Itora was so excited, just nodded and continued eating. But Itora could tell that he was excited too.

"The bolt was bright blue, too!" the manectric continued. "And sort of purplish. Looked much more powerful than my regular old thunderbolt. I wonder what it'll look like once it gets stronger." She stared off into space for a moment, a small smile forming, and laughed. "I'm ready to fry some humans, that's for sure." She sat bolt upright again, a look of even further excitement on her face. "You gotta tell me what yours did, Yenn. What did it look like?"

Yenn had finished his meal by the time Itora had stopped talking; all that was left on the ground was a pile of bloody feathers. "Well," the yanmega began, "it all happened really quickly. It started off being a really bright light. Sort of like a pokémon using flash I guess. Made the prey really disoriented. I think it might have even tried to attack me in the split second before it died, but it didn't even come close. Like it was blind…or like it had just endured the sand attack of a thousand spearow," he added jokingly.

"So it gave you a sort of protection?" Itora mused. "That's interesting."

"Yeah, I guess it makes it so that nothing can attack me, but I could see perfectly fine. Then the prey just…sort of had the life drained out of it, I guess. It was like it was a much more effective version of a leech life attack. One that killed. But I didn't have to touch the starly or anything. I hadn't even moved."

"Well, that's strange," Itora replied. "But _deadly_ sounding. Just wait until we go up against the humans and-"

"But that's not all," Yenn continued. "When it happened, I didn't just feel like I was stronger…I felt much better. Any aches and pains I had were gone; I wasn't even tired at all! I don't really know what using moves like leech life feels like to other pokémon, but I imagine this was even better than that." He stared wistfully at nothing in particular, seemingly lost in thought. "It's starting to wear off now, but I imagine I could have fought off a golem if one had appeared in the cave right then, whether I used the Attack or not. I can't wait to try this again."

"I wanna see it next time," Itora told him curiously.

Yenn paused, then added, "Though…I'm not sure it was fair for Cyclone to have the prey put in caves first. I want be able to hunt outside next time, in their normal territory. I'm sure that would be okay. It's not like my attack could damage the environment."

Itora smirked. "It's funny, I would have thought your Attack would have summoned a swarm of tiny bugs to go kill that starly for you or something."

"Yeah, because swarming in large numbers and being a nuisance is all bug pokémon are good for, right?" he replied in an irritated voice, but his tone was mocking, not serious.

"Well you've got the 'being a nuisance' part down," Itora laughed. Her amusement quickly faded into a sense of wonder. "But wow…you think you could heal yourself with your attack or something? Like if some rock type just pummeled you, all the pain would be gone after you used it?"

"Well, for a little while," Yenn replied. "Like I said it's wearing off. Sure _felt_ like anything and everything that had ever hurt me was gone for good. But I'm tired all over again so I guess it's temporary. Might come in handy when we go up against the humans, though. At least if I get wounded in battle, I'll be able to keep going as long as I'm using the Attack."

"Yeah, lucky you," Itora sighed, but the smile hadn't left her face and Yenn could tell she was still very impressed with her own Attack's power. "I hope we get a chance to show the rest of the army though. Sometime soon. I want them to know…to _really_ know…that we stand beside Cyclone now." She stood up straighter, giving Yenn a proud gaze.

The yanmega was about to reply when he noticed Ashend arriving from a tunnel entrance behind him and to his left. He turned to face her; even though he could see what was behind him, he always felt that looking at the pokémon he was speaking to was the polite thing to do. "You're back," he said happily. "Did it go well?"

Ashend didn't answer, but both Yenn and Itora could see that she was using her ghost type energy to carry a dead bunnelby behind her in midair. "Here you go, Yenn," she said simply, dropping it at the yanmega's feet.

Itora noticed that something was off about the misdreavus. She didn't seem happy or excited, but instead sullen and withdrawn. She hardly even looked at them as she continued to float by, seemingly lost in thought. The fact that she was acting in such a way in the wake of an amazing discovery confused and startled the manectric.

"Ashend?" Itora asked, wondering if the ghost type was just in one of her strange moods. Maybe, Itora thought, she was just doubting herself. "What did your Attack do? You can tell us all about it and we'll tell you what happened to-"

"Nothing," the misdreavus said.

Itora looked back at her in shock. "What? You mean…you mean it didn't work? But…but Cyclone said…he said-"

"It worked," Ashend replied, correcting her. "But I didn't see anything happen. One moment the bunnelby was alive, the next moment it was dead."

Itora relaxed. "Come on, don't feel bad just because yours didn't look cool," she said, trying to cheer Ashend up. "It kills without any indication that you even did anything! That'll be useful for sure! Just wait and see-"

"It's not that," Ashend said, finally turning to face Itora and Yenn. "I don't know how to explain it, but…I just have this strange feeling. I don't think we should be using these."

"What?" Itora responded, looking at Ashend as if she thought she was either joking, or had started to go crazy.

"Something's not right," the misdreavus continued. "I'm just not sure what it is. And I can't help but wonder…what if these Attacks aren't what Cyclone thinks they are?"

"What do you mean?" Itora cried. "There's nothing wrong with yours; it's just different, that's all!"

"I don't like the way I felt when I used it," Ashend stated.

"Really?" Yenn responded, looking up from what was left of his bunnelby meal. "Using my Attack felt great."

"I don't mean physically," Ashend replied, her voice still seeming distant. "It was more of a feeling. Like something's off."

Itora shrugged. "I didn't feel anything like that."

"You think these Attacks are what's wrong?" Yenn asked, genuinely confused. "After Cyclone killed Articuno? Ashend, _this_ could ensure that doesn't ever happen again. If our Attacks get strong enough, Cyclone might not even need more of the stones. We, with the rest of the army, could stop the humans by _ourselves._ "

"What makes you say that?" Itora interrupted, this time giving the yanmega an odd look. "Cyclone was pretty clear that we needed more pokémon with these powers and I trust that he knows what he's doing."

"I still want to talk to him about it," Yenn replied firmly.

"Look, you two," Ashend continued with a shake of her head, "there's something about this that I really don't like. I can't explain what it is, but please don't do anything rash. There is something wrong."

"Just…give it some time, Ashend," Yenn suggested. The yanmega looked worried for her. "We're doing stuff other pokémon can't; I guess it makes sense if you're nervous or feel weird about it. And…you're not a meat-eater. It probably feels wrong for you to kill pokémon, even if you were doing it to get food for me."

"You may be right," the misdreavus sighed. She gave him a smile, but it was clear to the others that she was not at all at peace. "I'll be thinking about it. But can you two please be careful not to go running around the cave using it whenever you feel like? Wait for each of Cyclone's trials at least."

"Sure," Itora said with another shrug, and Yenn also voiced his agreement. "Speaking of Cyclone," the electric type continued, "we'd better go tell him how the first trial went." The manectric stood up and stretched one back leg, then the other. "I bet he'll be impressed by all of us."

"Yes, we'd better go do that," Ashend said. "But can you two promise me something?"

"Yeah, anything," Itora responded.

"Go right ahead," Yenn told her with another nod.

"Please don't tell anyone what I said about being worried, okay dears?" she asked, the anxious tone in her voice still not quite gone. "Not even Cyclone. I just want to work this out for myself, all right?"

"We won't, Ashend, I promise," Yenn assured her.

"Yeah, sure, if you don't want anyone to know, they won't know," Itora said with a shrug.

"But, you can talk to us if you want," Yenn added.

"Thank you," the misdreavus answered. "Right now I think we should finish up here and head back. I'll think about this more. You may be right, there may not be anything wrong. But I'll need more time to think."

"Yeah, okay, Ashend," Itora said, a little bit of the excitement drawn out of her voice. She and Ashend waited until Yenn had finished eating the bunnelby before they headed into the tunnels leading to the surface together.

"What was that all about?" she whispered to Yenn.

The yanmega didn't have an answer for her.

 

  
**-ooo-**

"Just the three pokémon I wanted to see," Cyclone said warmly as Ashend, Itora, and Yenn met him at one of the areas of the camp the leader had claimed as his own. It was a small rocky field near a wide stream, and the vaporeon was currently lounging in the shallow water by the shore.

"It went great!" Itora said enthusiastically, lifting her head and proudly showing off the orange stone on her amulet. "Really, I can't wait to see how it works when it's gotten stronger and-"

"Cyclone," Yenn interrupted, flying out over the water so that he was hovering beside the vaporeon. "Each of us had no problem killing our prey. I think that if we keep practicing, both our attacks and yours could be strong enough to take on the humans, without needing the other stones."

Behind him, Ashend cringed, but she didn't speak up. Itora shot her a puzzled look, then turned to face Yenn again.

"At their most powerful stage," the yanmega continued, "we could probably wipe out hundreds at a time with-"

Cyclone silenced Yenn by lifting one paw. "I understand you are eager to set things right," the leader told him sympathetically, "but I'm afraid you three are not enough on your own."

"If we practice our Attacks until they're as strong as yours, why _couldn't_ we take them?" Yenn responded, confused. "And…and look at the army. The food gatherers keep having to forage further and further away to find enough to feed all these pokémon or else they risk damaging the habitats…and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid. How long can we keep doing this before-"

"The army is stable as it is now," Cyclone replied. "There are enough gatherers to do the job and the system I have implemented has worked. Food is constantly being found and brought in. We only take what we need and plenty is left for the native pokémon. No one but the disobedient goes hungry here. And if that ever changes, my commanders should be ready to lead portions of the army separately on their own. For now, though, the army stays together as much as we can. Train together. Out of sight of the humans. Things may be different if we find the location of multiple stones again, but there is no need to change our course now."

Itora and Ashend listened to their leader quietly. Itora gave an irritated sigh, having already realized what Cyclone was telling Yenn. Ashend's eyes were narrowed.

"Well…" Yenn hesitated. "I…I just don't think we should be hurting any more wild pokémon or legendaries. Cyclone, listen to me. What if we could avoid all that? Stop the humans in their tracks before anyone else-"

"You don't know much about what these human cities are really like, _do you?_ " Cyclone interrupted, his voice taking on an even more serious tone.

"Yes, I do know," Yenn insisted, sounding almost insulted. "This…" He made a quick sweeping motion with one of his legs over the scar that ran from beneath his neck and down almost to his tail. "Should be proof enough that I know what humans are like."

"Your experience was limited to but one city, one research facility," Cyclone answered, standing up and walking calmly out of the stream. "The human world extends far beyond that. Humans and their pokémon still far outnumber us." He turned his head to the still hovering yanmega, his face carrying a stern expression.

"Well, I know there are other cities. But why can't we-"

"Listen, Yenn," Cyclone continued, the faintest trace of impatience in his voice. "I'm not gathering more stones and pokémon for the army because I like to waste time. I'm doing it so that we can overwhelm the humans, with as little loss of wild pokémon life as possible. That is what you want, isn't it?"

Yenn was silent, though the army's leader could clearly tell he was still unnerved by the whole thing, still wanting to take action as soon as possible.

"As of now," Cyclone went on, "we stand little chance against the sheer numbers of the humans and their pokémon in the Inari region. A sad fact of life is that the pokémon trained by humans often turn out stronger than the wild ones struggling to survive. And there are humans with _hundreds_ of pokémon at their command."

"Hundreds…?" Yenn repeated, shock clear in his voice.

"You don't know much about how the human world works," Cyclone told him firmly. "Your encounters with them were far too limited."

"Maybe," the yanmega said quietly, "but-"

Cyclone's gaze turned almost harsh as he walked toward Yenn until his snout was a fraction from the hovering bug type's face. "You have to understand, Yenn. If we act too soon, the human's retaliation would be our undoing. Let me make this clear. _Do you want to end up back in the lab?_ "

At those words, Yenn fell silent.

Cyclone, seeing that Yenn was upset but agreeable, relaxed. "Good," he said with a smile, lowering his voice to a softer tone. "I know what's best for us. Do not worry. The recruits are being trained well. There are plenty of human-trained pokémon among us who are teaching them all they know. And your future is very bright. You will stand beside me, help lead the army to victory. You will reclaim the world that has been stolen from us pokémon." He looked confidently at the yanmega. "Do you understand now?"

Yenn acted like he hadn't heard Cyclone's praise. He still looked uncertain, worried, and conflicted. Yet, in response to the vaporeon's question, he nodded.

"Then that's that," Cyclone said. He turned away from Yenn and to the other two pokémon waiting. "Now, give me your reports."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Later that night, after most of the army's pokémon had gone to sleep and the scouts and guards were starting their nightly rounds, Yenn rested, alone but awake. He had been given a small cave near the surface for his sleeping area. It was unconnected to any other caverns, and only had one exit, which was just the way Yenn preferred it.

Even in early summer, the nights could sometimes get chilly, and like any yanmega, he hated the cold. He also hated being around the noise and the crowds of the army pokémon for too long, and Cyclone knew that he required a sleeping place in a more quiet area.

Resting on the highest of the ledges jutting from the wall, he was so lost in thought over what had happened that day – Ashend's odd behavior and Cyclone's words – that he didn't notice a pokémon approaching until she suddenly appeared from behind a boulder that half concealed the entrance tunnel.

Yenn whipped around with a sharp cry, his wings churning so fiercely that some rocks clattered to the cavern floor. When he saw it was only the audino who had often brought him water or food, he started to relax. "You are supposed to _tell me_ when you're coming in!" he shouted at her.

"I'm…I'm sorry. Do you…need anything?" she nervously asked him.

At the moment, Yenn was in no mood to bother with random army pokémon. However, his last meal had been a few hours ago, and he was quite hungry. "You know what? I'll get it myself," he growled at her, before flying over her head and through the tunnel.

He emerged into the open air, not liking the feeling of the chilly night breeze. He was used to being bothered by it, though, as he often found himself wandering during the night whenever he was unable to sleep.

He headed toward where the nocturnal pokémon would be bringing in fresh prey. For the pokémon in the army, food was strictly regulated, but species that consumed a high amount of energy very quickly like yanmega were allotted food more often than most. Yenn, however, didn't have to worry about what he would or would not be allowed as a normal-ranking member; he had Cyclone's permission to take what he wanted, when he wanted.

No one in the group of food gathering pokémon said anything when he reached their stash and took his pick of the prey they had laid out. He then headed away from the main army, biting into the staravia he'd chosen as he flew. His wings propelled him higher into the sky, above even where most of the nocturnal bird pokémon of the army were soaring. He planned to find some place beyond the main army camp to fly until he felt tired again.

As he was leaving the majority of the crowd behind, he noticed movement down below, and his excellent vision told him that two pokémon were huddled in a secluded space by a large group of rocks. One of them was Ashend, and the other was the smeargle that painted the murals.

Yenn found the situation odd, considering that there were no drawings around the two pokémon; the smeargle appeared to be talking to the ghost type. He was momentarily surprised; he hadn't been sure the smeargle was able to talk at all, but he could see their mouths moving, exchanging words. He couldn't hear them from so far up above, however, and he didn't think it was any of his business to eavesdrop.

As weird as it seemed, he put it out of his mind, flying past them and out over the open fields, where he could enjoy his meal in solitude. He figured that if Ashend wanted to spend time with the strange smeargle, she had her reasons.

_To be continued…_


	66. Breaking Point

Night was falling on the group of travelers, marking the end of their second day in the desert.

They had rested during the hottest hours and were prepared to keep journeying on through the darkness. The fire types lit the way when needed, but with the skies so clear and the ground remaining flat and unchanging, they didn't often have to. There was no sign of the cacturne following them this time; the warning fires the pokémon had sent up the previous night had done the job of scaring them away.

Deciding it was too dark to bother with scouting the way ahead, Katie walked with the others. The only pokémon who flew was Fernwing, who was still carrying Blazefang. The houndoom never complained about having to ride on the tropius's back; it was clear that he was too focused on finding a legendary that could help him rid himself of Shadowflare to care much about how he got there.

As they trudged across the packed earth, Snowcrystal suddenly noticed that Thunder was keeping closer to the main group. The past few days, she had kept her distance, and Snowcrystal wondered what had changed her mind, or if she was simply too tired to care. Then again, Thunder didn't look tired; she had more stamina than most of the other pokémon. Snowcrystal hoped that there was some part of her that still respected them, still wanted to be with the group that had traveled with her all those days ago, a desire that was not based on need. She knew she would only anger Thunder if she tried to talk to her about it, so she kept quiet and continued walking, moving her shoulders to adjust the position of the first aid kit she carried.

Wildflame moved toward her, keeping her voice low as she whispered, "So, what legendary do _you_ think we're looking for here?"

"A fire type, maybe?" Snowcrystal guessed. "I know Katie said that what's at the end of this desert is a portal, but it might just lead somewhere else around here, like a secret chamber or something."

"If this desert has anything to do with it, it might be a fire type," Wildflame mused in response. "Think it's Moltres?"

"Could be…" Snowcrystal replied. "If Articuno is guarding a Forbidden Attack, the other legendary birds could be some of the ones helping too. But how would Moltres have been able to make that weird portal?"

"He wouldn't have," Wildflame sighed. "I don't know, but I'm starting to think we're dealing with more than one legendary here. Let's just hope Katie is right and that it…or they…can help us."

"Yeah…" Snowcrystal said quietly. She looked up at the houndoom and managed a smile. "I think they will," she stated in a happier tone.

"I hope you're right," Wildflame replied, smiling back.

They carried on throughout the night, each with their own thoughts about what lay beyond the desert and the mysterious portal. Then once again the sky started to brighten, signaling the coming of a new day.

 

  
**-ooo-**

There was not a lot of activity in the army camp so early in the morning. Much of it had to do with the fact that there were far less pokémon than usual; a large part of the army was still traveling to reach the spot.

The nocturnal pokémon had finished their hunting and training duties and were finding places to sleep, while the early-rising pokémon were just barely waking up, only a few bird pokémon trilling softly in the pale light.

"I don't get it, Yenn. We waited so long to use these Attacks, and now Ashend's being all weird about it?" Itora muttered. The manectric had woken up before sunrise, and had been too excited about her newfound power to go back to sleep. She walked with a brisk pace, her eyes bright and eager in spite of her complaining.

Yenn had only gotten a few hours of sleep, spending most of the night flying around the army's camp until Itora had woken. "I don't know," the yanmega said tiredly as he flew alongside the manectric. "We can ask her about it when she wakes up."

"She's not going to wake up for _ages,_ " Itora complained. "She probably just went to sleep now like the rest of the nocturnal pokémon."

Yenn almost mentioned that he'd seen Ashend talking to the smeargle who drew all the markings that organized the army's sleeping areas, but he decided against it. He wasn't sure if Ashend would have wanted him to say anything about it, and he knew that if she felt it was important enough to share with them, she would. There was also the fact that he was simply too tired to want to think about it much.

"She wasn't in her cave. I looked," Itora continued. She paused to scratch at one of her bald patches of skin. "Maybe we could go back to the big cave and try our Attacks one more time. Just once."

"Ashend didn't want us to," Yenn responded in an irritated tone. "She said to wait until Cyclone wants us to test it again. Which should be later this evening anyway. Just wait."

Itora huffed in frustration, her gaze turning in the direction of the entrance to the largest cavern, where they had used their newfound powers for the first time the previous day. It lay at the base of a hill some distance from where she was standing. She and Yenn had just reached one of the highest points of a rocky ridge, and from this vantage point, she could see a few of Cyclone's commanders milling about in the area by the big cave.

"Well, she was just being paranoid," the electric type grumbled.

"Yeah, maybe, but we told her we would wait," Yenn argued, annoyed.

Itora sighed. "I guess you're right. Wouldn't want her to fall behind anyway." She scratched at her scraggly fur. "I still want to look at the caves. You should see the scorch marks my Voltgale attack left. I bet I could burn a hole in the cave wall with it if I tried!"

"Sure, why not?" Yenn replied, not very enthusiastically. He wasn't exactly in the mood to go back into the cave for something so trivial, but he decided he'd humor Itora. At least, he thought, it would provide a bit of a distraction from his thoughts for a while.

The two of them headed down the rocky slope and to more level ground, where they could follow a fairly clear path toward the main caves. They passed many sleeping pokémon, each of whom had found whatever comfortable place they could in order to settle down for the night. As they neared the caves, the amount of pokémon they passed by lessened until they were standing beyond smeargle marks that clearly indicated that the area was to be kept clear.

"You two!" a voice called.

Yenn immediately noticed that it was coming from a tyranitar who was standing near the cave entrance. The green armored pokémon began making his way toward them, and Yenn felt himself growing angry at the fact that the tyranitar seemed to see them as if they were merely random delinquents.

"Cyclone said this area is to stay cleared until later today," the rock type said gruffly, coming to a halt in front of Itora and Yenn, who refused to move. "You don't need to come here unti-"

"Do you really think we're going to listen to the likes of you?" Itora spat, sparks flying off her sparse fur. "Look, I don't know if you've had your head stuck in the sand the past month, but we were chosen for the most important tasks in this army and we rank far above you and all your stupid friends." She glanced around at the other high-ranking pokémon in the area, all of whom were looking toward the confrontation with mild interest.

"Look, I've been told that no one is to go in the big caves unless they've been assigned to it," the tyranitar argued, standing up straighter. "I'm afraid that includes you."

"You can stop ordering us around like hatchlings," Yenn growled, his wings beating more fiercely as he moved closer to confront the tyranitar. "We heard you the first time."

The tyranitar's tough expression faltered a bit, and Yenn realized that he hadn't seen this particular guard often. The tyranitar worked with sections of the army he, Itora, and Ashend rarely had any interaction with, so it struck the yanmega as strange that he would now be guarding the cave.

"Why do you need to keep the area clear anyway?" Yenn demanded. "No one's using those caves."

"A meeting is being held down there," the tyranitar explained, looking over Itora and Yenn, likely for the first time up close. His eyes betrayed a disgusted look as they lingered on Itora's patchy fur and Yenn's scars.

Itora bared her teeth in a snarl, obviously noticing. The fur along the back of her neck stiffened, and she narrowed her eyes, looking as if she wanted to tear the tyranitar apart. She was about to let loose an angry stream of words, but the guard, who wasn't even looking at her, spoke first.

"Cyclone told us to tell you that your training will be-"

"Where is Cyclone?" Yenn interrupted. "Down in the caves?"

"He and Solus are currently busy elsewhere," the tyranitar explained. "The caves here are being used for a meeting between the pokémon in charge of the army's training. It's not something you need to concern yourselves with."

"All right," Yenn responded, forcing his voice to stay calm. "Let them have their stupid meeting. But don't tell _us what to do._ "

The tyranitar guard paused, his eyes narrowing at the yanmega, who was hovering at his eye level. He then shifted his gaze to Yenn's scar again, curiosity winning out over any wariness he felt. Unlike the scars wild pokémon received from their injuries, this scar made a perfectly straight line, and the smaller ones intersected it at even intervals, showing where it was once stitched together and making it clear to the dark type that it had to be a human's work.

"Humans did that to you, didn't they?" the guard began, clearly aware that he was stating the obvious. "What exactly did they-"

Yenn's calm demeanor vanished in an instant. The sound of his wings suddenly increased to a roar as he flew up to the tyranitar, stopping only when his fangs were a mere fraction from the bulky rock pokémon's face. "You better mind your own business or I'll get Cyclone to demote you to cleaning and food carrying duties _permanently!_ " he shouted.

The tyranitar stumbled backward. This time his eyes were fixed on the glowing stone hanging from Yenn's neck, a clear reminder that he was one of Cyclone's chosen, and could very well carry out the threat. "I…I'm sorry," he stammered.

"Then don't ever talk to me like that again," Yenn growled lowly. "And by the way…where _is_ Cyclone?"

"On the other side of the hills," the tyranitar answered obediently. "In one of the ravines. That's all I know."

Without responding, Yenn turned away from him and flew off, wanting nothing more than to get away from the wretched guard.

"Whoa, whoa, what was that?" a voice cried from behind him. Yenn watched, without turning his head, as Itora bounded after him. "You're just going to walk away from that?"

"Look, I've got more important things to think about," he replied, turning around. He was glad that, by the time the manectric had caught up with him, they were out of earshot of the guards.

"Like why Cyclone is letting idiots like him order us around?" Itora asked.

"No, but maybe you can ask him that," Yenn growled in response. Without waiting for a reply, he shot up into the air, climbing higher and higher until he could get a good view of the camp down below. He could see several ravines, and almost immediately the sight of two familiar shapes – one blue and one light purple – caught his eye. Cyclone and Solus were sitting at the top of a ravine, a group of pokémon gathered beneath it. "So that is what he's doing…shouldn't he be at that 'very important' meeting?" Yenn muttered to himself as he flew back down to Itora.

"What are you trying to do?" the manectric asked him, clearly annoyed. "We don't need to bother Cyclone about this. We can fix it ourselves!" She leaped closer to the agitated yanmega, who had paused in his restless flying to land on a spur of rock. "Actually, we ought to go in there and crash this stupid meeting of theirs. Show them they're not going to get anywhere if they treat us like this. It can't be that important of a meeting if Cyclone and Solus aren't even there, and besides, what are they going to do to us? Nothing!" She laughed to herself at the idea, despite knowing that her yanmega friend was not likely to agree.

But what he said surprised her.

"Actually…" he began, "maybe we should."

"Wait, really?" Itora cried in surprise, her bad mood already fading.

"Sure, why not?" Yenn replied, lifting himself into the air again. "Let's see what they're planning."

"You mean, sneak in?" Itora asked.

"Yes. Without being seen. That way we'll know."

"Uh…that wasn't what I had in mind," Itora muttered, some of her excitement fading. "Why would we want to do that? Cyclone and Solus aren't there, and nor are any of the commanders from the looks of it, so what about it could be so interesting? Cyclone would tell us anything important, anyway."

"He didn't exactly mention killing Articuno until he was just about to do it, did he?" Yenn retorted. "I say we check this meeting out. They might be talking about what Cyclone's planning to do next."

"Without Cyclone actually being there?" Itora said skeptically.

"Yes," Yenn replied. "If they're going to attack any more legendaries or wild pokémon, I want to know about it. And if there's a chance I could find out, I'm going to take it."

"All right," the manectric began, "whatever you want. But if there's nothing interesting going on, then forget secrecy, I'm giving them a piece of my mind."

"Fair enough," Yenn replied.

The two of them made their way around the back of the hill that held the entrance to the main cave. The previous day, Itora had spent a good amount of time exploring the cave passages out of boredom, and Yenn had not missed any detail when he'd flown through them. They both knew that there was a smaller entrance, one that seemed to link all the big rooms of the cave together. It opened out onto a few ledges and ridges high above the cavern floors, so if they were careful and kept quiet, no one would see them looking down on the meeting.

"Here it is," Yenn said simply as he landed on a boulder that was partially blocking the view of the lesser-known entryway. There were no guards around, nor any army pokémon close by, and Itora guessed that either no one had found the second entrance yet, or they had but simply chose not to bother with it. Yenn had to tear away some strange trailing vines to fully reveal the tunnel.

"After you," Itora said with a sweep of her paw. "You'll be the lookout. It's pretty dark for the first little bit. Almost broke my paw walking through there."

The manectric followed Yenn inside, glad that the tunnel was wide enough for the yanmega's wings. Just as she'd remembered from her first exploration, they were plunged into darkness quickly, but that gradually faded as light from one of the big caverns reached them.

With Yenn acting as her eyes, she felt more excited and less wary about exploring the caves. She even had a spring in her step as she followed him. What would have been a boring morning waiting to use her Attack again had turned into something interesting. Maybe Yenn was right; maybe they would learn something useful. She didn't expect to unearth any sort of vast conspiracy, but if any of the pokémon were saying anything nasty about her or her friends, she couldn't wait to find out and use it against them.

The tunnel opened up to a ledge above the cavern Ashend had used her Attack in, but the room was empty. Yenn turned into a side tunnel which led to one of the others, and it wasn't long before they began hearing noises.

Pokémon. Dead ahead.

Yenn grew more cautious, taking care to ensure his wingbeats hardly made a sound. As they dulled to only the faintest hum, Itora slowed her walk, creeping quietly along the passage. From what she could hear, the pokémon ahead weren't speaking at all, but she could hear some of them shifting or moving about. It struck her as odd, but only fueled her need to remain as quiet as possible.

When the passage opened up onto another ledge looking down on a large cavern, they both realized immediately that there had hardly been a need to keep quiet. Not one of the pokémon gathered in the cave below had even bothered to look upward toward their ledge, as their eyes were all riveted to the center of the room. When Itora and Yenn saw what lay in the center, they both froze.

A ring of pokémon – not commanders or higher-ups, but terrified, low-ranking newcomers – were surrounding a group of four others. Two of the pokémon in the center, a liepard and a rapidash, stood to the side while a third, a staraptor, stood over the motionless form of the fourth.

It was the smeargle that marked the boundaries within the army. The one who painted the murals, and the one who had been talking to Ashend the previous night. From their vantage point up above, Itora and Yenn could see that the smeargle's body was covered in wounds, blood trailing from his body to the staraptor's claws. They hadn't stumbled upon a meeting; what they were witnessing was a torture session.

Neither Yenn nor Itora had ever actually witnessed torture being carried out. They had known that it happened, been told that it was necessary when it came to traitors to the army, but they had always believed it was Solus alone who carried it out, and only with his psychic powers. Whatever was happening in the cavern down below, it was _wrong._

Itora quickly realized that what she was seeing did not match up with the image in her head when she thought of torture. She had imagined pokémon crying out, tormented by psychic energy, not lying bleeding on the ground like this pokémon was. The smeargle wasn't even screaming; he was just gasping for breath, hardly moving. She started to wonder if it really was torture, or an execution.

The two of them felt like they hadn't moved for several minutes, though in reality it could have only been a few seconds. Neither had time to act as the staraptor lifted his claws again before bringing them down, tearing a slash down the smeargle's belly.

The injured pokémon convulsed, but he hardly made a sound; either he was too weak or he was fading into shock. His long tail thrashed against the ground, smearing it with blood.

Itora had snapped out of her reverie long enough to see Yenn's body freeze at the sight. He looked as if someone had struck him, his gaze riveted to the scene in horror as his breath began coming in rapid gasps. He seemed to have completely forgotten about her, lost track of all his other surroundings.

"Uh…Yenn?" she whispered, no longer certain she wanted to risk attracting the attention of the pokémon below. "Can you talk to me? Yenn? What's wrong? Say something!"

Despite her efforts to get through to him, the yanmega ignored her and launched himself off the ledge, heading directly for the staraptor. Due to his speed, none of the pokémon down below saw him coming until he had slammed into the bird pokémon, sending him tumbling away from the smeargle and across the stony floor.

" _What are you DOING?"_ Yenn screamed at the staraptor as the flying type scrambled to his feet, giving the yanmega a terrified gaze.

The other pokémon who had been forced to watch the spectacle shrank back in fear, expecting to see more blood shed upon the cave floor. The liepard and rapidash stared at Yenn in horror, quickly backing away from him. The staraptor looked too scared to move.

His gaze fixed on the large bird, the yanmega flew closer, every single one of his fangs bared and his breathing coming in short bursts.

The sound of wheezing coming from behind him snapped Yenn out of his fury. He could see the smeargle, lying prone on the ground. He turned his body so he was facing the normal type, whose shallow breaths were weakening. Yenn could tell from the amount of blood pooling on the floor that the injured pokémon was dying. There was nothing that could help him now; he was simply waiting to bleed out.

Without hesitating, Yenn landed on the floor next to the smeargle. He leaned down and bit into the smeargle's head, crushing his skull instantly. A few of the pokémon forced to watch let out whimpers or small cries of fear, but for the most part, they were silent.

" _YOU!"_ Yenn shouted, turning his head from the smeargle's limp form. His hate-filled gaze was directed at the staraptor again.

Flapping his wings at a high speed, he took to the air and darted toward the flying type, sending the staraptor scrambling backwards into the wall, smaller pokémon darting out of his way. Yenn pinned the flying type there, hovering over the frightened bird who cowered against the ground as if trying to appear as small as possible.

"No, no, I'm sorry!" the staraptor pleaded, holding out one blood-soaked talon in front of him. "I didn't mean you any offense. I-"

"SHUT UP!" Yenn roared, specks of blood flying from his mouth and onto the terrified staraptor's face.

Itora barely recognized her friend. Yenn looked like a terrifying monster, and she could tell from the look in the staraptor's eyes, as well as the eyes of his two accomplices, that they were both afraid for their lives.

"Please…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," the staraptor begged as the surrounding pokémon backed further away, trying to get as far from the yanmega as possible. "Take it…take it up with Solus. It was his orders."

"Solus isn't here!" Yenn shouted, every last word dripping hatred. "You're the one who mutilated a pokémon! You're as disgusting as the humans!"

"Please…I'll do whatever you want!"

"I don't…want…anything…" Yenn hissed, his gaze boring into the staraptor's.

"I didn't mean any offense to you, I swear!" the flying type cried. "Don't…don't kill me…"

To the bird pokémon's surprise, the yanmega backed up. He didn't break his stare with the staraptor, but some of his anger vanished, as if a trance had been broken. Yenn stared around at the gathered pokémon, each of them looking at him in horror. He suddenly felt shocked, wondering just what he must have looked like for the pokémon to start pleading with him to spare his life. Harming the staraptor hadn't even crossed his mind, but the pokémon were looking at him as if he were some sort of monster.

However, he wasn't able to focus on that for long. His gaze soon fixated on the smeargle again, looking at the still form of the pokémon lying on the cave floor with a long gash down his chest and belly.

Yenn froze for a moment, his heart pounding rapidly, before he wrenched himself away from the sight and shot up toward the tunnel he had entered the cavern from. Zooming over Itora's head, he didn't even stop to look at the manectric, didn't hear the shouts of the rapidash down below, telling him to stop, to come back, to listen to him. He flew almost blindly, barely even noticing the jolting pain when his wings struck the walls or boulders as he blundered through the tunnel.

After Yenn's departure, the shocked gaze of every pokémon in the cavern turned upward to Itora. The manectric stared down at them with wide eyes before ducking down and hurrying back down the passage, following the yanmega's path.

Bursting out of the tunnel, the manectric found herself in blinding sunlight. Yenn was already out of sight, likely heading back to the cave that served as his resting area. Several confused army pokémon had gathered around the tunnel entrance, looking to Itora for answers to their questions.

She ignored them. She bolted through the crowd, pushing aside a few of the smaller pokémon as she did so. She hadn't gotten far before she nearly ran straight into Ashend.

"Itora, what's going on?" the misdreavus asked seriously.

"Solus has got freaks down there torturing pokémon!" Itora cried. "Not with psychic attacks either. I understand that they're traitors, but still-"

"Who?" Ashend demanded. "Who was being tortured?"

"Why does it matter?" the manectric replied, confused.

"Who?" the misdreavus practically shouted.

"It was that smeargle! He was the one they killed. I don't know what he did but it must have been bad."

Ashend paused for a moment, a look of shocked realization coming over her face.

"Why's that bad?" Itora asked. "He must have had contact with humans if it was bad enough for that to be necessary, and that means we could have-"

"Never mind," Ashend snapped at her. "I need to find Yenn."

Before Itora had a chance to reply, the misdreavus had turned and left, heading directly for the resting caves. Alone again, Itora turned to face the army pokémon that were staring at her. She couldn't tell what they were thinking.

She turned and walked away, deciding to go back to her own sleeping quarters. Though she trusted Cyclone's judgment on the matter, she wasn't as sure she trusted Solus's, and she knew the sight of the smeargle's last few moments would haunt her for a good while.

 

  
**-ooo-**

When Ashend entered Yenn's cave, it was almost dead silent. She found the yanmega huddled on the highest ledge in the cavern, the spot where he was sure to feel the most comfortable. The only thing she could hear was the sound of his breathing. Though they were obviously alone, Yenn still looked scared.

Despite being a pokémon that could normally keep track of everything around him, Yenn didn't even seem to notice the misdreavus until she spoke up.

"Yenn…" the misdreavus said quietly. She didn't need to speak loudly; the cave was quiet enough for the bug type to hear her. "Itora told me what happened-"

At the sudden sound of her voice, Yenn jerked upright as if he had been electrocuted. He lowered himself back down on the ledge when he realized it was only Ashend. "I don't want you to talk about it!" he shouted, whirling around to face her as he raised his wings, looking as if he was about to take flight.

"Yenn, listen," the ghost type continued, trying to speak calmly. She drifted closer to the ledge, but not close enough to make Yenn feel more agitated. "I think this was my fault."

"How is it _your_ fault?" Yenn shouted back. "Those pokémon…those monsters…" He broke off, unable to form the words. "They…that smeargle…"

"The smeargle doesn't matter," Ashend interrupted. "He is _dead._ The pokémon of the army are not our concern. Right now, we-"

"Leave," Yenn said. This time it was not a shout, but barely more than a quiet whisper.

"Look," the misdreavus began, "I understand why-"

"I said, _LEAVE!_ " Yenn cried. He lunged toward her, his two largest fangs still stained with dried blood that he hadn't bothered to clean off.

Ashend backed away. Though she knew that Yenn would never hurt her, the look on his face as he stared at her wasn't one she was used to seeing.

After a moment, Yenn seemed to realize this as well. "I'm sorry," he said before turning away.

Ashend could tell that she wasn't going to be able to get through to him when he was in such a state. Leaving him alone until he calmed down was the only option. "I will…talk to you later, okay?" she said, making sure he had heard before she headed toward the cave exit.

Yenn didn't give an answer as the misdreavus vanished around the corner of the tunnel, leaving him shaking and huddling on the ledge.

 

  
**-ooo-**

"I swear, this place is going to drive me crazy," Justin mumbled under his breath, his words a bit muffled due to the cloth he was wearing around his mouth and nose. "Everything looks exactly the same."

Not far behind him, Snowcrystal watched as the human stopped, rubbing his eyes to clear them of any dust. Spark stood beside him, waiting, and a few of the pokémon further ahead glanced back in his direction. They had spent the morning walking until it became too hot, and after their rest they had started moving again, grateful that the sun was setting.

"Nobody likes it here, Justin," Katie muttered. She was walking with the others even though there was still daylight, wanting to give her pidgeot a rest. "And we haven't even been walking long. Besides, it's nearly night. Then it'll cool down."

Wordlessly they carried on. Despite the fact that they had decided to rest during the heat of the day, the humans and pokémon were growing weary. Alex had become unable to perform any water attacks after spending nearly two days in the dry wasteland, though thanks to their preparations, there was no shortage of drinking water.

"What if we're doing this all for nothing?" Rosie grumbled quietly. "I mean, do you really think there's a legendary out here?"

"I trust Katie," Snowcrystal replied. "If she thinks that weird stone arch could lead to something, I believe her."

"Well, okay," the ninetales continued, "but what if this legendary just tells us what Articuno did? That he can't help?"

"Well, another legendary is bound to know something Articuno doesn't," Snowcrystal responded hopefully.

Rosie closed her eyes as another wave of dust wafted over them. "Well, I hope you're right," she muttered, not sounding as optimistic as the growlithe felt.

"We'll figure out something if it doesn't," a voice interrupted, and the two turned to see Stormblade, who had hung back from the main group until Snowcrystal and Rosie caught up with him. "Trust me, we can do this. We're not wandering scared now. If this legendary can't tell us anything, we'll hunt down another until we find one who does."

Something about Stormblade's words seemed to encourage Rosie, and she smiled at the scyther. "Thanks," she said, "I guess I'm just a little worried. Nothing's really been much of a help to us so far. Except for these humans and the new pokémon, I guess. But we haven't really gotten anywhere."

Snowcrystal remembered how Rosie had once argued against joining up with Damian and the others. It pleased her to see that the ninetales now fully trusted them. If nothing else, Rosie could have confidence in the humans and pokémon who were all working toward the same goal. The growlithe lifted her head toward the sun, which was slowly beginning to set on the horizon. Whatever their reasons, they were in the journey together, and with any luck, they would soon have more help.

 

  
**-ooo-**

As the same sunset cast an orange glow over the army's campsite, Yenn emerged from his resting quarters. As soon as he reached the light, his exhausted body froze, realizing that several of the army pokémon, many of them fairly high ranking, were coming toward him. He stayed hovering where he was, waiting for them to approach.

The first, an aerodactyl, came to stop right in front of the yanmega, landing on the ground next to the entrance to his cave. He looked relieved that Yenn was much calmer than before. "Cyclone sends you his sincerest apologies," the rock type explained. "Solus put those pokémon in charge of the situation and Cyclone never-"

"I don't want his apology," Yenn snapped.

"Well, what do you want?" the aerodactyl asked, bowing his head to the yanmega respectfully. "If there's anything you want us to do, we will do it. Cyclone said that you can have prey of any type brought to you. Whatever species you want, we will have the hunters-"

"I don't…want… _anything_ you could give me!" Yenn growled, hovering lower until he was face to face with the aerodactyl. "I want to know what was going on down there!"

"Look, no one ever meant for anything to upset you-"

"You didn't think that seeing a pokémon being torn open would bother me?" Yenn shouted. He moved away from the aerodactyl, giving the small group of pokémon a harsh glare. "Or maybe the question I should be asking is if you thought I'd be fine with it, had the method of execution had been different?"

He paused, watching the reactions of the pokémon gathered before him. They looked at a loss for what to say.

"Because what I want to know," he continued, rounding on the aerodactyl again, "is why pokémon in this army are being ripped apart and killed in the first place!"

"I'm sorry," the aerodactyl continued, "when Cyclone accepted you into the army, you requested not to be witness to any traitor's torture session. You weren't supposed to see-"

"And why weren't _psychic types_ in charge?" the yanmega growled. "Cyclone told me that psychic attacks were used to torture the traitors."

"Solus felt that these pokémon-"

"Solus…" Yenn snarled. He glared at the aerodactyl again. "Bring Solus here. Maybe he can explain just _what_ that smeargle had done to make him think he deserved something like _that._ "

"I'm afraid you can't speak to Solus now," one of the other pokémon, a lilligant, interrupted. "He is busy-"

"Then I'll take it up with Cyclone," Yenn replied firmly. He didn't care to listen to any of the pokémon anymore.

Taking to the sky, Yenn quickly left them behind. If Solus had allowed such horrible torture, Yenn hated to think of what else he had authorized, and what that espeon had done in other torture sessions. He had been lied to. Pokémon…weak, harmless pokémon who couldn't have done anything horrible enough to deserve _torture_ had been killed. Cyclone had murdered a legendary. He wasn't going to stay silent about it any longer.

And he was going to take it up with the army leader himself.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The cave Cyclone had chosen for his own resting area ran deep beneath a hill some distance away from the other caves. Yenn had noticed its location when they'd arrived at the camp the previous day, but he had never ventured inside the cave itself. Now that he was flying through its main passage for the first time, he noticed with discomfort that it was darker than the others, too dark for even his eyes to pick up much detail. The only light he had was from the red glow of the crystal around his neck, but that light did not travel far.

Nevertheless, he carried on with determination through the tunnel, pausing only once when one of his wings clipped a wall and off-balanced him for a short moment. It didn't feel right to fly in a place where he could not get a good view of his surroundings, and the sensation left him feeling strangely vulnerable. He wondered how Cyclone could stand it.

Luckily, it wasn't long before he turned a few corners and emerged into a medium-sized cavern. Like the other caves, this one had light streaming down from holes in the ceiling.

"Cyclone!" he cried, hearing his voice echo back to him several times, bouncing off the damp stone walls. He now realized why Cyclone had chosen this particular cave; there was a fairly deep pool on the opposite side of the cavern, shrouded in gloomy darkness. Its surface was black and still; it had taken Yenn a moment to even realize it was water. He shivered, wondering just how cold the water would be. He waited for an answer to his call, but for the next few moments, the cavern was silent.

Then the vaporeon leader's voice reached him, seeming to come from all directions at once. "Yenn," Cyclone began calmly, "I'm glad to see you."

The yanmega watched as the vaporeon hauled himself from the pool, stepping onto the slick rock beside it. Yenn was a bit unsettled; he hadn't even been able to _see_ Cyclone in the water until that moment.

"Don't worry about today," the vaporeon told him warmly. He trotted over to the bug type with an air of friendliness that Yenn knew was shown to very few pokémon. "I heard all about what happened. Forget about the training; we can start that again tomorrow."

As the leader approached him, Yenn lowered himself so he was hovering closer to the ground and could be directly eye to eye with the vaporeon. "Cyclone, I need to talk to you."

"Of course," the water type responded. "But first, I don't believe you received a proper apology for the actions of my subjects."

"No," Yenn answered. "I did not."

"From what I understand," Cyclone continued, "the method of torture carried out in Solus's absence…would have brought back quite a few unpleasant memories for you."

"That's not why I'm here," Yenn told the vaporeon firmly.

The look in Cyclone's eyes shifted ever so slightly, and he looked at the yanmega with what Yenn assumed was confusion. "Well, then," the leader began, "who else has wronged you?"

"No one 'wronged me,'" Yenn replied. He drew back a bit, lifting himself a small fraction higher into the air. "I want to know why your followers were allowed to torture a pokémon the way they did. _And,_ " he stated before Cyclone could reply, "I want you to put a stop to it. Starting _tonight._ "

"Yenn, Solus was unable to oversee the torture ring today," Cyclone told him. "I promise you right now that no pokémon will ever use such a method as the one you saw today again. I have already told them, nothing that resembles any of the injuries you-"

"We don't need to torture traitors at all," Yenn interrupted. "If for whatever reason you feel you have to, at least have them use psychic attacks, like you told me they did!"

Cyclone turned his head, his expression almost sad. He gave a long sigh before replying, "It's not that simple. But I never wished for this to upset you, Yenn."

"I joined this army to kill _humans,_ " the yanmega growled. "Not to torment the pokémon we're supposed to be protecting."

"I never said you had to have any part in it," Cyclone continued, his voice still carrying a forlorn tone. "But there are things you simply don't understand."

"Well, you're right. There's one thing I don't understand," Yenn said. "Why was that smeargle killed?"

"He committed crimes against the army," Cyclone answered.

"Like…what?"

The vaporeon regained his calm composure. "It is a complicated situation," he replied. "But rest assured I have everything under control. As of now, all threats to the army have been removed, and I will continue to do what's best for us."

"And what _is_ best?" Yenn asked. "Are you going to kill more legendaries?"

The vaporeon began to pace around Yenn, though his eyes never left the yanmega's. "You need to understand that you're starting to jump to a lot of conclusions. We won't kill any more legendaries unless it is necessary, and hopefully it won't be. And right now I don't appreciate being the target of your overreaction to one traitor's punishment."

"Overreaction?" Yenn repeated, stunned.

"I've had a lot of patience with you," the vaporeon continued, still pacing. "I expect you to show more appreciation for it. I would not put up with accusations like this from any other pokémon."

"I am _not_ overreacting," Yenn insisted.

"In the grand scheme of things, you are," Cyclone answered, his gaze taking on a harsh tinge. "My duty is to the army as a whole. If you could see the big picture, you would understand why these things are necessary. I am working toward the well being of all pokémon. And so must you."

"You think that wanting to stop torture goes against that?" Yenn hissed.

"You're not seeing things clearly, Yenn," Cyclone snapped, a tinge of anger to his voice. "Were it not for what happened to you in the human's laboratory, you wouldn't have thought twice about it. When you are thinking clearly again, I would hope you would trust what I say and know that sometimes, things like this must be done for the sake of the rest of us."

Yenn was shocked into silence; he stayed where he was, looking straight into Cyclone's eyes. The only sound in the cavern, besides the faint hum of the yanmega's wings, was water dripping somewhere deeper in the cave.

The light of anger left Cyclone's eyes. "But I'll forgive you," he said after a few moments, the gentle tone returning to his voice. "I know you can't help it. That is why you need to trust me."

"Okay, look," Yenn stated, drawing further away from Cyclone. He tried to keep his voice upbeat and confident, but he knew it hardly had such an effect. "I'm not _crazy,_ and you know that! I'm out to help the pokémon just as much as you are. That's why I'm saying we need to change things. We don't _need_ to hurt pokémon who had nothing to do with the humans in order to-"

"You and I both know that you don't always think clearly," the vaporeon leader calmly replied. "And that can lead to rash behavior…like the way you yelled at Ashend, your closest friend, today."

"I know, I know," Yenn sighed. "I still have to apologize to her. But I will. I promise I will."

"I would _not_ have a pokémon tortured without good reason, Yenn," Cyclone continued, "and I would expect you to have more trust in me than to believe otherwise."

Yenn said nothing in reply. He was at a loss for words, seemingly only able to glower at the vaporeon. If Cyclone noticed, he did not say anything. When the leader spoke again, his words were, to Yenn's surprise, full of hope.

"The future of the pokémon world itself may very well lie in our claws," Cyclone told him, his head tilted back as he stared up into one of the thin shafts of moonlight reaching down through the cave. "If you had seen more of the way humans live, you would know that they've committed far more atrocities than even you could have imagined. Do you know that there were tens of thousands of humans who could have saved you, but did not? If there was any good in them, they would have."

Once again, the only sound was the faint dripping of water from the deeper tunnels.

The vaporeon turned toward Yenn again. "You want to stop this from happening to more pokémon, don't you?" Cyclone asked.

"…Yes," the yanmega answered.

"It may be difficult to understand now," Cyclone said gently, "but the end…is worth it. Freedom for all pokémon, from the cruel hands of humans, will be worth it."

Yenn was silent, his head tilted toward the ground.

"You have been one of the bravest and most dependable pokémon I have ever met," the vaporeon continued. "We are a team…you, I, and the others with powers like ours. The good we will do for the sake of pokémon will far outweigh the bad. And everything will better for it."

Yenn pondered for a moment, but when he looked at Cyclone, his gaze held confidence. "Look," he said, "I know the humans do nothing but selfish and horrible things, but…what you're doing is just as bad." He watched the leader, who had begun to pace again, not meeting the yanmega's gaze. "But you can fix this. We don't have to hurt pokémon who've done nothing wrong in order to stop them."

Cyclone stopped pacing. Yenn could not see his expression, as his back was turned. Cyclone stood still for several moments. When the vaporeon turned around, the expression on his face was one of shock. "How could you say that?" he said, and though his voice was quieter, there was an obvious tinge of anger to it. "Everything I do, everything I've worked for, is to fight against human cruelty. And you're telling me I am just as bad as they are?"

"We don't need to do this," Yenn argued. "We don't need to have pokémon _tortured to death!_ You had one of own killed!"

"If I was told correctly, _you_ were the one who killed that smeargle, Yenn," Cyclone responded, his previously calm tone returning. When the yanmega did not reply, he continued. "As I have said before, I made the judgment for a reason. It was for the good of the rest of us."

"And what _threat_ was that smeargle to the rest of us?" Yenn asked, not bothering to hide his rising anger. "If he was some sort of spy for the humans…why hasn't anyone said anything about that? And no matter what he did, that still doesn't justify what happened. Not even _humans_ deserve that kind of death!"

"You have no idea what really happened, and right now, it is not your place to know," Cyclone interrupted, his voice stern. He turned away from the yanmega and faced his pool, but continued speaking, his head held high. "It had to happen for the sake of the army."

At those words, Yenn felt something inside him snap. He didn't care what Cyclone thought of his actions; didn't care if his leader lost respect for him. "Had to happen?" he repeated, disgusted. "So the all-powerful army leader can't think of a better solution?" He flew around in an arc until he was hovering directly in front of the vaporeon again. "Those pokémon were acting with a cruelty I've only seen in humans. What you're doing is _wrong._ Barbaric, like what the humans did to me."

This time, Cyclone did not break eye contact with him. The look in the vaporeon's eyes changed, ever so subtly, but Yenn could not entirely guess what he was thinking.

"And you lied to me," Yenn continued, unable to keep the distress out of his voice. "You never told me you were planning to kill a legendary. You never told me that pokémon were being torn apart in torture sessions. You led me to believe that the wild pokémon were _not_ going to be hurt."

"I never lied to you," Cyclone said loudly, and this time there was clear anger in his words. The vaporeon straightened himself up to full height, and though he was smaller than the yanmega, he still looked imposing. The look in his eyes was one that Yenn had never seen in the leader before.

" _You_ told me that you wanted nothing to do with the torture," the vaporeon growled. " _You_ told me that you didn't want to be in charge of running the army. This was your decision…and you're telling me that I lied to you?"

"Y…yes," Yenn stammered, "but I thought…something like attacking Articuno would have been-"

"I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you this," Cyclone continued, his voice much lower and steadier than before, but with an underlying tone of fury that made Yenn want to back away from him. "It was necessary for the greater good of all pokémon."

At that statement, Yenn fell silent. He wasn't even sure he had the will to feel angry anymore. What Cyclone had said had so deeply disgusted him that he no longer cared if the army leader got truly angry with him, no longer cared if Cyclone decided to punish him.

"The greater good?" Yenn said, his voice sounding far colder than he was used to hearing it. "That's what you're calling it now? Why don't you just call it what it is? Murder, torture…slavery? Did those new recruits watching the execution join willingly? Because from what I can remember, they didn't seem like they did."

Cyclone did not say a word as he watched Yenn. He gave no indication that he was about to speak, and his body was still, his eyes narrowing.

"And all this…when our real enemies are still tormenting other pokémon as we speak," Yenn continued. "With what you authorized today, are you really much different from them?"

Cyclone still did not reply. A small twitch of one of his fins and a glance toward one of the dark tunnels leading deeper into the cave was his only movement.

"Think about it," Yenn growled. "Are you?"

When Cyclone answered, his gaze was ice-cold. "I never thought I would have heard such a thing coming from you," the vaporeon said, stepping forward.

This time Yenn held his ground, forcing himself to hover in place without moving back.

"I don't see how you could say that," Cyclone continued, anger seeping into every word, "after I've done so much for you."

Yenn watched Cyclone, without turning his head, as the vaporeon began to circle again, the water type's piercing eyes fixed on him.

The army's leader never took his gaze off the yanmega. As he spoke, his words grew louder until he was almost shouting. "I took you in, I gave you _everything,_ I promised to keep you safe, made you one of the most powerful pokémon in the world…and you put me on the same level as the monsters who gave you that scar?"

Yenn faltered, finding his wings moving his body backward as the vaporeon, still circling, got closer with every stride.

"When I found you," Cyclone snarled at the yanmega, "you were lost in unfamiliar lands, with nothing and no one you knew and nowhere to go. You were cowering alone, not even trying to hunt, crying in fear and thinking that the tiniest shadows were the humans coming after you." The vaporeon watched as Yenn backed toward the wall, curling his tail beneath him in a way that made him look uncharacteristically vulnerable. "But I saw you had potential when anyone else would have left you there, thinking you were nothing but a raving lunatic!"

When Cyclone finished, Yenn turned his head, not wanting to face the vaporeon directly anymore. Quietly, he lowered himself almost to the ground. "All right, I'm sorry…" the yanmega whispered. "I didn't mean to say…"

The furious look in Cyclone's eyes vanished instantly, to be replaced with one of sympathy. "I know you didn't," the vaporeon said, his rare, kind tone returning. "I know you didn't mean those things you said. Considering your history, I can't blame you for being upset by what you saw. Tomorrow you will be able to see things more clearly, I promise."

Yenn did not reply as Cyclone came to sit beside him, giving him a trusting look.

"You, Itora, Ashend…you all mean a lot to me," the leader continued. "That is one thing that separates me from the humans. I care about broken pokémon like you…and in a world like this, _who else would?_ "

Yenn backed away from Cyclone slowly. In that moment, all he knew was that he didn't want to be around the vaporeon any longer. Without another word, he turned and flew back through the tunnel he'd come from, heading out of the cave and to the surface.

Cyclone waited until the faint beating of Yenn's wings had faded and the yanmega was out of sight.

Then the warm look in his eyes vanished.

From one of the deeper tunnels, a lithe figure appeared, its footsteps making no sound. The creature halted when he was close enough to the main cavern that light outlined his form. The only noise coming from his direction was the soft clinking sound of his collar.

Cyclone did not even look at the espeon; his gaze was still focused on the tunnel that Yenn had left through. He spoke only two words to Solus.

"Watch him."

_To be continued…_


	67. Renegade

As soon as Yenn had left Cyclone's cave behind, he flew off toward Ashend's. Most of the other pokémon in the army were getting ready to sleep, and none of them paid much attention to him as he flew through the growing darkness.

Upon reaching Ashend's cave, the yanmega found it empty. He then checked Itora's and his own, but there was no sign of his friends. He turned away from the caves, deciding to circle the edges of the army's camp to see if he could spot them. Thick clouds blocked the sky, so there wasn't much light to see by, and he wasn't sure how long it would take to find them. He decided that if he still couldn't see them after flying around the camp a few times, he would ask some of the army pokémon where they were. He hoped he wouldn't have to; he didn't feel like talking to any of them.

To his surprise, almost as soon as he started circling, he spotted Itora's patchy blue and yellow pelt below. The manectric was shouting something at him, and he quickly zoomed down until he was hovering directly in front of her.

" _There_ you are!" Itora gasped. "Ashend's been looking all over for you! What were you doing bothering Cyclone anyway? Don't we have-"

"Itora, I need to talk to you," Yenn interrupted. He didn't question how the manectric knew he had been talking to Cyclone; she must have heard it from the group of pokémon who'd met with him just before the incident. Either that, or Ashend had found out where he'd gone and told her.

"Okay, sure," Itora replied. She glanced around at the nearest pokémon, who were busy making nests for themselves. "Not around all them, though."

"Of course not," Yenn said. "I…augh…" He trailed off, suddenly feeling rather strange. It almost felt like he had a headache, but it wasn't exactly pain. It was more uncomfortable than anything, yet it unnerved him all the same.

"What?" Itora asked.

"Never mind," "he said. "Let's go back to one of our caves. We'll talk there."

"Well, actually," the electric type began, "I was trying to find you so that I could bring you to Ashend's place. No, not the cave. She found this secluded spot and said she wanted to talk to us there. You could fly around until you find her and then we could go."

"Well," Yenn replied, "I think it might be better if I talked to you two separately. Maybe we should just go there and wait for her."

"All right," the manectric said with a shrug.

Itora dashed off, Yenn following right behind her. He was surprised when they passed the boundaries of the camp, leaving the hills and boulders behind and reaching flat, rough ground. There weren't even any large boulders around, and Yenn was confused when Itora stopped right in the middle of the field, out in the open.

"Here," she said.

"This is an odd place for a meeting," Yenn muttered, wondering why Ashend had wanted them to go stand out in the middle of a field. At least the strange sensation in his head had faded away, leaving him feeling normal again.

"So, uh, what is it you wanted to tell me?" Itora asked him. "Is it about those pokémon we saw torturing…"

"Sort of…" Yenn responded. He looked at the rocky dirt and sparse grass beneath him. He didn't feel like landing on nothing but flat ground, so he stayed hovering. He scanned the skies all around them, making sure there were no flying pokémon near. "Itora, I'm leaving."

"What?" the manectric questioned. "Leaving where?"

"Leaving the army," Yenn replied.

"You're…" Itora trailed off, looking confused. "Wait a minute…is this about…" She looked at the yanmega, pausing a moment before blurting out, "Oh don't be ridiculous! So one pokémon got an unfair punishment! You can't seriously want to throw away everything we've worked for just for that. Why don't you go and order the torturers to stop doing it?"

"I _can't,_ " Yenn hissed. "Cyclone won't let it stop. I just talked to him, and he's not going to change anything because he thinks it's all worth it. I'm not going to fight for a pokémon like that."

"So what are you going to do?" Itora scoffed. "Go off and fight the humans yourself? What a great way to get _killed!_ "

"No," Yenn insisted. "I don't want to be part of this anymore."

Itora's mocking look faded to one of shock and disgust. "Wait…you're actually _serious?_ "

"You saw what those pokémon did. How could you follow anyone who allowed something like that?"

Itora's fur bristled. "Well, isn't that all the more reason to fight back? Once we stop the humans, that won't need to happen anymore. We deserve justice, Yenn, and so what if other pokémon get caught in the crossfire? We both got locked in terrible human buildings, and no one helped us!"

"Well those pokémon were acting just as bad as the humans were," the yanmega continued. "I don't know what went on in the lab you were trapped in, but I imagine you saw some horrible things. And what those pokémon were-"

"Yenn, they weren't like the humans!" Itora growled in exasperation. "The humans weren't doing what they did for any good reason. They were just being cruel. But Cyclone _has_ a reason for what he does. He-"

"I'm not fighting for Cyclone," Yenn interrupted. "We wouldn't be hurting just humans. They have pokémon on their side as well. You watched me kill that smeargle. Up until today, I've never killed when I wasn't hungry. It was the only thing I could've done for that smeargle…but I didn't like it, and I don't want to do it again."

It suddenly dawned on Itora just how serious her friend was. She gave Yenn a look of disbelief, her mouth hanging open. Then she growled, her eyes narrowing. "So, we've finally got the perfect opportunity to set things right, and now you're backing out because you decided you don't like the idea?" she spat.

"Look, I _thought_ I wanted to do this!" Yenn protested. "But I can't do it anymore. I don't _want_ to do it anymore."

"But why?" Itora nearly shouted. "Why did you suddenly change your mind now? After all we'd been planning-"

"I didn't realize what it would actually be like!" Yenn cried. "That's what we were going to do, wasn't it? Kill other pokémon and leave their bodies to rot? I thought I could do it if it meant stopping the humans, but I don't want to turn out like-"

"Fine!" Itora snarled, cutting him off. "But if this doesn't work for _you,_ what about the rest of us? Now they'll have to find even more of those Attack stones and it's going to be even harder for us! And what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," he replied, suddenly feeling scared. Cyclone's mission had been his main goal for the past two months, something he could focus on that would take his mind off of everything. Something he could strive and work for. Something that could even be a solution, a way to stop the terror and hatred that plagued his mind by finally setting things right once and for all. He suddenly felt so lost without it. "Maybe I'll go somewhere where there are no humans," he said quietly. "Somewhere I can forget about it."

"Good luck finding a place like that," Itora replied mockingly. "Unless you want to live in some icy wilderness, humans are going to get there eventually. But you know, you could always help us put a stop to that."

"I'm not fighting…if it means that other pokémon have to be injured and killed for the sake of the wild ones," Yenn snarled.

"You're defending the _humans'_ pokémon now?" Itora cried, disgusted. "Do you not understand what _they're_ supporting? I'm sure they go along with much worse than anything Cyclone has ordered."

"Not all the pokémon are there willingly, are they?" Yenn retorted.

"No," Itora responded, "but if we wipe out the humans, they'll be the _last_ to have to endure such a thing. Yes, there will be innocents killed. But we'll _save_ far more. Don't you understand? All this, _everything_ Cyclone does, is for the greater good. You have to see that."

"For the greater good?" Yenn repeated, his voice cold. "That's just what Cyclone said." He flew higher above the ground, his voice rising until he was shouting. "And the scientists who cut me open said the _exact…same…thing!_ Does that make it _right?_ "

Itora just stared at him, dumbfounded. In her shock, she said nothing.

"I'm done…" Yenn said, his voice calmer. "I'm not going to do this anymore. You can stay here if you want, but I'm leaving. For good."

Itora was silent for several more moments. Then she yelled, "Fine! Abandon us! Make us have to search for more Attack stones! Let humans hurt pokémon even longer." She shot a glare at him and then bolted off in the direction of the army camp.

Yenn didn't follow her. He stayed put, watching as she headed back to the camp. When she had gone, he lowered himself to the ground, still in shock over how she had reacted. He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but it couldn't have been long before he noticed a ghostly shape moving toward him from the direction of the army camp. He had almost forgotten that Ashend was coming to join them, and he remembered that he needed to apologize to her. That would come first.

"Ashend?" he said, flying over to the misdreavus. "Ashend, I'm sorry about what I did earlier…I…"

"It doesn't matter," the ghost type interrupted. Yenn was surprised to see that she looked almost panicked. "Right now, I'm not sure how much time we have to talk, and there's not enough time to find Itora; we'll have to talk to her later."

"Wait…what?" Yenn asked, confused. "What do you mean no time? _We_ don't have a curfew."

"We can't stay out here for too long," Ashend told him. "They're already suspicious of you and if they notice we're going to places where pokémon can't easily hide or sneak up on us, they're going to-"

"What are you _talking_ about?" Yenn cried, looking to Ashend in confusion.

"Out here, you can see anyone coming!" the misdreavus responded. "And Solus can't try to read any of your thoughts unless he comes close."

"Solus?" Yenn repeated, trying to take in what his friend was saying. "But psychic types don't…I mean it's not that easy to just-"

"Solus isn't your average psychic type," Ashend replied grimly. "But that's not what's important."

"But…but why would he…" Yenn interrupted, feeling more and more confused with every word Ashend said.

"I couldn't tell you anything earlier because it wasn't safe," Ashend continued. "That's why you need to listen now."

"Okay, but first I need to tell _you_ something," Yenn insisted. Before she could say anything else, he explained, "I'm leaving the army. Tonight. And I won't be coming back."

He had wanted to say more, wanted to explain why, but at the moment he felt so mentally exhausted that he couldn't find the strength to try to defend himself from any accusations again. "Itora can tell you why," he said quietly, expecting the misdreavus to argue.

"Yenn, you can't leave," Ashend told him.

"Look," Yenn growled. Not wanting to deal with another argument, he turned away from Ashend. He readied himself to fly off, not wanting what may be the last encounter he had with the ghost type to end like it had with Itora. "I've already made up my mind, and I don't care if-"

"Cyclone will kill you if you do."

Yenn whirled around to face her. "What?" he gasped. "No, no, Cyclone wouldn't have me killed. He took me in, he-"

"The Attack is more valuable to him than you," the misdreavus said sadly. "If you deserted, or rebelled, the only way for him to get it back would be to kill you."

"What…what do you mean?"

"That's how the Attacks are transferred from one pokémon to another after they are taken from their stones," Ashend explained. "The first user has to die...and the closest pokémon of the same type becomes the new bearer."

"Where did you hear this?" Yenn replied, shocked.

"The past few days," Ashend began, "I've been spying on Cyclone and his higher-ups. I still trusted him at first, but something about what you said on the night Articuno died got me thinking. Cyclone didn't talk much about the Attacks until after we used ours yesterday. And when I used mine…that was when I realized something was very wrong. Once I left the cave, I snuck around and found out more from Cyclone himself. He calls them 'Forbidden Attacks.' But it turns out that even he's unaware…or in denial…of what these things really are."

Without waiting for Yenn to reply, the misdreavus continued, "And that...was also why I was talking to that smeargle. He'd been helping pokémon escape the army and telling them the truth about these powers we have. Of course he couldn't dare try to reach _us,_ but I approached him myself last night and started talking to him. I think that may have contributed to him getting caught." Seeing her friend's stunned face, she continued, "I wouldn't lie to you, Yenn. You and Itora are the only pokémon I can truly consider friends."

"But what you said…" Yenn stammered, "after Articuno was killed…you wanted me to trust Cyclone."

"I know, I was wrong," Ashend replied. "It wasn't until later that night…the night of Articuno's death…when I started to realize it didn't sit right with me either. I don't care about the legendaries, but something about the whole thing felt off. I thought it was just about Articuno, but there is something much worse going on here. It's not even Cyclone himself we should be afraid of."

"Then what-"

"The powers we have," the misdreavus began to explain, "aren't what we were told they were. Aren't what Cyclone thought they were. They…or to be more accurate, their lore, is actually well known around this region, especially among pokémon in human areas, but most of the army never knew because they were either wild or locked up in buildings or with abusive trainers. Like I said, I knew something wasn't right about the Attacks from the moment I used mine. Yenn, they can't be controlled. Not if we keep using them. They will warp the mind of the pokémon they belong to and destroy everything in their path. Many pokémon know of an ice type like this, an ice type who was driven insane and-"

"Wait a minute…has Cyclone heard about this?" Yenn cried. "He has one of the Attacks too! If this is true, he should-"

"From what I was told," Ashend continued, "pokémon have tried to tell him. He doesn't believe them. Yenn, I think it's already altering his mind. Making him believe things about the Attacks that aren't real. He isn't like that houndour with Shadowflare, who fought against it from the beginning. He embraced it and-"

"Are you saying that Cyclone's going crazy?" Yenn replied, shocked. He drew back from the misdreavus, his wings beating the air fiercely. "But…Cyclone doesn't seem like he's losing control. He can't be! He runs the entire army! He couldn't do it if-"

"Listen," Ashend said worriedly, "some of the pokémon the army captured on Articuno's mountain…they told me that they saw Blazefang in their territory a few months back. They told me that the houndour couldn't control his Attack. But Blazefang's loss of control was obvious. Cyclone's is different. He-"

"Wait…they captured pokémon from the mountain too?" Yenn interrupted. As he said it, he realized that he had no reason to be surprised, and decided to let the subject drop. "What are we going to do then?" he asked, suddenly realizing how scared he felt. "If this is all true, are we going to lose control and go insane too?" He found everything hard to believe, but he knew Ashend well enough to know that if she was this serious about something, there was no way she was lying or jumping to conclusions.

"No," the misdreavus said firmly. "Cyclone won't choose to fight against his Forbidden Attack. He never did. But you can. We may not be able to get rid of the Attacks, but we have the same choice…and I say we fight it."

Yenn merely nodded, unsure how to take all the new information. If Ashend was sure, he trusted her, but it still left him in shock.

"A lot of the pokémon who came from human cities and weren't abused knew about this," Ashend continued, seeing that he was still struggling to take everything in. "The ones from Articuno's mountain saw it with their own eyes when Blazefang and a small group of pokémon climbed their mountain. That many pokémon couldn't lie about this and all tell me the exact same thing. And I _knew_ something wasn't right the moment I used that Attack."

"I trust you," Yenn replied shakily. "I just thought…"

"We need to keep our Attacks under control," Ashend explained. "They get worse with every use. As they grow stronger, their hold on the pokémon's mind grows stronger as well. Right now, both of ours are at their weakest stage, when it is easiest to resist. We can keep it from getting worse. But we can't ever use them again, for any reason. We'll have to just pretend we did every time Cyclone tells us to."

"I…" Yenn began quietly, "I would have used my Attack again today if I hadn't gone in the cave and seen the…" He shook his head and carried on, "Why didn't you tell me about this last night?"

"I didn't know," Ashend said, lowering her head. "I honestly didn't know. That smeargle and I had to be so careful not to get caught, had to keep moving to different hiding spots, and find the right pokémon to talk to, that by the time he'd managed to explain everything, it was already morning. Before I could get you and Itora alone, you had wandered off and stumbled upon that…"

Something dawned on Yenn, and he looked to Ashend in alarm. "But they didn't know it was _you_ who talked to him, did they?"

"I don't think so," Ashend answered. "I think they noticed something was up because he kept sneaking off all night, though. I don't think Solus would have pried into his mind any further after he found out that the smeargle was helping army pokémon escape. I'm sure that if they knew I was involved, that he was sneaking off to see _me,_ they would have done something about it by now."

The sight of a bird pokémon drifting nearby silenced both of them. They waited as it flew past them without even giving them a glance, presumably heading off to hunt.

"I can't say much more now," Ashend said, "but I've told you the most important things. We need to be heading back."

"I'm not _going_ back," Yenn growled.

"Yenn, they will _kill_ you," the misdreavus whispered. "Neither of us could stand up to Cyclone. A few of the pokémon I talked to who knew about the Attacks told me something else about them. One pokémon with a Forbidden Attack can't use it to kill another one easily. My Attack wouldn't kill Cyclone instantly; it would take longer, just weaken him at first. And in that time, he could kill me far faster with his own; his is much stronger. Or he could kill me the old-fashioned way, without using his Forbidden Attack at all."

"Look," Yenn began, his voice shaking, "I can't stay here anymore. I'm not going to help Cyclone and his disgusting pokémon. If they're not going to kill me now, they'll kill me when I refuse to use my Attack on the humans and their pokémon. And I couldn't live with it if I stayed that long. And after what I said to Cyclone…" He trailed off, unsure how to continue as a new realization came to his mind. "He'll probably kill me anyway."

Ashend turned her sad gaze in the direction of the resting army. When she looked back at Yenn, tears had started to form in her eyes. "Then at least let me help you," she said.

Yenn wasn't sure how to reply. His mind was still racing as he thought of everything Ashend had said, and he almost wondered if he was in the middle of a strange nightmare. In a single day, everything he had come to know had been turned upside down.

"I can create a distraction," the misdreavus continued, "but you have to leave now. _Tonight._ But understand that they'll soon be after you, that they'll figure out where you've gone and follow you. You've got to fly and not stop until you're far, far away from here. Don't stop flying unless you absolutely have to. You'll need as much of a head start as you can get...who knows how far they will chase you."

"But Ashend…what about…"

"You're the only one out of the three of us who stands a chance at getting away right now," Ashend continued. "But I'll stay here. I'll protect Itora. We'll lie low and observe what we can. We'll figure out something."

"They won't…harm you, will they?" he asked.

"I won't let them," Ashend said fiercely. Then she sighed, coming to a realization of her own. "But you are right. Cyclone and Solus already suspect that you won't go through with the plan. You're in more danger now than we are. If Cyclone finds out even more…" Her voice shook. "Leaving might be your best chance. Maybe your only one."

Yenn wasn't sure what to say. As much as he wanted to leave the army, he hadn't imagined that he would be fleeing for his life. But when he thought back to his conversations with Cyclone, it was suddenly easy to believe that the army's leader had only been using him for his ability to wield the bug type Forbidden Attack. Cyclone clearly didn't care about the lives of wild pokémon, so why would he care about _his?_

"Remember," Ashend continued, "even if Cyclone's pokémon catch up with you, don't use your Lifedrain attack. Do everything you can to keep fleeing. Even if you killed some of them, your Attack isn't enough to kill all of them before they can kill you."

"I…all right," Yenn said shakily.

"As you're flying," Ashend told him, "activate your speed boost ability as much as possible. Attack trees or rocks if you need to keep it going."

Yenn nodded.

"Now," said Ashend, "I'm going to find a way to talk to Itora. We'll start our distraction as soon as we're ready. Go back to your cave and get some of the army pokémon to bring you plenty of food. Eat as much as you can, because you might not run into enough prey to hunt on the way. I know it won't last you long…but it will help."

"I'll do that…" Yenn began. He watched as the ghost type turned to leave, realizing that it might be one of the last times he would ever see her. "Goodbye…Ashend."

"Goodbye," she replied sadly.

Knowing that they had to act as soon as possible, the two headed back to the army grounds. Yenn flew straight toward his cave while Ashend set off to find Itora.

Luckily for the yanmega, there were still pokémon waiting beside the entrance to his cave, ready to serve him. He noticed that they were different pokémon, all of low rank; the aerodactyl and the others from earlier had left. The gathered pokémon looked to him expectantly.

"Bring some prey here," he told them unsteadily. "And I want a lot of it."

He watched as some of them scurried off to do his bidding, while others stayed put in case he had more orders for them. He suddenly felt even more frightened. Ashend was right; even if he ate all he could, his energy wouldn't last him all night, especially if he was flying constantly. He had no idea where he was fleeing _to,_ either, and he wasn't sure how often he would be able to catch prey. The thought that he might not make it and could be torn apart by his pursuers was terrifying, but he still did not waver in his decision.

The pokémon bringing him food quickly returned. "Thank you," Yenn told them uneasily as they set down the prey for him. "That's all you have to do for tonight. You may leave."

The pokémon glanced to one another in surprise, and Yenn heard one of them utter a small thanks before they all turned away. Alone, Yenn began to devour the prey, knowing that Ashend was getting everything ready.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Ashend waited with Itora by the entrance to the main caves, the ones they had used to practice their Attacks the day before. The manectric was shocked and sullen after what the ghost type had quickly told her, but she heeded her friend's word and waited beside the tunnel, ready.

They had cleared the area of guards, telling them that they wanted to try out their Attacks again, to make up for the lost day of practice. No one had questioned them.

Suddenly they heard wingbeats, and Yenn landed on a boulder beside them. "I'm ready," he whispered.

"Get to the edge of the camp," Ashend instructed him. "You'll know when to leave."

"Yenn, I didn't…mean what I said," Itora whispered.

"It's all right," he whispered back.

Itora cast him once last glance before she trotted into the cave.

Yenn turned and flew away from them. He planned to head west, in the direction opposite of where they army had come from. He didn't want to end up back near Articuno's mountain. But before he did that, he planned to try to throw off his pursuers in whatever small way he could, so he headed to the south side of the camp.

He sped through the camp, taking care not to pause in his flight so that Solus – if he was lurking around – would not have time to try to read his thoughts. Once he reached the south edge, far enough away from the nearest pokémon, he waited, landing on the remains of a dead tree and pretending to groom himself.

He knew that if he kept flying south, it would take him directly in the path of human cities. But if he was seen heading south, the army pokémon would not only be more hesitant to follow him, but it could throw them off. Then he could fly to the west once he was well out of sight of the camp.

Yenn had no idea what lands lay west of the camp, but Articuno's mountain was to the east and there were colder lands to the north. With the human areas to the south, it seemed like his best option.

A deafening noise reached him, and he felt the tree shake beneath his legs as shouts came from the direction of the caves. The sound of crashing rocks and shouting pokémon carried on for several seconds, and Yenn, knowing that that was his signal, hooked one of his legs around the vine tying his crystal to his neck and pulled down, stretching the vine enough to give him room to bite through it. He picked up the red gem in his teeth and flew off.

Feeling his speed boost ability activate, he sped faster, watching the army camp grow smaller and smaller as he left it behind. It was dark, but the occasional gap in the clouds and the starlight shining through gave him enough light to see by.

As soon as he passed over a small lake, he let go of the gem, watching it strike the surface and sink to the bottom. By the time it vanished from sight, he had flown past the lake and sped off into the unknown, hoping the cover of darkness, as well as Ashend's distraction, would buy him enough time.

 

  
**-ooo-**

"What's going on here?" a booming voice cried. "What happened?"

A burly pangoro shoved his way to the front of the crowd. He was met with a distraught Ashend, who was hovering back and forth in front of what was once the main entrance to the caves.

"Itora's in there, you idiot!" the misdreavus snapped at him. "Find pokémon to dig her out!"

"What about the other entrances?" a furret asked.

"You want to risk _your_ life going in that cave?" she snapped at him. "Send some pokémon in there if you must, but she was right near the entrance when it collapsed. She's probably trapped under _here!_ " She turned her head toward the pile of rubble.

The furret fell silent, but Ashend could see some of the higher up pokémon ordering several others to go into the other entrances and find the manectric. She watched worriedly, knowing that she could say nothing about it and hoping that Itora would be able to hide well. They needed to buy Yenn as much time as possible.

"Start digging!" she screeched at some of the nearest pokémon. "She could be buried under those rocks!" The misdreavus turned and began lifting rocks with her psychic attack – the one useful thing she had gained from her experience with Team Rocket – making sure not to lift any that would actually provide an opening yet still trying to appear frantic. It had been harder to collapse the tunnel than she had at first realized, but shifting rocks with psychic had worked in the end. Itora was somewhere deeper in the cave, well away from the scene of the collapse and hiding from any pokémon who would be searching from the other entrances.

It was easy for Ashend to act panicked. Thinking about Yenn, she didn't have to pretend. She shouted at the others to hurry, giving some of them useless orders that she knew they would have to obey. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched them scramble, glad that no one seemed to be looking for Yenn at the moment. Even Solus had appeared, standing at the edge of the crowd with a bewildered look on his face. It didn't last long, though, and the espeon started to slink away.

"You!" Ashend called to him. "Solus. You're a psychic type. Come help us!"

"I have special orders from Cyclone," the espeon snarled back. "Let the others help you."

"Are those special orders worth more than Itora's life?" the misdreavus screeched at him. "Maybe you can tell Cyclone that!"

Solus sneered at her, but reluctantly came to join the furiously digging pokémon. Ashend was aware that he knew how strange and suspicious it would look if he refused to help the manectric, as much as he clearly despised her.

However, as she watched him, Ashend realized that forcing Solus to stop looking around the camp for Yenn – as that was likely what he had been doing – hadn't saved them much time. With a power far outdoing that of the other psychic types, Solus lifted and heaved each of the medium sized boulders away, sending some of them hurtling dangerously close to the crowd. In no time, the tunnel was open again.

In less than a minute, the pokémon had streamed inside and dragged out Itora, who had covered herself in dirt and small bits of debris. Ashend reached her almost instantly, making a show of being intensely relieved.

They soon spotted Solus walking away again, and Ashend shouted to him. "Come here!" she snapped. "Did you see what happened? I need to have a talk with you and Cyclone. Because unless these caves are reinforced safely enough to withstand Voltgale, how do you two expect us to keep practicing our Attacks?"

"Make it quick," the espeon growled with a lash of his tail.

Acting stunned and disoriented, Itora gave Ashend a weak nod. "Go get Cyclone," she said. "I'll wait here with him." She looked at Solus, who stared her down. She focused all her thoughts on how ugly she thought he was, knowing that unless Solus focused very hard and alerted her to what he was doing, that was all of her mind that he would see.

 

  
**-ooo-**

It was not long before Solus was finally able to slip away. Cyclone had done everything he could to placate the distraught Ashend about the caves, but Solus had been forced to stay as the misdreavus demanded that he help fix it. She had made one ridiculous request after another and seemed inconsolable about the close call her manectric friend had just had. When he had tried skimming her mind for thoughts, all the espeon had found was distress and worry. He didn't dare delve deeper, or Ashend would notice. Luckily Cyclone had finally drilled it into the ghost type's head that the caves were being fixed and there were more important matters he needed to attend to.

Immediately after the misdreavus had finally been sent away, Cyclone had told Solus to find Yenn again. The psychic type had set off, realizing that the yanmega was probably still flying around somewhere. He hadn't had a chance to really get any good readings of the bug type's thoughts, even when he'd risked probing deeper. It was frustrating, but Solus knew that Yenn eventually exhausted himself on his nightly flights anyway.

He was surprised when he couldn't find any sign of the bug type anywhere, and quickly sent other pokémon to search for him in case he was wandering outside the camp again.

They had spent nearly a half hour searching the camp and surrounding areas before coming back, telling him there was no sign of Yenn.

Solus had demanded information from the army members, but it had taken him a while to find some pokémon who had seen the yanmega leave. They told him they had seen him flying south, and Solus had been about to fetch Cyclone before a honchkrow came forward. The honchkrow explained that he had been taking a hunting party well outside the camp boundaries, and had seen Yenn – quite a ways away from the camp - turn around and head west.

Solus had shouted at the honchkrow, ignoring the flying type's excuses as he explained that he had not known that anything was wrong, had thought Yenn was on some sort of mission from Cyclone or had decided to hunt for himself. Solus had ignored the honchkrow, deciding he would deal with him later, and told Cyclone what had happened…that Yenn had fled the army.

The vaporeon now stood, furious, as Solus gathered the army's most powerful fliers and the swiftest runners. They were away from the main army group, facing the lands west of the camp.

Itora and Ashend were back in their caves, likely resting after the ordeal Itora had been through. Solus was glad for it; the last thing he wanted to deal with after the problems with Yenn were those two again. How he was going to convince them that Yenn was a traitor or that he had merely died on his journey, he had no idea.

As Solus gave some of the pokémon orders to gather more swift travelers, the vaporeon leader rounded on him.

"Why did you allow this to happen?" Cyclone asked, his voice chilling enough to make Solus shudder. "You told me these pokémon were going to fight humans at all costs. Obviously…" His voice lowered to a growl. "You didn't read one of them properly."

The espeon met Cyclone's gaze. "I _did_ read him properly!" Solus protested. "Look, when we found him, Yenn was a broken mess. You knew he was going to cling to _anything_ that gave him a goal - a distraction – so he could try to forget what happened to him. He was going to stay angry, and lash out, and work toward fighting humans so that he didn't have to think about it. _That's why we chose him._ I didn't find any signs that he was going to go mutinous on us! Whatever happened must have happened really quickly because up until just now, he seemed fine with the whole thing!"

Cyclone watched Solus impassively, and the espeon continued, "In fact, I would have pinpointed him as the most bloodthirsty, determined, screwed up excuse for a pokémon out of the three of them! I watched him fantasize about murdering humans over and over again in his own mind. It's not my fault he suddenly decided he didn't want the reality!"

Cyclone didn't show any more outward anger toward Solus's words, just waited for him to finish.

"I thought he would go along with this and so did you," the espeon growled under his breath. "You can't blame this on me. Now let's find him and kill him so this can be done with! And next time, let's keep the Forbidden Attack users _apart_. His friendship with the others might have been part of what made him willing to change his mind. And they aren't going to be happy when they find out he's dead."

"Let me deal with them," Cyclone growled, turning away from the psychic type. Though he didn't show much of it outwardly, Solus could tell that the vaporeon was seething on the inside. The leader turned his head as some of the last remaining pokémon for the new mission appeared, all of them pokémon who could fly or run for long periods of time every day.

Most of them were large bird pokémon, with a few tropius, flygon, noivern, and a charizard and salamence. Among the runners were rapidash, arcanine, and zebstrika. Most of these pokémon were high ranking and fiercely loyal, but those that were of lower rank still stood obediently, already knowing what their mission was and waiting for their orders. If they were afraid of Yenn's Forbidden Attack, they did not show it.

Cyclone knew that Yenn would only be able to take a few of his pokémon down at most before they overwhelmed him. He was heading straight toward the desert the scouts had seen earlier; he would likely be weak by the time they caught up with him. Yenn had nowhere to go; either he braved the desert, or he turned back and ran into the line of pokémon pursuing him.

Solus had made sure there were water types among the fliers, and some clever army pokémon had recently found a way to store water using hollow gourds and plant materials, so the bigger pokémon were able to carry supplies.

The vaporeon watched as two of the flying types, a pidgeot and a swellow, arrived. The pidgeot carried a small caterpie in his talons, the only bug type that would be coming on the journey. The caterpie was deeply asleep, slumped over in the bird pokémon's claws. The swellow carried a tiny bulbasaur, one that wasn't even full grown. The grass type struggled in the swellow's grasp, crying out as tears flowed from her eyes.

Cyclone nodded to the pidgeot and swellow in approval. The bulbasaur was being brought along for her sleep powder ability, and the fact that she was small enough to carry and not use up much of the resources. The caterpie was merely a vessel for Yenn's Forbidden Attack, and once the tiny pokémon received it, he would be kept asleep until they returned and were ready to pass the attack to the new bug type bearer.

Cyclone turned toward a waiting feraligatr, who was helping oversee the hasty preparations. "Tomorrow morning, I want every bug type in the army gathered in the center of the camp," the leader ordered. Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked up to Solus, standing face to face with the espeon. "And Solus…"

"I'll go with them," Solus said before Cyclone could finish. "I'll kill Yenn myself if I can." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "If he kills some of the others with his Forbidden Attack, I can use the moment he's distracted. I'll slam him into the ground with psychic and bash his head in before he has the chance to attack me."

Some of Cyclone's anger subsided. "Very well," he agreed.

As soon as one of the waiting tropius had been ordered to carry the espeon, who held on with the help of his psychic powers, the pokémon waited for Cyclone's final order. When their leader gave it, they took to the air or dashed across the ground, heading in the direction the runaway had gone.

Cyclone and the pokémon who had helped him organize the mission watched them for a few moments, then turned and headed back to the main camp.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn had been flying for at least a couple of hours. The clouds in the sky had cleared enough for him to see better, but they still shrouded the way ahead in darkness. Earlier on, he had flown past some strange rugged mountain cliffs, and had almost considered hiding there, but immediately discarded the idea after he saw the remains of a collapsed human building.

He knew it would have been a foolish idea anyway; the ground around the cliffs looked barren, and he needed to stick to places with enough vegetation and water. After flying for a while, he had made sure to stop briefly at any pond or stream he could find and take a drink.

It was during one of his short drink breaks that he noticed something moving from the direction he'd come. A black shape in the distance, maybe more than one, blocking out a star here and there.

Yenn froze. He had no way of knowing when Cyclone's followers had begun to chase after him; for all he knew, they could have immediately realized he was gone and were right on his tail that very moment.

He didn't know for sure if it really was one of Cyclone's pokémon, already catching up to him so quickly, but he knew he didn't want to stay around to find out. He also knew that once it got lighter, some of the keener eyed pokémon would be able to spot him from a distance if they were close enough, and there weren't many places to hide. He had to keep going, and get as far ahead as he could before morning.

He quickly flew away from the stream, heading further out into the wilderness. He had been forced to stop using speed boost once he realized it had been draining too much of his energy too fast. He decided that he'd use it once every hour or so; he needed plenty of strength already just to keep flying for so long.

As he focused on the way ahead, he noticed that the clouds cleared further on. This gave him a feeling of unease, as he knew that the light of the stars would make it easier for his pursuers to fly through the night as well. However, he didn't dwell on that for long, because he noticed something else that struck him as even more alarming.

Up ahead, still far in the distance, was a line. He couldn't think of any other way to describe it. It was like there was a long dividing line separating two lands from each other. It unnerved him to look at it; the last place he'd seen such straight and precise lines was back in the human building where he had been held captive for so long. What was a perfect line doing in nature?

As he got closer, he realized that the line was the edge of a strange territory meeting with the grassy plain he was currently flying over. As he narrowed the gap between it and himself, he realized with a jolt of horror that he was looking at some sort of desert. Even the clouds seemed to stop once they got close to the barren land, leaving it open and exposed.

Yenn turned in midair and approached the line of desert in a diagonal path, hoping it was small enough that he could eventually fly around its outer edge. He knew that by now, Cyclone's pokémon were certainly chasing him, and that he couldn't fly back the way he'd come. Now that the thought of being murdered in some brutal way was a very real possibility, he found himself flying faster out of fear.

As he drew closer, Yenn realized that finding a way around the desert was a futile hope. It stretched endlessly in either direction, and trying to avoid it would only give his pursuers plenty of time to catch up with him. He knew the way Cyclone and his followers planned things; the pokémon chasing him would have fanned out and would be approaching him in a wide circle. He couldn't escape by turning away from the desert and trying to find another path. Going through it was his only chance. He didn't know if he could last for days in a desert, but if he ran into Cyclone's pokémon, he would be killed for sure. As Ashend had said, Cyclone was going to go to any length to take his Forbidden Attack back for the army.

Yenn watched the approaching desert with dread until he finally crossed the threshold between it and the plains. He felt scared and conflicted; he had never actually seen a desert before, and he had no idea how far in any direction it reached. He wasn't sure if he should take a more diagonal path and hope to find its edge, or go straight through and keep the greatest distance possible between him and the pokémon of Cyclone's army.

In the end, he decided that taking a path straight forward was as good a choice as any. There was no guarantee the desert was longer than it was wide. He had a fleeting hope that maybe Cyclone's followers would see the desert and decide to turn around, but he knew deep down how foolish a thought that was.

As Yenn left the grassy plains behind, finding himself surrounded by nothing but dry, cracked earth, it struck him, _hard,_ how much of a terrible mistake he'd made. He had picked the wrong direction to flee in, and now it was too late. A large number of pokémon were out for his blood, pokémon likely much better suited to the desert environment than he was. He nearly had to stop as terror ripped through his mind like lightning. _'What have I done?'_

He hadn't just betrayed Cyclone. He had left everything he had, everything he had come to know. He had left all the comfort, safety, and power he'd enjoyed back at the army, everything that had kept him going through one day after the next. He had even left his friends.

And now that he'd gotten himself trapped between his would-be executioners and the desert, he knew he was probably going to die for it.

Yet at the same time, he knew that it was better than being turned into Cyclone's killing machine, better than letting the army leader use his Lifedrain attack to murder countless pokémon in the human cities. At least if he got far enough, and died somewhere out in the desert, far from where his pursuers could reach, Cyclone and the army wouldn't get their claws on his Forbidden Attack.

When Yenn thought about what Cyclone wanted to use him for, thought about how many pokémon he would have killed had he gone through with it, it shocked him that he'd ever wanted to do it…that just a day before, he had been willing to do it. It shocked him that he'd been so blinded by his hatred for the humans that he had been willing to destroy them even if innocents got in his way. It disgusted him that his motivations hadn't been much different from the humans who had given him his scar, that he had been willing to cause great suffering to pokémon for something he'd believed was right.

He tried not to dwell on it. He wasn't going to think like that anymore. He never could again. He didn't know what he wanted to do about the humans anymore, but he knew that that was behind him. His chances of ever setting things right were over, and he wasn't even sure he still wanted to strive so hard for revenge if he survived. He told himself it didn't even matter; he had left that opportunity far behind.

Yenn tried to push the thoughts aside; there were more pressing issues demanding his attention. He knew he needed to find some source of water, so he flew higher into the sky, scanning the ground beneath him. He realized that once it got lighter, he would be more easily spotted by the keen eyed flying pokémon if he was at a high altitude, so he was determined to make the most out of the night hours.

Yet as far as he could see, the desert was lifeless…featureless. Aside from a rock here and there, there were no landmarks, no sign of water or other pokémon. He fought back panic at the thought that he was trapped in what looked like a complete wasteland, with no choice but to keep going…

…Keep going and hope for the best.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Alone in her resting cave, Ashend drifted back and forth in the darkest area of her cavern, her mind numb. She knew that Solus and the group of pokémon he was leading were well on their way already, following Yenn's path. She barely recalled what Cyclone had said to her and Itora on the matter; they had pretended to be outraged at the thought of Yenn being a traitor. She had called her own friend such horrible things, all while knowing that Cyclone was trying to have him killed. But her anger was not false. In the secrecy of her own mind, it was all directed at Cyclone himself.

At the moment, she could hardly think about the Forbidden Attacks or the danger of Cyclone's corruption. That all seemed far away when she thought about how one of the only two pokémon she truly cared about might soon be slaughtered. She realized that Yenn might have been killed if he had stayed, and all she could hope for was that the one chance he had now would be enough.

The misdreavus's eyes narrowed as she fought back tears. Cyclone was having Yenn killed, and he could hurt Itora if he knew what she was aware of. Ashend felt herself boiling with hatred as she pictured the vaporeon, ordering his followers to murder her friend.

She knew that, until an opportunity arose, she and Itora could do nothing but bide their time. Bide their time and learn all they could. She had told Itora that when Solus returned, she would need to think of random thoughts most of the time, and think them loudly, masking what she was really thinking. The espeon was a powerful psychic, an absurdly powerful one, but even he couldn't pick apart thoughts lurking underneath more powerful ones without the pokémon knowing that he was invading their mind. At least, Ashend thought, Cyclone didn't yet suspect her or Itora, so Solus wouldn't dare try his worst.

Ashend knew that her main goal now was to protect Itora. She would do her best not to let anything happen to her. In the meantime, they would learn what they could from the pokémon the smeargle had led her to, the ones who were against Cyclone's plans and who knew what the Forbidden Attacks were. And, once she had the chance, Ashend would start building a new plan.

She could hardly care about the humans anymore. There was a pokémon she hated far more than any of them. The pokémon who had ordered the murder of Yenn, the yanmega who had shown her true kindness and compassion in a world that had only given her pain.

If she had anything to say about it…then one way or another, Cyclone's reign was going to come to an end.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The sun was rising as Solus and his group of pokémon reached the edge of the desert. Solus told the tropius to stop, peering down at the barren landscape with a look of confusion. He'd known there was a desert there, but the abrupt change of scenery gave him an odd feeling.

However, it was more than just the desert that put him at unease. He was beginning to regret the promise he'd made to Cyclone. Even if there were other pokémon to take the fall for him when they came up against Yenn's Forbidden Attack, the espeon didn't like the thought of attacking a pokémon with that much power.

As he thought about it, he realized that he could avoid it altogether. The other pokémon would have no reason to question him; a solution was quickly forming in his mind, and he could easily pass it off as being concerned for the other pokémon. After all, they didn't want to exhaust themselves, did they?

He turned his head toward a pidgeot who was flying in a wide circle around him, waiting for his orders. "Tell the others to gather here," he said.

"But…but what about-" the flying type began.

"We've got plenty of time to catch up with him. I want to talk to everyone."

The pidgeot nodded and flew off to spread the message, passing it along to a honchkrow who sped off toward the pokémon lined up in the opposite direction. Thanks to the swiftness of the fliers and runners, it wasn't very long before they had all gathered in a group on the ground. Solus paced in front of them, waiting until the last flying type had settled down among the ranks of army pokémon.

He noticed the scared looks of the ones who had been forced to come, the lowest ranking members of the group…the ones who would be forced to attack Yenn first and take the Forbidden Attack. Solus knew that, if it still came to that, he would likely lose more than just a couple before they brought Yenn down. He was aware that using the Attack gave the yanmega temporary strength, and he would probably put up a fight. But the low ranking pokémon who had been forced into the mission had been given two choices; do as Solus and the others ordered, or endure a slow death by torture. However, now that Solus had a better idea, he was sure they would be happy to hear it.

"Listen up!" the espeon shouted. "As soon as I say this meeting is over, we're going to spread out again. But once the yanmega is spotted, we'll follow close together."

"We're not going to try to surround him?" a talonflame asked, cocking her head at the espeon.

"No," Solus answered. "He's far ahead now, but it won't be hard to catch up once the heat of the sun starts wearing him down."

He watched the group of pokémon, some of the more nervous ones looking at him uncertainly. No one else dared to speak up; they simply waited to be given instructions.

"It's simple," Solus continued. "Yanmega can't fly for days without rest, especially with no food or water. If he keeps going like that, he will literally run himself into the ground from exhaustion. So what we do is this." He cast his gaze across all the gathered pokémon, the ones of lower rank shooting hopeful glances at each other.

"There's nowhere for him to hide out there," the psychic type went on. "We'll follow behind him, close enough that he can see us, but far enough to give him hope that he can still outrun us. If he stops to rest, we'll speed up and close in on him. If this works, it'll keep him moving until he can't go any farther and his body shuts down. This way, we won't have to lose anyone to his Forbidden Attack. With any luck, he'll be dead before we even reach him."

Some of the pokémon who had been forced to come along looked almost ready to cry in relief. He noticed a rapidash and a zebstrika moving closer together, looking at one another with renewed hope, small smiles on their faces. Solus ignored it; these pokémon had a job to do, and he was there to make sure they did it.

"Do what I say, and we likely won't have to fight him at all," the espeon said coldly. "Now get moving. I want him spotted as soon as possible, so travel as fast as you can. We can slow down once he's in our sight."

Turning away from the mob as they raced back to their positions, Solus climbed on the back of the tropius again. Soon they were back into the air, and he could see the other pokémon racing off into the desert toward their quarry. With a smirk of satisfaction, he turned his gaze toward the horizon.

Meanwhile, three days of much slower travel ahead of Solus's group, Snowcrystal and her friends carried on, completely unaware of what was heading their way.

_To be continued…_


	68. Across the Desert

"Oh come on," Spark grumbled as he watched Katie's pidgeot circle lower and lower until he and his rider were close enough that the jolteon could see Katie's disappointed expression. "We _have_ to be close by now."

"Be patient, Spark," Stormblade responded. "It'll only be a couple more days at most. And we've got plenty of food and water with us."

"Arrgh! I wouldn't mind so much if this place wasn't so _boring!_ " the jolteon cried. "Couldn't this legendary have picked a better hiding place?"

"Shh!" Rosie hissed at him. "Katie's going to say something."

Just as the three turned their attention to the trainer again, she and her pidgeot had landed on the dusty ground. "There's nothing up ahead for miles," Katie announced. "But we'll just have to keep going."

A few of the pokémon gave exasperated sighs. "Are you sure we're even going in the right direction?" one of them called out.

"Look, if there's anything up ahead, we'd see it from miles away," Wildflame answered, knowing that Katie wouldn't be able to understand the question. "It may be a big desert, but it's not like we're going to miss a giant cliff."

There was a thump as Fernwing's feet landed on the ground. "We'll let you all know when we spot something," the tropius told the other pokémon. "Trust me, we won't miss anything from the air."

From his position strapped to Fernwing's back, Blazefang peered out at the pokémon gathered on the desert ground. "At least the air's clearer up there," he muttered with a cough as the wind blew a cloud of dust over the huddled group.

"We've got plenty of supplies; no need for anyone to panic," Katie called, sensing that the pokémon were uneasy. "Damian, does your pokégear still work? Been a while since I checked mine."

Damian lit up the screen on his device, waiting for a moment before replying, "Yeah, it's fine. Not much use for it without a map of this area, though. But according to the map in your book, we're still on the right course for the cliffs. We're actually making pretty good time, considering the size of this desert."

"Right, well…let's keep going, then," Katie said with a weary shrug as she mounted her pidgeot and took off into the air.

Snowcrystal tried, unsuccessfully, to shake the dust from her fur. "I wonder where those cacturne go to during the daytime," she mused.

"Don't even talk about that," Rosie said with a shudder. "I'm still creeped out about it."

"Well, we haven't seen them since the first night," Spark said with a shrug. "Too many fire types."

"Doesn't mean I want to think about it," Rosie muttered under her breath.

As the group carried on, following Damian and the others, Stormblade paused. He sensed something was amiss, and as he turned around, he realized what it was. Thunder had stopped, glowering at the group ahead of her with a hateful look.

Stormblade knew that, physically, Thunder was fine. She had no problem demanding food or water from the other pokémon whenever she needed it, and there was always someone willing to get it for her. She was also much healthier than Stormblade could remember her being, and she had taken the grueling journey far easier than most of the pokémon, even to the point of being annoyed when they stopped to rest too often for her liking. But he knew that she was troubled, unwilling to trust the others and desperate to get to wherever their destination was, both for herself and for Nightshade's sake.

As soon as Thunder noticed that he had stopped, her attention snapped to him. She narrowed her eyes, speeding up so that she could pass Stormblade and trail behind the rest of the group. "What are you looking at?" she snapped at him as she went by, but there was hardly any animosity in her words. If anything, it felt forced, like she was tired or had other things on her mind.

Stormblade wanted to ask her what might be wrong, but he thought better of it. Thunder still didn't seem to be in any mood to talk to anyone; she hadn't even spent much time around Nightshade when they'd rested.

He followed the others, hoping that once they got out of the desert, Thunder might warm up to the rest of the group a little. He also hoped that the others would be willing to do the same for her.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn was exhausted. It was not even midday yet, and the heat was already weakening him. He occasionally had to pause in his flight, purely because it felt like his body was overheating. It was becoming painful to beat his wings, and his muscles seemed to have to strain harder to keep him airborne with every passing hour.

The lone yanmega flew against the hot wind that battered his body and forced sand into his lungs, trying not to think too much about what he knew was following behind him. The sun beat down overhead, and in the distance he could see a strange shimmering that almost looked like water. However, he had learned earlier that day that it was nothing but an illusion brought about by the heat waves.

Yenn had never been in a landscape so hostile before. It felt oppressive, and it scared him to think that he had flown so fast and so far, yet had still not found a way out of it or come across water or shelter. In his home, his old home before the humans locked him in that horrid building, he had been used to being able to fly wherever he wished. He could remember flying to the tops of the tallest trees as a yanma, just because he could. He remembered how he had long awaited the day when he could finally evolve, and fly even higher. He remembered when the day of his evolution had come, how happy he had been. It had been back in the days when he still felt happiness like that, when the world had seemed bright and welcoming. He had been ready to search for new lands, to see more of the world than just his territories or the migration path. He had felt like he could go anywhere.

...But there was nowhere for him to go here; he could only keep flying and hope he found something.

At least out here, he wasn't in a cage. Yenn knew he had a chance. It was a slim one, a chance that depended on him stumbling across water or the desert's end, but a chance all the same.

Yenn shook his head as another wave of dust was blown into his face, stinging his eyes. He had started to get used to it, as there wasn't much he could do, and he had grown too tired to try to wipe the dust off his face every minute or so. Worriedly, Yenn noticed that it was also getting increasingly hard to ignore his thirst. It felt like something was clawing at his throat every time he breathed, and his longing for water was starting to overpower everything else in his mind. He had also started getting dizzy, sometimes badly so, and he knew that was not a good sign.

Normally on a hot day, Yenn and other yanmega would dip their bodies into the water as they flew to cool themselves down, but there was clearly no source of water here. He had not seen a drop of water nor any native pokémon since entering the desert. He hadn't even seen plant life. There was nothing but dry, cracked ground as far as he could see.

In spite of his ever-worsening fatigue, he had not dared rest for longer than a few minutes. He could already see the telltale sign of pursuers on the horizon, flying types – and large ones from the look of it – just where he could barely see them. Even when he tried to avoid it, he kept finding his attention drawn to them.

He started to get light-headed, and realized that he had to land again, if only for a moment. There was nothing to perch on, so he simply lowered himself to the ground. He stumbled as he landed, having to take a moment to make sure he was standing sturdily enough before he stopped moving his wings. The hardened earth felt painfully hot beneath his feet, but he was too exhausted to care much. He gasped for air as he lowered his wings and let them rest against the ground, trying not to breathe in too much dust.

He could feel a headache coming on, and he lowered his body to the desert floor, resting his head on the cracked earth. He willed himself to feel better, thought about how the rest would help, but the pain didn't leave him. It was not even the hottest part of the day, and already the lack of water was starting to put him in danger.

At least the dizziness faded quickly, and Yenn found that his vision and mind were once again sharp and alert. And with that, he could make out the pokémon on the horizon, just barely within his sight.

Another look at his would-be killers spurred him onwards. He had hardly rested a few minutes, but he took to the air in a panic, fearful of giving the other flying types – who were likely used to flying longer distances than he could – even more time to catch up. He knew his only chance of safety was making it to the end of the desert before they did, and finding somewhere he could hide. If he didn't keep enough distance between himself and Cyclone's pokémon, he would never get that chance.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Thunder was growing to hate the journey through the desert more and more. She had no idea where the other pokémon and the humans were taking her, and she didn't think they knew either. All she knew – and all she cared to know – was that they were searching for a legendary, just as Snowcrystal had in the beginning. Only this time, they didn't even know which one they were looking for, or if the 'portal' they had been talking about actually led anywhere. Thunder was doubtful they'd find out anything about the Forbidden Attacks, but she hardly cared. That wasn't her fight.

She hated that they had managed to drag her into the lifeless wasteland, where she was completely at the mercy of the humans and the pokémon who carried supplies. It wasn't that she was afraid of them; even though she had promised herself that she would not attack them, she was not afraid to defend herself in the unlikely event that they attacked her first. However, she was afraid for Nightshade.

Even once they got out of the desert, she didn't want to leave him, not when he was so badly injured. He couldn't fend for himself, and she didn't trust the humans to take care of him if she wasn't there. She was stuck.

She also hated that Stormblade and some of the others would glance back at her as they walked, looking like they wanted her to talk to them or walk closer to the group. She glared at them every time. It bothered her that they worried about her, but she knew it wasn't for the reasons they thought it did.

Thunder did not hate being seen as weak because she thought it was shameful. Being tortured and beaten most of her life had left her unable to care much, if at all, about shame. She hated weakness and vulnerability because it felt hopeless, like being trapped in a cage. She hated when other pokémon acknowledged it, and knew about it, because she was never sure what they'd do. In the past, pokémon that knew she was weak had used it against her, made her a target. It was something she felt she should never show anyone, and concealing it was a way she had learned to protect herself.

She had lashed out at Stormblade and other pokémon who had tried to show her sympathy in the past, remembering all the false kindness Master and his pokémon had given her in order to manipulate her, to lie to her. To give her hope only to send it crashing down. She had long believed that Stormblade and the others were doing the same thing.

But Nightshade was different. She hadn't even been sure why she had begun to trust him, why she had given him a chance in the first place. She had been very weak at that time, ravaged by illness and her wounds. Maybe she had simply thought there was no hope, not much of anything to lose. So she had opened up to the heracross, the way she had with Stormblade that one night long ago. Only with Nightshade, she'd had a much harder time convincing herself to stop trusting him.

Thunder did feel shame about one thing. She felt ashamed that it taken her attacking and almost killing Nightshade to fully realize that he _was_ different, that he was a friend. It was something she knew she would always regret, but she was determined to make it right. She was Nightshade's _friend,_ and she was going to show that.

There wasn't much she could do for Nightshade for the time being, but she could make sure the humans gave him what he needed, make sure he always had enough food and water. She could do _that,_ and that was something.

The scyther followed behind the others until the afternoon arrived, and with it the worst heat of the day. The humans stopped and scrambled to put up tents while the pokémon sat or lay down to rest. Redclaw stood to his fullest height, letting some of the smaller pokémon gather in his shadow. Thunder glowered at them; the fact that they so readily trusted the arcanine and weren't afraid to show that they were tired made her almost hate them, as irrational as she knew that was.

She didn't understand why Redclaw was so trusting and friendly to pokémon who were strangers. He'd had a taste of Master's cruelty, even if it was just a small one. A few months ago, she would have said that the arcanine hadn't learned anything from his experiences. Now, after what Nightshade had taught her, she wasn't so sure. It was hard for her to admit it, but maybe he _had_ learned something…and learned more than she had.

"Thunder, do you want to rest in one of the tents this time?" Snowcrystal called out to her. The tiny white growlithe was standing in Redclaw's shadow. She was such a weak and unintimidating figure, yet she looked at Thunder with confidence. "You can rest with Nightshade, if you like."

"I'll be fine out here!" she snapped, and Snowcrystal sadly turned away, realizing there was no point in arguing with her.

Thunder watched the trainers put up the tents, watched them let Nightshade rest inside one of them with a small portable fan to keep him cool. She watched the fire types, minus Snowcrystal, gather together in the center of the makeshift camp and prepare to sleep. Thunder did what she had done each day in the desert, and made sure that Nightshade was safe and had what he needed. Then she walked away from the group and found her own place to sleep.

As she slowly drifted off, she thought about Snowcrystal's offer, the same offer the others had given her every time they stopped to rest. She still felt that it was right – and safer – not to accept.

Yet a large part of her wished she had.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn could not avoid it any longer. He had to take a longer rest, or his body was going to give out. He had been flying for hours during the hottest part of the day, and the heat had sapped his strength far faster than he'd expected. It seemed to take every ounce of willpower he had to beat his wings; he was going on pure adrenaline.

When he landed on the ground, his legs collapsed beneath him before he could steady himself. Struggling to stand, the yanmega gasped for air, soon going into a coughing fit for what seemed like the thousandth time since that morning. He lifted his head as soon as it was over, keeping an eye on the distant signs of his pursuers. His vision swam in front of him, making it difficult to make out the shapes of the pokémon.

He shook dust from his body and weakly tried to fan himself with his wings to keep cool, fearful that the heat would bring him down before the night came. The wind he had been flying into had seemed to get even hotter the higher the temperature climbed, making him feel almost like he was flying into the depths of a fire mountain instead of traveling across open plain.

Yenn had been fighting back panic for quite some time. He still hadn't found even the smallest sign of water. The landscape never changed; it was unusual to see even a large rock that stood out from the blankness. He hadn't even been able to find some sort of plant or berries he could try to eat for a small amount of water. The only moisture he had been able to get since the previous night had been the blood from a tiny fennekin he had caught and eaten a few hours back, and he hadn't seen another one since. At least, he thought, it had boosted his strength for a while.

He let his wings hang limply at his sides as he lifted his front pair of legs, trying to wipe the dust from his eyes as he fought off an overpowering urge to sleep. He could still see his flying pursuers on the horizon, and he knew he was taking a risk by stopping for longer than a few minutes. But he had to; he wasn't going to make it if he kept going like this.

As the day had worn on, he'd found that he'd had to stop more and more often. He knew he had found himself in one of the worst environments for a yanmega. His kind starved quickly, needed a lot of food and rest to fly well, and certainly needed water. He could only be more ill-suited to the desert if he were a water pokémon.

Still, he refused to let himself give in or give up hope. He had covered a huge distance in under a day, moving far faster than a pokémon could walk. He could still make it, he told himself. He had to try.

As he rested, not yet able to will himself to keep flying, he found his thoughts drifting back to Itora and Ashend, the friends he had left behind at the army. _The army that he now knew was run by a twisted pokémon corrupted by a Forbidden Attack._

A sudden thought sent terror through his mind, and his thoughts began to race. _Ashend…Itora…? Were they safe? Did Cyclone suspect that they were involved in his escape?_

He knew he couldn't panic, not now. He thought of Ashend, and how wise the misdreavus was, telling himself that she would never let Cyclone find out anything about what she had done or put her and Itora in danger. However, it was still so hard not to imagine his friends being found out and punished, and Yenn was having trouble convincing himself that they'd be all right.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, fighting to will himself to keep flying and going over every possible scenario in his mind. What finally snapped him out of it was the sudden realization that the winged pokémon following him had gotten much, much closer.

Alarm flared through his mind as he took to the sky, forcing his exhausted wings to move. He wondered how he had gone without noticing that his enemies were moving faster for so long; it wasn't like him to miss things in his surroundings. Now they were frighteningly closer, and fear alone gave Yenn the strength he needed to fly off in the opposite direction, hoping he could somehow make up for the distance he'd lost.

He wasn't sure how, but around an hour later, he found that the gap between him and Cyclone's pokémon had widened again. However, he didn't dare slow down in case they started to catch up once more. It took all his effort to keep moving, and with his worsening thirst and weakening body, he felt like he was driving himself to his death.

But if the desert didn't kill him, the pokémon following him certainly would.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The clear desert skies turned from blue to brilliant hues of red and orange, then finally, to black. Despite the fact that the temperature had dropped quickly with the coming of night, the trainers and pokémon were tired enough that they decided to stop and take another break.

"Hey, Rosie! Redclaw!" Spark shouted over at the group of pokémon who were beginning to settle down. "Light us a fire. It's already getting chilly."

"Sure thing," Redclaw replied eagerly, and bounded over to his pack, which was now lying on the ground, fetching a few logs of wood and bringing them over to the jolteon.

"Hey, wait!" Justin called, watching the arcanine bound past. "We don't…have…much of that left." Seeing that the pokémon weren't listening, he gave up, merely sighing and rolling his eyes.

Soon the pokémon had a small fire going, and the weary trainers, along with the rest of the group, gathered around it. Thunder was the only one who hung back, staring at the others disdainfully.

"Wow," Spark breathed, staring up at the star-strewn sky. "A few months ago, I never would have thought I'd end up in a place like this."

"What, this boring old desert you keep complaining about?" Rosie teased.

"Well, not really," the jolteon replied. "I just mean...everything we've seen. Articuno's mountain, especially. I even met up with Justin again. I never thought that…"

"That you'd lead us into a combee hive?" Stormblade interrupted with a grin.

"Hey, don't bring that up! I was young and naive!" Spark cried.

"That was only a couple months ago."

"Yeah, well pokémon change, okay?"

Rosie had to lower her head and place her paws over her muzzle to keep from laughing.

"Okay, I've gotta hear that story," Redclaw said eagerly, shifting his paws in the dust as he settled beside the fire.

"Trust me, it's not that interesting," Spark protested.

"You'd better tell!" Rosie said with a grin as she looked at the jolteon.

"Yeah, come on, tell!" Alex urged him.

"No!"

"If you won't, I will!" Rosie shouted playfully.

From where he was resting on a heap of blankets, near where the fire was warmest, Nightshade grinned. "I think I'd like to hear this story too."

"Nightshade wants to hear it! That settles it!" Rosie cried excitedly, bounding up and down a few times. "You have to tell now."

"All right, all right," Spark conceded. "It goes like this…"

The pokémon listened, and laughed, as Spark recounted the harrowing misadventures in the combee hives. Snowcrystal and the other pokémon who had been there as well soon put in their sides of the story. Even the humans, who could not understand the words, smiled as they watched the pokémon enjoying themselves. It was refreshing to see them in such a lighthearted mood.

"I kinda wish I'd been there to see that," Wildflame chuckled.

"Yeah, you were missing out," Spark replied jokingly. "Almost becoming slaves to a tyrannical vespiquen…those were the days."

"You make it sound so dramatic," Rosie laughed.

"Hey, you were just as scared as I was!" Spark protested.

"Well, that's quite the adventure," Nightshade laughed. In spite of his annoyance, Spark beamed at the heracross, glad that the story had brought Nightshade some happiness.

"Hey, Night? Did you ever do something crazy like that when you were young?" Spark asked.

"Nah," Wildflame interrupted, pushing the jolteon's shoulder with her paw. "He's not as dumb as you! Oh come on, I'm joking!" The houndoom laughed at Spark's mock-angry expression.

"Well, actually," Nightshade began, shifting himself so his injured arm rested more comfortably on the blankets, "there was a time when I tried to steal some beedrill honey. Turned out about as well as you could imagine, and I'd flown around half the forest before I managed to lose them. I screamed the whole way, too."

Spark and Rosie burst out laughing at the image, and there were quite a few chuckles from the other pokémon as well. "Really?" Spark gasped as he managed to compose himself for a few seconds. "You?"

"Yep," Nightshade answered with an amused nod.

"Oh, what about that time Spark got stuck under the fence when we went to rescue Thunder from that old town?" Rosie asked, still grinning widely.

"Hey!" Spark cried. "That….that was…okay, pretty funny, actually. I'll admit it."

Rosie crouched down so that her body was almost flat against the desert floor. She scrabbled with her hind legs and clawed the ground with her forelegs, making an imitation of the trapped jolteon. "Help, I'm Spark! I can battle Articuno's elite flying types but I'm helpless against a fence!"

Even Spark couldn't help but laugh at the scene. The other pokémon stood up or raced around the fire eagerly, their tiredness forgotten as they each recounted amusing stories of their own.

"You know," Stormblade began once the talking had died down. "I'm really just glad all of you stuck with me for so long back there. So…thanks, for not giving up on me."

"We'd never have given up on you," Snowcrystal replied, nuzzling the scyther's leg. "We didn't want to leave you behind at that scyther forest, even though it was what you wanted. I missed you even after Katie caught you."

"I missed all of you too," Stormblade replied. "Now that I'm back, I only hope I can repay all of you for what you did for me."

"Heh, you're not the one who needs to do any repaying, Stormblade," Wildflame told him warmly. "You did your best…more than your best, it seemed like at times."

"Well, I want to help you out as much as I'm able to, now that I can," Stormblade replied. "And I want to put a stop to the Forbidden Attacks just as much as any of you."

"Speaking of which…" Rosie mused, "Spark, what did that story you told us about the Forbidden Attacks say again? It's been so long since you told us."

"The one my parents used to tell me?" Spark replied. "Well, they heard it from their trainers and I guess it's been pretty accurate so far. The name Shadowflare was right…and the story described the attacks corrupting the minds of pokémon, being harder to control…" He looked at Blazefang and flinched. "It also talked about them being sealed away into stones. I think just about everything in the story was proven to be true. It's so weird…"

"I never heard it told as a story," Redclaw began. "Did this story give you any idea where the Forbidden Attacks came from?"

"Yeah," Spark replied. "Basically, it said that there was a powerful group of pokémon long ago. They weren't legendaries or anything really special, but they ruled over some sort of sacred land. In the story, it's said that some of the young pokémon in their land just started developing the Forbidden Attacks and it got worse and worse. Then it just became chaos. The pokémon who ruled the land somehow managed to take the powers away and seal them up into stones."

"Really?" Redclaw mused. "They can be…taken away?"

"I don't know," Spark admitted. "I mean, I hope so, but I-"

"Spark, that's wrong!" Alex interrupted.

The others turned to look at the floatzel, shocked at the look of determination on her face.

"Spark, the Forbidden Attacks didn't just spring up out of nowhere!" Alex continued. "They were created. On purpose."

"What?" Spark cried. "By who?"

"A very powerful, very vengeful pokémon," the water type continued. "Or at least that's what it said in the version I heard. I had a trainer once, remember?"

"Conflicting stories…great," Blazefang muttered. "The Forbidden Attacks might have been created by a sentret for all we know."

"Yeah," Alex sighed. "It was just a story. I guess either of the ones we heard could be right. It's weird, though, because the one I heard mentioned the attacks being sealed away into stones, too."

"That is weird," Wildflame mused. "I guess the humans wanted to be consistent about some things."

"Not just consistent," Redclaw agreed, turning his head as sparks from the fire settled in his mane. "But _right._ " The others paused, watching the arcanine, who looked deep in thought. "It's strange that these stories could end up so different, yet so similar at the same time. I know the humans found several short versions of the story in the library, and they had the same basic information we already discovered to be true. Where all the stories seem to get muddled up, though…is when they talk about where the Forbidden Attacks originated from."

The pokémon pondered the thought, and Snowcrystal remembered the fruitless days of searching the Stonedust City library. They hadn't found anything useful, but there had been multiple books that had a brief description of the Forbidden Attack legend. Damian, Justin, and Katie had disregarded them because their details conflicted with each other. Snowcrystal hadn't thought about it much at the time, but now she was starting to realize how strange it really was that parts of the stories were fact, and other parts held no definite answer.

"That is weird…" she mused.

"Well, it's not going to get any less weird by sitting around here talking about it," Scytheclaw muttered. The scizor was sitting at the edge of the group, further back from the flames than the others. "Personally, I think we've been travelling too slow the past few days. We should get moving."

"Easy for you to say," Spark muttered. "You don't have to _walk._ "

"Scytheclaw's right," Wildflame sighed as she stood up. "Redclaw, put out the fire and bring those logs with us. We might still need them."

Redclaw nodded and swatted at the burning logs with his huge paws. Alex stood beside him, managing to create the smallest of water gun attacks to help him extinguish the blaze.

The trainers, who had been quietly conversing among themselves while the pokémon talked, sensed that the others were ready to leave and stood up as well. Snowcrystal proudly slipped on the pack containing the first aid kit she had carried for the entirety of the journey. The other pokémon did the same with whatever they had been carrying, and Blazefang limped back over to Fernwing as the tropius kneeled down to make the climb onto her back easier for him.

As they all got ready to leave, Rosie glanced back the way they'd come and shuddered. It was clear that it wasn't the cool air that was getting to her. "I'm still worried those…uh, cacturne...are coming after us," she muttered.

"Hey, don't worry, Rosie," Spark responded jovially. "We scared 'em off, remember? There's nothing following us, trust me."

"Yeah…okay," the ninetales replied, turning around to follow Spark as he and the others began to head off. "I sure hope you're right about that."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn wasn't sure how he'd made it through the day. At least the desert heat had faded, but he still did not dare rest, not after how fast he'd seen his pursuers start to catch up to him when he'd stopped before.

He was beginning to grow desperate; he had traveled through the desert far faster than the army usually traveled, and yet he hadn't come across anything that could help him. There was no sign of an end to the wasteland – or even landmarks – and now that night had fallen, Yenn found himself growing paranoid.

It was hard to keep track of the pokémon following him. He wasn't sure how far behind they were at the moment; he could often make out their shapes moving in front of stars, but he had little way of telling how close they were.

In spite of all that had happened, and though nothing could ever make him go back to serving under Cyclone, he found himself missing the comfort of the army, where food and water was brought to him whenever he wanted, and when pokémon would do what they could to warm him up during the nightly chill.

It was uncomfortably cold, something that had surprised him. He wasn't sure if it got colder the further out in the desert he was, or if the previous night had just been milder. It still struck him as strange; everything he'd heard about deserts had told him about how hot they were, but he had heard nothing about how cold it could get at night.

The things he'd heard about deserts had also told him that plants grew there. Tough, spiny plants that would be of no use to most pokémon, let alone a carnivore like him, but it was something Yenn was starting to wish he could see. He wished that he could find something – anything – that could break up the monotony of the desert. Something that gave him a sign he was actually getting somewhere, so he could at least say that he'd passed a certain cactus or rock formation. But everything looked the same, making him feel like he wasn't actually going anywhere and that he'd been staring at the same bit of ground since he'd begun. He was almost starting to wonder if he was going crazy.

A strange smell reached him, interrupting his questioning thoughts. He tried to bring himself back to full alertness as he scanned the surrounding area, but it was a hopeless feat. He almost missed the source of the smell as he flew past it in the darkness.

He headed over to it, peering down at what had once been a trapinch. It was missing two of its legs, and what was left of it had certainly been festering in the desert heat.

Yenn jerked back. The smell completely disgusted him, and he knew that all his instincts were screaming at him to leave it, that he needed to eat fresh prey and stay well away from carrion.

He also knew that he couldn't keep going the way he had been without some source of food. His energy was completely spent, and he had been going on sheer willpower for more than half the day. He needed energy from somewhere; he wasn't going to keep ahead of Cyclone's pokémon without food, and if he didn't find something, he'd soon be unable to fly at all. He knew he was left with little choice; if he was likely to die either way, he decided the better option was to at least try and get some sort of nourishment.

Reluctantly, he landed beside the trapinch carcass and bit into it. He forced himself to swallow every mouthful and willed himself not to be sick.

The thought that Cyclone's pokémon were still behind him, likely even closer with all the resting he'd had to do since the sun set, made him want nothing more than to keep flying, as painfully exhausting as it had become. He remembered what Solus had said, back in the army on the night Articuno was killed. The espeon had threatened to torture him, Forbidden Attack or not, and Yenn felt a new burst of panic at the thought of it.

He knew, in the back of his mind, that it was probably an empty threat, but thinking about what those pokémon could do to him gave him enough fear that, as soon as he had finished eating the last of the trapinch's remains, he launched himself into the sky again. He had to remind himself not to try to fly too fast, to conserve what little energy he had, but it was hard not to imagine that the army pokémon would catch up to him if he dared slow for even a moment. He hoped that at least the small meal he'd found would give him enough strength to go a little further.

...Yet as the night hours wore on, Yenn found himself growing weaker rather than stronger. It wasn't even the rotten food that weakened him most; he knew that it was lack of water and inability to rest that was starting to bring him down. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to fly, but there was nothing he could do but keep going.

After what felt like an eternity, Yenn noticed that the sky was brightening. He dreaded the coming of a new day, and the heat that would come along with it. He had traveled so far, and he could only hope he would make it to the end of the desert before the worst of the heat set in. He didn't think he would make it through the day otherwise.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal knew that they were getting closer and closer to the arch Katie had seen on the television in the city. By Damian's estimates, they would arrive sometime the next day.

The rising sun sent splashes of color across the sky, which made the growlithe smile. In spite of the dreariness of the landscape, the sky had looked beautiful every single day they'd walked through the desert.

She felt strange about the journey, however. In all the time they'd been walking, they still had no idea what they would do once they reached the cliffs and found the arch Katie was looking for. They didn't know how hard it would be to activate the portal – or whatever it was – that might lead them to a legendary. They weren't even completely sure there _was_ a legendary involved at all. The growlithe suddenly started to feel doubts, stronger than ever now that she knew they only had a single day's worth of walking ahead of them.

She noticed Stormblade walking nearby, and bounded over to him. "Stormblade, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," the scyther replied happily, giving the growlithe a pleasant nod.

"Well…" the growlithe began, keeping her voice down as she walked side by side with the tall bug type. "Do you really think we'll learn anything from this? I mean...is this what we should be doing?"

"What do you mean?" Stormblade asked.

"I mean…I'm just wondering if trying to find the legendaries is what we're supposed to do. Maybe we need to be doing something else."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. I'm just worried this isn't going to help us."

"Snowcrystal," Stormblade began, "we aren't 'supposed' to do anything. All we can do is think things out and try to find answers. And personally, I think this idea of Katie's was a good one. If we can find a legendary, we're more likely to learn from them than from some library. We'll find a way to work something out, somehow. We didn't come all this way for nothing."

"I guess not…" Snowcrystal began with a small smile.

Before Stormblade could reply, a screech from Katie's pidgeot cut him off. The winged pokémon circled lower, but didn't land, flying in a loop around the traveling party instead.

"I can see it!" Katie was shouting excitedly. "Straight ahead. The desert just drops off. We're almost to the cliffs, and I think we can make it there by tomorrow morning. Then we'll reach the arch."

Most of the pokémon looked so relieved that they didn't seem concerned about what they would do when they got there. The mystery of the stone arch was a puzzle they could worry about the next morning.

"Well, whatever's on the other side of that arch better have grass or something soft," Spark muttered, lifting a scratched paw.

"Or water!" Alex cried hopefully.

As the pokémon cheered, Snowcrystal began to feel a sort of apprehension. She couldn't pinpoint why, and she wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the arch mystery or the rumored legendary at all. Some sixth sense was telling her that something else was wrong.

She glanced at Stormblade, who at first smiled back at her, but then paused, noticing her worried expression. The scyther leaned down closer to her while the other pokémon were distracted.

"Something wrong?"

"I don't know," the growlithe whispered honestly. "I just…have a bad feeling about something. And no, it isn't what we were talking about before."

"I've been getting it too," a quiet voice interrupted.

The two of them turned to see Rosie, who was crouched not far from them. Neither Snowcrystal nor Stormblade had even realized she'd been listening.

"I just want to get out of this desert," the ninetales anxiously continued. "It gives me the creeps. I feel like something bad is going to happen. I almost wish we didn't have to rest during the afternoon. I just want to put this place behind us."

"Well, we haven't run into any trouble yet, have we?" Snowcrystal replied, trying to sound hopeful and comforting, the way Stormblade had been for her. "And Katie can see for miles around. I don't think she's seen anything, or she would have told us."

"Maybe," Rosie muttered, "but how do we know that's going to last? I'm telling you, something's wrong here."

Stormblade looked at Rosie, realizing that the conversation he'd been starting to have with Snowcrystal must have aggravated the ninetales's worry. He had noticed her acting nervously before, especially when someone mentioned the cacturne.

"Is it about those cacturne that were following us?" Stormblade asked. "Or…Thunder?" he added more slowly.

"No," Rosie mumbled in response. "I guess Thunder hasn't done anything wrong, and it's not the cacturne, it's…I don't know. Maybe you're right. But I'll be happier when we get out of here."

"As will we all," Stormblade replied as the three of them turned to follow the others.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The high temperatures of the afternoon were upon them, sooner than any of the journeying pokémon had hoped. Thankfully, they still had plenty of water, and would not be running out anytime soon. Katie ordered a halt, and the trainers went about their routines of setting up the tents to provide shade from the sun.

"Hm…pokégear still works," Justin said contentedly after the tents had been set up, browsing the features on Katie's device as he sat in the shade. The pokégear didn't provide a map of the lands north of Stonedust, but looking at it somehow made Justin feel better about everything.

"It should work for a while," Katie replied, flipping the switch on one of the portable fans they'd brought. "Hopefully going through that portal won't scramble it. I know teleportation wouldn't, but if this has something to do with a legendary…who knows." She picked up the book she had brought with her, going over the map of the desert she had found within it.

Justin didn't reply, still focused on the pokégear in his hands. "So, uh...you don't think this legendary can rewrite people's memories? Or...fix a library?" he mumbled nervously.

"I don't know," Katie replied. "We'll figure out something about the police, though."

"It's not like I can just turn myself in and hope for the best," Justin continued. "They'd take Spark away if I did. I'm not supposed to have pokémon-"

"I'll catch Spark for you, if it comes to that," Katie interrupted. "His poké ball may not be registered, but the machine to deactivate it will still work. I can take him to the city and release him first. Then give him back to you once everything clears up."

Justin looked at her in surprise, seeming at a loss for what to say. "...Thanks," he finally whispered.

"I think the pokémon were telling the truth though," Katie continued, causing Justin to glance at her in curiosity. "I mean about the reason you lost your license. I don't think Stormblade killed the girl. I've been watching how he acts and he doesn't seem like a pokémon that would murder a human for no reason. Just the opposite, actually. Something else had to have happened. Maybe...if we can figure out what, you could be a trainer again."

A hopeful look came to Justin's eyes for a split second before he forced it away, turning to Katie with a skeptical look. "Well, how are we going to do that?"

"Did the people in your town ever examine Stormblade closely? Have a powerful psychic type read his memories?"

"It doesn't work that way," Justin muttered. "Pokémon can sometimes create false memories, and it takes a really strong psychic pokémon to even find them, let alone with any real accuracy. I mean, sure, there are some that can, but there's no way to prove to anyone else that it's accurate. And even _they_ get things wrong sometimes. It's not exact or easy enough to use for things like this."

"Still, didn't they at least have a police pokémon talk to Stormblade himself and get his side of the story?"

"No," Justin replied.

"You'd think that with something that serious-"

"Nobody _cared,_ okay?" Justin shot back. "Nobody cared that I'd lose my license and my pokémon. Everyone was too focused on the girl that died. I mean, I know that was horrific, but..."

"But what?"

Justin sighed. "I grew up in a small town. You know I was back there when it happened. I didn't know the girl's family but I think they had a lot of power there. So no, the police didn't question my pokémon. I don't even think they investigated it properly. The girl's father wanted my license gone and he saw to it that it happened." He paused, taking a shaky breath. "The police listened to him."

Katie was silent, and the few pokémon in their tent that weren't asleep did nothing but give Justin a glance or two.

"That's not what bothers me, though," Justin continued. "The thing is...I think you're wrong. I think the scyther did murder the girl."

"Why?" Katie asked.

"I know he's been fine since he came back from the hospital," Justin continued, "but I mean...that's kind of a scyther's instinct, right? To prey on the weak? Maybe he's finally got it under control now, but back then..."

"Just like it's a jolteon's instinct to zap small bird pokémon and eat them?" Katie interrupted. "Did Spark ever do that to someone else's pokémon, when you guys were walking through cities or towns? Somehow I doubt he did."

"Not the same thing," Justin muttered, turning away from her.

"Yeah it is," Katie replied. "All pokémon have instincts, but that doesn't mean they don't know right from wrong, or that they have to act on them. You had Stormblade a long while before the incident, right? It sounds like nothing ever really happened before that day. And even that other scyther, Thunder, hasn't hurt anyone. I really think this is all in your head, this stupid irrational fear of scyther thing. If you don't want to try to get your trainer license back..."

"I do, all right?" Justin snapped. "I'm just not sure _how_ I'm supposed to do that. Look, if you think the scyther's innocent and can prove that, then great. I'm just not so sure he _wasn't_ guilty. Now can we stop talking about this?"

"All right, fine," Katie sighed.

From the next tent over, Snowcrystal heard the two humans getting ready to sleep. Her own tent was fairly crowded, so she had offered to sleep near the opening, where it wasn't as cool. The past few days, the other pokémon had always offered her a nice sleeping spot, and she thought it was time she returned the favor.

She lay by the tent entrance, feeling the hot breeze sweep through her fur. She thought about her tribe, back on the mountain. She hoped there was still enough snow to sustain them, or that their leader had found a way to a better place. As much as she wished she could help them, she knew she was of more use to them here, where she could try to help find a way to protect the lands from the Forbidden Attacks. She would need to find a way if she wanted her tribe to be safe in the long run.

In the distance, she watched the shimmering heat waves as they flickered across the desert ground. The temperature was still climbing, and would steadily rise until it finally began to cool off in the evening. Snowcrystal covered her face with a paw as she turned away, shielding her eyes from the brightness. She still felt the heat scorch her back, heat that when combined with her own internal fire made her feel very uncomfortable, reminding her that she wasn't like the other fire types. She curled up, glad that she could at least sleep it off as she listened to the sound of the wind sending pebbles rolling across the ground, back in the direction she and the others had come from.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn had traveled so far and so fast that he had managed to keep ahead of his pursuers for almost two days. But in the afternoon of his second day in the desert, after flying for nearly two days without water, the yanmega's strength was truly running out.

His mouth and throat were completely dry, and his tongue was so swollen he could hardly speak, not that he had a reason to speak at all; he was completely alone. He had desperately searched for water during his near-constant flight, but had found not even a drop. At one point earlier that day, he had even grown desperate enough to try to drink his own blood by piercing one of his legs with his fangs.

He was moving slowly now, his wings flickering at a fraction of their normal speed. His head hung, and he was flying so low to the ground that his tail dragged in the dust. He no longer had the strength to use it for balance, so he kept drifting listlessly to the side. After a few minutes of this, he would realize it was happening and correct himself, but it was never long before he started to drift again.

His vision, usually so sharp and clear, was muddled and blurry, and he was having trouble focusing on any one thing. He couldn't even pay attention to the shapes of the pokémon following him in the distance, and he was no longer sure how close they were.

A blurred movement to one side caught his eye, and he managed to force his exhausted mind to focus just long enough to see a lone vibrava fluttering past him, not even paying him the slightest heed.

Yenn couldn't even summon up the strength to try to catch it. He could barely manage to keep going forward and force his wings to keep beating. He thought about calling out to the vibrava, wondering if it knew where water was or even where he could go, but when he tried, he couldn't get his mouth to form words. All that came out was a wheezing gasp, and the vibrava had already flown far past him.

Yenn forced it to the back of his mind. He told himself that he was sure to find some sort of water or shelter soon, and that all he had to do was keep trying. He knew Cyclone's pokémon had to be catching up, and whenever he could summon up the strength, he would fly a bit faster in short bursts, still heading toward the distant horizon.

He carried on in that way for several hours, until the sun began to set and the temperature dropped. _'I made it...'_ he told himself. _'I made it one more day...just a little farther...and I'll see something...'_

He focused on the setting sun, and the promising glimmer of some relief from the heat. Even as he did so, a part of him still knew it was likely hopeless. The army pokémon were sure to catch up with him, and he knew he probably didn't have much time before they did.

As the sky grew dark, he told himself that it would soon be easier again, that he wouldn't have to worry about the sun, but it did little to bring his hopes up.

He knew he must have been flying for a while longer in some sort of half-conscious state, because the next thing he knew, the sky was almost completely black, only a thin sliver of reddish orange where the sun had been. It was already much cooler, but he could tell it was too late for that to help him much.

As he focused on the fading sliver of light, he kept having to jerk himself awake. He tried to keep his attention on the way ahead, unsure if he could make out the smudges of landmarks or if his mind was playing tricks on him. Then, when the light of the sun had almost completely faded, Yenn's entire vision started to fade to black. Even the stars disappeared. He couldn't tell if he was moving his wings anymore, and barely felt it when he struck the ground.

In that brief moment, his thoughts drifted to the army pokémon still trailing him, closer than ever.

' _All right,'_ he thought bitterly. _'Fine, you win. I give up.'_

With that thought, he faded into unconsciousness.

_To be continued..._


	69. Out of Time

The first thing Yenn noticed was the sound of voices.

He then noticed that he was lying on his side on dry, rough ground, his wings splayed out at odd angles. He could hear the voices murmuring quietly around him, and he strained to hear what they were saying. His vision hadn't come back yet, so he couldn't tell who was speaking, but their muffled words started to become clearer.

"...What is it...?"

"Some sort of vibrava?"

"That's no vibrava...I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's huge!"

"Is it dead yet?"

Yenn's legs twitched as his vision gradually started to come back into focus, and smears of color turned into a detailed picture. The first thing he realized was that he couldn't have passed out for long; there was still a hint of light in the sky from the direction of the setting sun. The second thing he realized was that there was a group of pokémon standing around him.

These pokémon were certainly not part of the group sent from Cyclone. They were tall, green grass types with spiny diamond shapes covering their bodies. They stood shorter than Yenn's body was long, but from his position on the ground, they seemed like towering monsters. As the yanmega watched the strangers, several pairs of piercing yellow eyes stared back at him from black sockets.

Yenn somehow managed to recall the name of the pokémon...cacturne. They stood in a ring around him, some of them still whispering quietly to one another. He lifted his head, prompting a gasp from one of the cacturne who stood closest. Yenn focused on that one as he opened his mouth to speak. However, try as he might, all that came out was a short series of weak, unintelligible noises that didn't even resemble words.

"It's...alive," one of the cacturne muttered in astonishment as she turned to another. "You said it was dead."

"I thought it was," the other answered.

"It's on its way out," a third cacturne said as he gestured to another, one larger and more burly looking than the rest. "Kill it."

Yenn watched as the tough-looking cacturne lifted his arm, firing a series of small needles in his direction. The yanmega was powerless to move as he felt them pierce through one of his wings and lodge themselves into the dirt beneath. It came as such a shock in his disoriented state that it took a moment for him to start feeling sharp, stinging pain in the places where the spines had pierced his wing membrane.

At first, he wasn't sure how such a fairly weak attack was meant to kill him, but then he realized that the cacturne was probably just trying to see if he would fight back. He wanted to get up and show them that he was dangerous, that they would be better off leaving him alone, but he didn't think he had the strength.

The cacturne fired the spines again, and this time they struck him in the side, a few of them managing to penetrate his carapace. This time he felt the pain instantly, but he couldn't do more than let out a weak noise that could hardly be called a cry and scrabble his legs in the dirt.

"Not much of a reaction," the cacturne who'd attacked him stated, this time with a confidence in his voice that Yenn hadn't heard from the others.

"I told you. It's dying. Just finish it," one of the cacturne's companions urged.

Yenn watched as the burly cacturne strode toward him. The dark green diamond patches on the grass type's body glowed with a bright light, elongating into massive spines. The cacturne walked toward him purposefully; any wariness he'd previously had was gone.

To Yenn's surprise, he didn't feel scared. He knew these pokémon had found him in the desert while they were out looking for prey. It made sense, in a logical way. That was how the wild worked. Yenn found that, if anything, he just felt calm about it. Brief memories flashed through the yanmega's mind of his own hunts. He had eaten many pokémon, and in doing so, those pokémon had given him life. Now it was simply his turn to complete the cycle.

A part of him wanted to accept it and let that be the end of his journey. He was so tired…and the desert stretched on seemingly forever; there was little chance that he would get out. In comparison to dragging himself through the wasteland endlessly, tormented by thirst, hunger, and exhaustion, maybe death wasn't so bad. At least he could say he tried.

But another part of him did not want everything to stop there. It wanted to keep going. Yenn wondered if that was just his survival instinct going into overdrive, even when the situation was hopeless, but it felt like something more than that. He wanted to get away, so that Cyclone would never get his claws on his Forbidden Attack. He wanted to try to find a new, better place for himself. He wanted to find a way to help his two friends back in the army, if he ever could. He didn't want to die. And he figured that if he was going to pass on in such a horrible place, he was not going to do so willingly.

His eyes scanned the waiting pokémon, trying to muster up what little energy he had as the big cacturne stepped closer, walking with slow, calculating movements. For a brief moment, Yenn considered using his Lifedrain attack, remembering the burst of energy it had given him, but he pushed the thought aside. He trusted Ashend's words, and he knew that if he used the attack, the energy wouldn't last him long. Maybe, he thought, he'd use the Forbidden Attack as a last resort, but not before then.

As he watched the cacturne, he reminded himself of his species' legacy. They were apex predators, successful, cunning hunters. Yenn did not usually hunt grass types, but he had eaten pansage before, and he knew his kind were capable of bringing down prey as large as the cacturne. He wasn't going to die; he was going to turn the tables.

As the cacturne stood near the yanmega's head and readied himself to use his attack, Yenn unleashed what little energy he had managed to store, launching himself into the air and toward his would-be killer. His jaws opened and he aimed for the pokémon's head, but due to his weakness, his movements were too slow. The grass type dodged, and Yenn felt his teeth sink into the cacturne's arm instead, barely missing the large glowing spines.

But what came out of the wound was not blood, but _sand._

Yenn jerked himself backwards, releasing the cacturne immediately. He started to cough, barely managing to keep himself airborne as he spat out sand. _'I can't eat these things!'_ he cried in his own head, feeling dizzy from shock.

The cacturne he'd bitten screamed in agony, the glowing spikes retreating back into the diamond shapes on his body. He stumbled backward as the others all looked to Yenn with newfound horror. For a moment none of them moved; they all just stared at him as he watched.

"That's no vibrava, that thing's probably a _bug type!_ " one of them shouted fearfully. "Get back!"

Yenn watched as the circle of cacturne enlarged, each of the grass types trying to put more distance between themselves and him. He flared his wings out in an attempt to look more threatening and made a warning snapping motion with his jaws. Though he was hardly in any condition to fight, the cacturne had no idea what to expect from a creature like him, and it did the trick. The cacturne broke their circle and moved together in a tight group, surrounding the injured one and leaving the way clear for him.

Realizing that he'd won his survival, for at least a little longer, gave Yenn a small bit of hope. He was still somehow ahead of the army pokémon, and he had survived the cacturne's attack. He felt ready to keep trying.

But as he flew away from the huddled group of cacturne, he heard one of them say, "Calm down, everyone. We'll just wait until it's dead..." Before he could make out any replies, he was already out of earshot.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn carried on through the night, not entirely sure how he was willing his body to keep going. He knew that part of it was because fear had set in again, fear of both the cacturne and, more strongly, of Cyclone's pokémon. He didn't know if he was thinking clearly, could no longer even be sure he was heading in the right direction. He was operating almost entirely on instinct, an instinct that told him to keep fleeing from those that wished him harm. It was the only thought or feeling he could make any sense of.

As the yanmega pushed his exhausted body to keep flying, he started to catch glimpses of pokémon in the desert, though none of them were close enough to see clearly in the dark. He couldn't even be sure what species they were.

He stared into the darkness in a panic, wondering why the pokémon were not coming close to him. Were they too scared of his Forbidden Attack?

He forced himself to move faster, realizing that some of the pokémon were already a lot closer. He was sure that, for a moment, he had seen the claws of a staraptor bearing down on him and ready to tear at his wings or eyes.

Somehow, a few of the cacturne had gotten ahead of him and were waiting, staring at him with their piercing yellow eyes. He changed course, trying to fly around them, but found another group in his way. This time, they didn't look afraid. He turned again, fear lending him a strength he hadn't thought he'd had as he picked up speed and raced into the darkness.

More flying types were gaining on him from behind, and he could see running pokémon, swift fire types like arcanine and rapidash, closing in on him from either side. They seemed to be working with the cacturne now; he still caught glimpses of the hostile grass types in the darkness, even as he was flying faster. He tried to shout at them, in some vain hope that they would leave him alone, or that they would fear him, or somehow decide to show him mercy. But he found that he still couldn't speak, could hardly even cry out. None of the pokémon chasing him down seemed to notice his efforts at all.

' _Stop...'_ he desperately pleaded at them in his mind. _'Stop...stop, STOP!'_

He was sure he was about to feel the agony of fire, or feel talons ripping apart his wings or gouging at his eyes. He could see the pokémon, still gaining on him, getting closer and closer.

Something stirred inside him, a feeling he had first recognized nearly two months ago. It was a raw power, a power that he knew was coming from his own Forbidden Attack, the power he had first felt when he'd touched his stone and learned the attack's name. This time however, it was not his excitement, or curiosity, or even his free will that summoned it. It had appeared without his bidding. It seemed to feed his fear, making it grow stronger and fiercer until it was like a raging inferno, forcing aside all rational thought. His mind was screaming at him to use his attack, that it was the only way to save himself. To use it or they would hurt him, tear him to pieces bit by bit until he was begging for death.

He thought he saw a blast of light, coming from some fire pokémon right behind him, but he wasn't close enough to feel any heat.

Ashend's words seemed distant. The strange power was coursing through his body in a way he'd never felt it before, willing him to use Lifedrain, to kill all the pokémon around him. He had to...he had to or he would be tormented again. _'Was this what Ashend meant by losing control?'_

Some of Cyclone's pokémon were right _ahead_ of him now, and he almost stopped. There was no way they could...

He watched a rapidash's hoof come down toward his head.

' _STOP! ...This...this isn't real...'_

He watched as the flaming horse in front him seemed to disappear almost completely, as if it had simply run straight through him like a ghost. He watched the others, realizing that they took no consistent shapes; what was an arcanine one moment turned to a rapidash a few paces further back the next. The pokémon he saw around him were nothing but illusions, his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

With that realization, his fear left him. He pushed what remained of the urge to use his Forbidden Attack away.

He forced himself to stop for a moment, hovering in place. There were no other pokémon he could see besides the wavering illusions, which seemed far less vivid than they had before. He was alone.

Yenn waited for a few moments. The overpowering drive to use his Forbidden Attack was gone. He had managed to fight it back. The hallucinations, however, still remained, but he was no longer afraid of them. Deeply unsettled, for sure, but not afraid. As he continued onward, they gradually faded from terrifying monsters to more benign images, things Yenn did not have the energy to pay much attention to. After a short while, they faded almost entirely.

Yenn couldn't see any of the real cacturne, nor a sign of his determined pursuers. He wasn't sure how far behind they really were, but his vision seemed clearer now, so he decided to trust it. He fixed his attention on the hundreds of stars covering the night sky, trying to point out patterns in them to keep himself as awake and alert as possible.

It worked for some amount of time, but the yanmega could soon tell that his exhaustion was winning out. Before long, he realized that he couldn't focus on one single star anymore; they all looked like a blur to him. Instead, he put all his mental energy into willing himself to keep his wings beating.

Up ahead, the line between land and sky was blurring, and he found it hard to even tell where the ground was. He knew his dizziness was returning, but he was afraid that if he stopped, he would never be able to force himself to get up and fly again.

He didn't know how long he kept flying through the night. At one point, when he was trying to fight through the haze filling his mind, something caught his attention. There was what looked like a strange pale mist to one side of him, one that formed swirls and patterns as it was moved by the wind.

He was too disoriented to see it clearly, and he had moments where his vision would go completely black, but he soon began to realize that the mist was surrounding him. And gradually, the shapes of pokémon began to form from it.

Yenn was having trouble seeing what they were. Even with his all-reaching vision, he felt like he couldn't look directly at them. Whenever he tried to focus on one, it would be gone. More out of desperation for some sort of distraction than anything, Yenn tried to figure out what species of pokémon they were. _Were they ghost types?_

However, though he still couldn't look at them directly, he realized that their shapes were far different from a ghost type pokémon. These weren't ghost types at all, and as Yenn puzzled over the fact, a strange thought struck him.

Either the strange apparitions didn't exist, he wondered, or they were the spirits of pokémon left to wander the desert where they had died, waiting for him to join them.

Yenn found himself wondering if they had been lost like he was, thinking each day that they would surely reach the desert's end, or find water, if they just went a little further. And, like him, they had been wrong.

He shook himself. _'Stop it,'_ he thought. _'There's nothing really there.'_

He could hardly even be surprised at how irrational he had been thinking. He knew his senses were slipping. He decided to let himself think whatever he wanted, as long as he kept flying. He was about to let his thoughts wander back to the illusions, but something else caught his attention instead.

This time, it wasn't a hallucination brought on by exhaustion. What he saw was real.

The sky was brightening.

The heat was coming, and Yenn could see nothing but dark desert in front of him. He had covered much more distance in the past few days than a walking pokémon could, and yet it still did not seem like he was anywhere near the end.

He thought of Ashend and Itora, the pokémon who had helped him escape Cyclone, and decided that, if nothing else, he would keep trying for them. He would keep going until he made it out or it killed him.

As he looked at the sky, he knew that it was likely the last time he would ever see the stars. However, Yenn vowed that he would do everything he could to try to make it to the next night.

 

  
**-ooo-**

"There it is," Snowcrystal whispered to herself as she stared ahead. After several tiring days of walking through the desert, the growlithe wasn't sure how to feel when she could finally see the arch up ahead of her, the morning sun shining down on it.

It looked like the land simply _stopped_ past a certain point, forming a jagged edge that dropped off into seemingly nothingness. She and the others were almost there, but the sight still unnerved her. She suddenly wondered how they were supposed to get through the portal...and where they would end up after they did.

They were currently walking through an area that held the first real landmarks Snowcrystal had seen in the otherwise barren desert. All around them, large boulders, several of which towered over their heads, jutted up from the ground. Snowcrystal wondered if pokémon lived there, but she didn't see any sign of them as she followed Redclaw.

The boulders surrounding them had been blocking their view of the desert's edge and the arch for a while, but they had all been so encouraged by the prospect of shade that they had practically raced to the large rocks. They had made their way through the towering structures until the edge of the desert and the arch were in sight. Though even now that they could see their destination, they were almost reluctant to head toward it. The rocks provided much better shade than their tents did.

"I dunno, maybe we should stay here and rest for a while," Justin suggested. "It'll start getting really hot soon, and we could set up the tents under the rocks and get to the arch in the evening."

"But it's right _there,_ " Katie cried, pointing. "It won't even take us fifteen minutes to walk."

"Justin has a good point," Damian stated. "We can set up camp here and go to the arch, then just head back when it gets too hot."

"I'm not wasting time setting up the tents," Katie argued. "I want to make use of the time we have before the sun gets too high, so hopefully we won't have to worry about staying here another day."

"I don't know if it's going to be that easy," Justin sighed. "Right now, we don't even know where to start."

"We'll set up camp here later," Katie said firmly. "Now let's not waste any more time and go see what we can find."

"Uh, hey, Arien?" Blazefang asked, still resting on the back of Fernwing, even though the tropius had already landed. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather stay here. I've had enough flying for quite a while...I don't need to be dragged back and forth from that arch before you actually know what you're doing."

"I'd rather stay here too," Wildflame agreed before Arien could reply. "I could use a nap. Tell the humans to go on ahead."

The alakazam looked to the two houndoom with annoyance, but reluctantly nodded. "Very well, then." He turned to Damian, sending him the psychic message, before turning back to the pokémon. "Anyone else who would rather wait here?"

"I will," a voice stated firmly, and the other pokémon turned to see Thunder, who was staring the alakazam down. "I don't care about this stupid 'quest' of yours. And I want Nightshade to stay here too."

"Thunder, he's injured," Snowcrystal protested. "He'll be much more comfortable in the poké ball-"

"I didn't ask you," Thunder growled.

"Wait a minute..." Blazefang stammered worriedly. "Don't let _her_ stay behind alone with us!"

"She's not going to hurt you!" Snowcrystal protested, stamping her small paw on the ground.

"Why are we splitting up?" Rosie asked nervously, glancing around at the others. "We shouldn't split up!"

"We won't be far," Wildflame told her. "We'll just be behind some of these rocks."

"But still-"

"Did you not hear me?" Thunder growled at Arien. "Tell them to let Nightshade out."

"I will tell them to _ask_ Nightshade if he wants to stay," Arien replied.

While Wildflame tried to reassure Rosie, Damian sent out Nightshade and began to explain the situation to him. Snowcrystal felt that Rosie was right, in a way, and that splitting up was a bad idea. What if something happened, or what if Nightshade's condition got worse while they were away?

Finally Damian stood up, motioning to the group. "Nightshade and a few of the others are going to stay behind," he announced. "The rest of you, come with us." He held up a poké ball. "Fernwing, return!"

The tropius looked grateful for a rest, and she gave Damian a thankful nod before the beam of red light struck her and drew her back into the poké ball.

As Damian quickly set up a comfortable bed of blankets for Nightshade in a cool spot in the shade of one of the rocks, Snowcrystal turned to the heracross. "Nightshade, you don't have to-"

"Snowcrystal, it's okay," Nightshade reassured her. "Truthfully, I was really wanting some fresh air. I'm still not used to being in a poké ball. It's much cooler by these rocks too; it'll be nice to take a nap here."

"Okay," Snowcrystal replied, walking beside Nightshade as Wildflame helped him limp to the bed that had been set up. "But if you need anything, one of us can go get the humans."

"Of course. Thank you," Nightshade replied.

"Hey, all you pokémon!" Justin called from a short distance ahead. "We're going!"

The pokémon who weren't choosing to stay behind stood up and followed the humans. Stormblade turned his head to look at Snowcrystal, seeing that the growlithe had not moved from the rock Wildflame and Nightshade had vanished around. "You coming?" he asked.

"No, I think I'll stay here with them," Snowcrystal replied.

"Want me to stay?" Stormblade asked.

"No, we're okay," Snowcrystal said. "The others might need a lot of help figuring out what to do about that portal."

"All right," Stormblade responded with a smile. "We'll be back soon."

As the main group left, Snowcrystal realized that Rosie had stopped. The ninetales nervously glanced over her shoulder, then slowly trotted back to the five pokémon who had stayed behind.

"Actually...I'm going to stay with you guys," Rosie said quietly as she caught up with Snowcrystal and the two of them walked into the cluster of boulders.

"Well, the more the merrier, right?" Wildflame laughed as they came into view. "Let the others go stand out in the heat for a while. We deserve a rest." Once Nightshade was settled, Wildflame lay down in the shade herself, stretching out all four of her legs. "I'm getting some sleep. Wake me if they find anything."

Blazefang gave Thunder a nervous glance, then lay beside Wildflame and curled up. Thunder watched Nightshade until she was sure he was comfortable, then turned away from him, walking along the edge of a line of boulders.

The rocks blocked the hot wind, and Snowcrystal was glad to finally have some proper shade. Wildflame was right; it seemed like the perfect place for a nap before the heat of the day really set in.

Only Rosie was unsure what to do, and she fiddled with her paws nervously, swirling dirt around with her claws.

"Rosie, what's wrong?" Snowcrystal asked.

"I just...hate this place," the ninetales said softly. "I've had a really bad feeling the past few days. I hope we can get out of here soon. I didn't even want to stay behind, I just-"

"Hey, where are you going?" Wildflame cried, and Snowcrystal and Rosie realized that she was shouting at Thunder, who had started to wander off.

"Away from you," the scyther spat back, clearly annoyed.

"What did you want Nightshade here for if you didn't even want to be around him?" Wildflame growled in annoyance.

"I wanted him away from the humans," Thunder replied simply, not bothering to elaborate. "And now I need to think."

"Fine, whatever," Wildflame muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Thunder turned around to glare at Wildflame with what looked like hatred. "If you do anything to harm Nightshade-"

"What on earth would I want to hurt Nightshade for?" Wildflame shouted back, shocked.

"Thunder, relax," Nightshade called to her from his bed of blankets. "I know that Wildflame wouldn't hurt me. And it's all right, I'm fine. You've done a lot for me and I don't need any help right now. Go and walk around and think for as long as you need."

Thunder seemed satisfied with the answer, and gave Nightshade a small smile. Then she turned and headed off, vanishing around a cluster of boulders.

"She'll be fine," Nightshade told Wildflame. "There's not really anywhere to get lost around here."

"Yeah," Snowcrystal agreed. "The only place any pokémon could hide is in this cluster of boulders. And it's not exactly very big." She looked around at the place, remembering that it had only taken them a few minutes to pass from the first boulder to the last. "Plus she's got wings."

The pokémon settled down to rest, too tired to discuss Thunder – or anything else – any further. Snowcrystal wriggled out of the straps of the first aid kit she carried, then settled down by Rosie, giving the ninetales a few reassuring licks on the side of her face. Rosie smiled and muttered a small thanks before closing her eyes.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Solus, riding on the back of a tropius, was ahead of the main group, along with some of his fastest fliers and runners. They were serving as the scouts for the time being, always keeping an eye on the distant form of the yanmega they were chasing. Why Yenn hadn't dropped dead yet, Solus had no idea, but it was beginning to wear on his patience.

He had pushed his group of army pokémon much harder than usual, even with the rests they had taken during the night when Yenn was too exhausted to move fast anymore. They had covered so much distance, and yet Solus still managed to be surprised when he found that he was close enough to see the edge of the desert itself, and the sheer drop down into what looked like grassy plains.

"You!" the espeon shouted over to a swellow flying near his tropius mount. "I need you to be a messenger. There's going to be a change of plans. Tell the other scouts to stop."

The swellow nodded obediently, and soon Solus had the leading group of pokémon, around nineteen in total, on the ground and waiting for his words.

"All right," Solus called to him. "As I'm sure you can see by now, the desert ends in a sheer drop and it looks like there are rivers in the plains beyond. If Yenn gets down there and finds water, he'll be harder to fight and more of you are going to get killed by his attack. Now listen," he continued, his gaze scanning the faces of each of the pokémon grouped around him. "The runners won't be able to make it down those cliffs. That means that you-" He looked at around at all the pokémon with wings. "-Will be first in line to take his Forbidden Attack if you're the only ones that can follow him. I want everyone here to remember that the more pokémon we have to fight him, the smaller chance it'll be _you_ in particular that's killed."

The pokémon watched him in sullen silence, only the ones with high rank looking calm.

"And if the runners don't give it their best," Solus added, peering at the arcanine, rapidash, and zebstrika in front of him, "their death will be much less quick. So if I were you, I'd take your chances with the yanmega."

One of the zebstrika, for a split moment, looked as if he were going to try to bolt. But he stayed still, knowing that the higher ranking pokémon were the only ones that carried food and water. Solus shot him a glare, hoping to remind him that he and the others of lower rank were outnumbered. The zebstrika averted his eyes.

Solus ignored the worried mutterings of the other pokémon as he ordered the tropius to take him up into the air. The swellow followed him, looking to Solus in case the espeon had any more orders.

"Head back and tell the main group the new plan," Solus began, angling his head toward the larger group of army pokémon. They were still some distance behind, having been allowed to take a much more leisurely pace after realizing that their target would soon be dead. "We don't let Yenn reach the cliff. We kill him _now._ "

With a harsh cry, the tropius launched himself higher into the air, and the pokémon in Solus's scouting group raced forward at full speed. The swellow swerved around and headed back, ready to give the news to the main part of Solus's small army.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn had been focusing on the cluster of boulders ever since the early morning. He did not know what lay beyond it, if anything other than endless desert did, but the thought of shade had given him a new determination he never thought he'd have again. He made it his sole focus; _just get to the rocks._ He would worry about what he found once he got there later.

' _Maybe water has collected there...'_ he told himself, and kept going.

By some sort of miracle, Yenn was lucid enough to notice when the pokémon following him in the distance began to speed up. He knew in that instant that he had little time and little chance. The pokémon following him were clearly determined to not rest until they spilled his blood. They weren't going to slow down again. This was it.

The thought of what Solus and the others could do to him, what his death would be like, gave him the willpower to fly faster on blind fear alone. He knew he wouldn't be able to search out a hiding place and conceal himself without the flying types seeing, nor was there anywhere for him to fly to. There was no rhyme or reason to his panicked fleeing anymore, just terror lending his body the strength to give it one last try.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Off by herself, Thunder darted around the rocks, glad to have something other than flat ground to run across.

She had a lot of thinking to do. This time, it wasn't about Nightshade, but about the other pokémon. She had tried to deny it, to force them away, ever since the start of the desert journey. With the ones that openly opposed her, such as Blazefang and Rosie, it was easy. But some of the others...Redclaw, Stormblade and Snowcrystal especially, had been nothing but kind. She hated to admit it, but a strong part of her wanted to let them share that kindness.

It was stupid, she knew it was. What were the chances they would really turn out to be like Nightshade? And Stormblade...well, she wasn't so sure she wanted to risk getting close to another scyther. He may have been healed, but she still remembered the burn wounds he had borne for so long. It was only pure chance that he had survived; without Scytheclaw, he would have died. And he reminded her a bit too much of the scyther she had seen killed when she was young. Any scyther tended to do that.

Thunder knew what a bad idea it was to befriend the weak. The thought of putting her trust in more pokémon, even Snowcrystal or Redclaw, was frightening. It felt too vulnerable. Thunder did whatever she could to avoid being vulnerable.

Gradually, Thunder grew tired of racing around the rocks. She paused, leaning against one of the tall stones. The other rocks blocked her view of both the direction they had come from and the direction the trainers had left in, but she faced the way they had come, anger growing stronger in her mind. Somewhere out there was the forest they had left...left for the miserable, dusty, disgusting desert. It made her furious. She wished she had never agreed to come. She wished they hadn't taken Nightshade.

She stepped away from the rock and began walking back in the direction they had come. She paused for a moment to rake the dry earth with her claws. In a burst of anger, she drove the tip of her scythe into the ground and cut a long furrow in its surface. "Useless," she muttered. "They're all useless!"

With a growl, she turned away, walking around the last of the boulders separating her from the flat, featureless desert plain. As soon as she passed them and stood out in the open, she paused.

She could see something out there, something that was moving closer. No, a _group_ of something. She couldn't quite make out what they were; all she could tell was that they were flying pokémon. Were they...birds? She squinted her eyes, realizing that she could see some of them ahead of the rest, getting dangerously closer to the rocks. One of them was particularly close.

Something told Thunder that whatever the group of pokémon were there for, it was bad news. If for whatever reason they attacked, she knew that she wouldn't be able to fight them all, let alone while defending Nightshade, and she didn't want to gamble on the fact that they might be harmless. She tensed, unsure what to do, when a thought came to her mind.

Nightshade's poké ball.

The scyther turned around and raced back into the cluster of rocks, dodging around the boulders. She passed through them effortlessly, the edge of the desert and the rock arch appearing as she did so. Under normal circumstances, she would never trust a human device, but in the claws of a pokémon, she figured that this time it could be used for good. If Nightshade returned to his poké ball, an enemy could not get to him easily, and she could carry him to safety if need be. All she had to do was take the device from the human and make it back before the strange pokémon arrived.

But Thunder had underestimated just how fast Solus and the pokémon at the front of the pack were moving.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal found that although the heat was making her drowsy, she couldn't sleep. She supposed it had something to do with the anticipation that was building up inside her when she thought of the portal and what the others were trying to do. Though it hadn't been long since the trainers and the other pokémon had left, she was starting to worry that they wouldn't be able to figure out the mystery, or that there wasn't even a legendary involved at all. She had believed Katie, but now that they were actually here, she was having stronger doubts.

Lying nearby were Blazefang, Wildflame, and Nightshade. They had already fallen asleep, but Rosie, who was sitting right next to Snowcrystal, had not. Thunder hadn't returned, but they had heard her running around the rocks until just a few minutes ago, so Snowcrystal wasn't worried.

"I really wish they would hurry it up," Rosie muttered under her breath. The ninetales still looked worried and on edge, and she looked around the rocky area as if she expected a monster to jump out at them from behind one of the boulders.

"They're trying," Snowcrystal whispered back. "Why don't you try to get some sleep before-"

"Wait," Rosie interrupted. "Do you hear that?"

Snowcrystal pricked her ears and listened, but all she could hear was the howling of the wind. "No, I-" She paused. Suddenly she did hear something. It was faint, but it sounded close. Like some sort of creature with wings, though it didn't sound like a scyther. The growlithe stood up, starting to feel afraid as well. "That's not...Thunder..."

Before she or Rosie could say anything more, some sort of massive bug type appeared from around a group of rocks a short distance away from them. Snowcrystal and the ninetales both jumped back in alarm, watching as the pokémon, in its unsteady flight, made a turn too late and was sent crashing to the ground when its wings and the side of its body struck a boulder. It seemed stunned at first, then it thrashed about, trying to right itself as it clawed at the ground frantically, looking completely disoriented. When it did manage to get to its feet, it suddenly went still...and turned its head toward them.

"Snowcrystal!" a voice shouted, and Wildflame was suddenly at the growlithe's side, standing beside her protectively. They could both hear scrabbling from behind them as Blazefang and Nightshade woke as well.

The strange bug type hadn't moved, and it looked just as surprised to see them as they were to see it. Snowcrystal stared at the creature in shock. She had never seen such a pokémon before. It resembled a yanma, only it was much bigger. It was longer than Damian was tall, and its head, back and tail were adorned with large black spikes. It had _six_ wings, two pairs on its back and another on its tail, and two long fangs stuck down from its jaw even when the mouth was closed.

Snowcrystal was already backing away from the thing before she realized that it still wasn't making any move to attack them. It didn't take her long to figure out why.

The dragonfly-like pokémon was emaciated; it looked half dead from heat and exhaustion. Snowcrystal had no idea how it had even managed to get itself airborne in such a state. It was clearly no desert pokémon, and Snowcrystal could only start to wonder what it was doing there.

"That's a yanmega," Wildflame told Snowcrystal before she lowered her head and growled, hoping to scare the creature off as flames began flickering between her teeth. "Learned about them in the library one day when I went with the trainers. They're dangerous."

Blazefang and Nightshade both watched the newcomer with startled confusion. Rosie was staring at the yanmega in terror, her feet seeming frozen in place. "Where is _Thunder?_ " the ninetales whispered fearfully.

The yanmega didn't even seem to notice Wildflame's threatening stance. Snowcrystal watched as the pokémon weakly lifted itself into the air again, then moved toward them.

"Find some prey elsewhere!" Wildflame shouted, placing herself protectively in front of Snowcrystal and Rosie. "You come any closer and I'll kill you!"

"Wildflame, stop!" Nightshade cried out, making Snowcrystal jump in surprise. "He can't hurt us in that state!"

Snowcrystal realized he was talking about the yanmega. In spite of its fearsome appearance, she knew Nightshade was right. It...he...didn't look like he would even have the energy to eat them if they were lying dead right in front of him. But at the same time, she didn't want to underestimate any strange pokémon. As she watched, the winged bug type flew closer, in spite of Wildflame's warning, until he was almost right in front of them. It was then that she realized his mouth was moving, but not in an aggressive way. He was trying to _speak._

But whatever he was trying to say, Snowcrystal could not understand. His voice was weak, just barely audible, and his throat seemed too dry for him to form words properly. His breathing, which sounded harsh and painful, was constantly interrupting him as he gasped for breath.

"Please...go away!" Rosie shouted at the yanmega, backing up further behind Wildflame.

The stranger turned to her, only more desperately trying to repeat his message. Snowcrystal then noticed that the yanmega had a hideous scar running down his underbelly, something that made her pause in confusion. It didn't look like anything that could have happened in the wild; it was too precise, and the marks crossing it reminded her of the way a pokémon center treated bad cuts.

The yanmega suddenly turned, obscuring the scar from view, but he hadn't noticed Snowcrystal's staring at all. His head was turned in the direction he had appeared from, back toward the vast expanse of desert. He suddenly took on a look of desperate panic that made Snowcrystal want to reach out to him, regardless of the fact that he was a stranger.

"Wait, you need help," she said gently, noticing that the others were still too shocked to say anything. "It's okay, we're-"

She wasn't even sure the yanmega had heard her. He suddenly whirled around, darting away from them as he continued his frantic flight. The small group of resting pokémon watched until he passed the rocks in front of them and vanished in the direction of the desert's edge. For a few moments, they all sat in silence.

"What was _that?_ " Rosie gasped, snapping the others out of their reverie.

"I don't know," Snowcrystal replied. "What was a pokémon like that doing here?"

"Did anyone hear what he was saying?" Wildflame asked.

"He couldn't even talk! How was I supposed to understand?" Rosie cried.

"We should go find the others," Nightshade said worriedly.

As the pokémon voiced their confusion, Snowcrystal noticed that Blazefang wasn't participating in the conversation. He was muttering under his breath, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Blazefang?" the growlithe questioned.

"Army," said Blazefang, earning him a look of confusion from the others. "He was trying to say 'army.' That was one of the words he said, I'm sure of it. It was a warning!" The houndoom looked at Snowcrystal with panicked eyes.

"Army?" Wildflame repeated, confused. "What do you mean 'army?'"

"There's only one I know of," Blazefang replied, and before the others could stop him, he leaped up and vanished around one of the rocks.

"Hey, wait up!" Wildflame cried, bolting after him. "He can't mean... Look, you probably heard him wrong. No one could understand a word that yanmega was saying!"

Snowcrystal didn't want to see her friends split up further. "Wait, come back!" she cried, and to her relief, both houndoom listened to her, and trotted back to the small group together. "Wildflame, give me a boost," she said as soon as the two dark types had reached her. "If there's something out there, we'd better know what it is before we leave the rocks."

Wildflame nodded and allowed Snowcrystal to scramble on her shoulders, standing next to one of the rocks. From that position, Snowcrystal was able to find a claw hold in its smooth surface and scramble upward. She stopped before she reached the top, peering over the rock carefully instead. As soon as she did, her eyes widened, and she felt like her blood had been turned to ice.

"What is it?" Wildflame called from below. "What do you see?"

For a moment, the growlithe found herself unable to answer. Out in the desert, still in the distance but gaining ground fast, a long line of pokémon was heading toward them. Most were flying types, but there were several running pokémon as well.

And far ahead of them was a smaller group, this one close enough that Snowcrystal could distinguish each of its members by species, close enough that she could see the fiercely determined looks in the eyes of the runners.

A group of nearly twenty bloodthirsty pokémon was almost right on top of them.

_To be continued..._


	70. Leap of Faith

"Blazefang, _run,_ " Wildflame hissed to the other houndoom, who was frozen in shock.

"But, Wildflame-"

"Go. Get out of here," Wildflame whispered, her eyes on the approaching pokémon. She could already see flying types, part of the smaller group ahead of the rest of the army pokémon, soaring above the rocks nearby. "Before they see you."

Blazefang only hesitated a moment more before he turned and bolted. Snowcrystal wasn't sure where Wildflame expected him to run. She, Rosie, and Nightshade huddled in the shade of a rock, Wildflame right beside them. It was a pitiful shelter, and they each knew that it was only a matter of moments before they were spotted.

"What do we do?" Rosie whispered. "Do you think the others can see them from the arch, or-"

"I don't know." Wildflame's voice wavered. Her eyes followed the form of a tropius as it shot over their heads, but only for a few seconds before it swerved back around in their direction.

As it did so, the houndoom caught a brief glimpse of a pokémon riding on its back. An espeon that was looking right at them.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Blazefang didn't chance a look back as he raced between the rocks, keeping to the shaded areas. He knew that Wildflame's desperate plea was all but pointless; there would be nowhere for him to hide once he reached the open desert again.

Blazefang noticed a shadow pass over him and skidded to a halt, huddling beneath the nearest rock. A pidgeot flew past him, but its attention was on something else – he hoped it was one of the other flying types – and it turned away without noticing him.

The houndoom pressed his body against the dirt, trying to make himself as small as possible. He knew it was futile; what he needed was a place to hide. He began to wish, for the first time, that Thunder was there. He would be safer around her, as weird as he knew that would have sounded to him before.

He tried to calm his rapid breathing as he huddled in the shadows, his tail curled around his body. He knew that the grey bands on his back and his curved horns would stand out easily, as would his red muzzle, and he had no way to hide them. He watched as several more flying types headed closer, and closed his eyes, ready to hear them call out or feel stinging pain from an attack.

But what he heard next was not the cry of a mighty bird. It was a scream, a scream he recognized, and it was coming from Rosie. The houndoom shot upright, hearing the shouts of the others he had abandoned, and the cry of another pokémon, a pokémon with a voice that sent chills down his spine. _Solus._

Blazefang had hoped never to hear the espeon's voice again, but he could only watch as the flying types all stopped what they were doing and turned around, heading back to the spot where Blazefang had left his friends.

His body shook. He hardly dared to believe that his enemies had passed by without seeing him. Yet at such a cost. He wasn't sure the rest of the group waiting at the arch would be able to hear the flying types from such a distance, and now that he could see some of Solus's pokémon landing, he knew his friends probably wouldn't be able to spot them either.

Blazefang wanted to run for help, to find the humans and tell them that Rosie and the others needed help. Yet the thought of running into the open desert alone, and vulnerable, filled him with dread. He was scared... _terrified_...and he wasn't sure he could will his legs to move. He knew what he _wanted_ to do, but the thought of what the consequences could be left him rooted to the spot.

' _Coward...'_ he thought bitterly, squeezing his eyes shut. _'I'm a coward. I'm no leader. Just a...'_

He felt like howling to the skies in despair. Who knew what Solus and those other pokémon could do to the little group of four, and there he was, completely useless. He knew, in the back of his mind, why Wildflame had sent him away. He couldn't let them find him, because if he were caught, the Forbidden Attack would fall into the hands of Cyclone's army. The thought made him feel even more useless. It was as if he was just a weapon, a dangerous weapon that had to be hidden away from evil humans and pokémon, that couldn't even fight back, because if he did, it was only a disaster waiting to happen.

Blazefang had never felt so helpless in his life.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Damian felt strong winds whipping against himself and Justin as they clung to Fernwing's back, but this time it was far more bearable, as the air beyond the cliffs was clear of dust. He gripped the pack strapped to the tropius's back, hearing Justin give an uneasy cry and do the same, as Fernwing suddenly swerved, wheeling around an outcrop of rock that jutted from the cliffs. For a moment, they were turned almost sideways, but before they could start to slip off, the grass type righted herself and shot off, her wings spread wide as she soared over the plains below, the wall of cliffs to one side.

Not far ahead, they could see Katie and her pidgeot, scanning the cliff wall intently. Damian turned his head, seeing several small caves dotting its side. Instead of being up by the arch with Arien and the rest of the pokémon, he and the other trainers had decided to search for clues, flying low and level with the cliff face while the alakazam tried to crack the mystery of the arch.

It had been clear upon first arriving that finding a way to activate the portal – or whatever it was – wasn't going to be easy, not that any of them were particularly surprised by the fact. Katie had quickly decided that they would look around the cliffs for any sign of something unusual, while the pokémon stayed at the arch site.

He felt a sense of awe as he looked at the cliff face, Fernwing slowing down to give them more time to spot something. It really looked like the desert had ended in a sheer drop off, the fields below them looking quite different from the dull brown wasteland they had grown accustomed to seeing during the past several days. It was strange to think that he was so high above the plains below, yet the spot where the pokémon were waiting by the arch was somewhere far above him.

"You see anything?" Katie called out, and Damian looked to see that his friend and her mount had turned around and circled back to them. It was clear from her expression that she was trying to be patient, but it didn't seem to be working well.

"I haven't seen any pokémon in these caves," Damian called back, bracing himself as Fernwing turned to circle around the pidgeot. "But if we head down to the field...well, maybe Fernwing and Ray could ask some of the pokémon there if they know anything." He nodded to Katie's pidgeot, and the bird pokémon dipped his head in agreement.

Katie looked uncertain, so Justin straightened himself as much as he could without losing his grip on the handhold provided by Fernwing's pack. "We're not getting anywhere just staring at this cliff. There's nothing here."

"What makes you think the pokémon here are even going to tell us anything?" Katie shouted back. "That is, if they _know_ anything. You think the scientists looking for the vibrava colony wouldn't have tried that with their pokémon?"

"It's worth a shot," Justin called back. "Why don't we try to find a pokémon now, and go back to exploring the cliffs once the pokémon have had a rest?"

"I guess he does have a point," Damian stated. "We might as well ask around. Arien's still trying to detect any sort of energy around the arch. We could bring him with us when we search around these caves later."

Katie didn't seem impressed with their suggestions. "I'm not too sure I'd trust wild pokémon who might not want us to get to wherever that legendary is," she shouted back.

"We don't _have_ to take their word for it," Justin called. "Let's just see what they have to say and go from there."

Katie was silent for a moment, but she relented. "Fine," was all she said in reply. "Come on, Ray," she called to her pidgeot, who shot down toward the ground with Fernwing and her riders close behind.

None of them were surprised to see that there were hardly any pokémon about, as the plains very open and exposed. In spite of the fact that the ground was covered in long grass and Damian was sure he'd spotted a stream in the distance, it still felt scorching hot.

"How do you think the pokémon here feel about humans?" Justin asked Damian uneasily, unsure if Fernwing would even be able to get one of them to talk to her while they were around.

"I don't know," Damian answered, "but I guess we're going to find out."

The two flying types flew lower to the ground, scanning the area for any signs of pokémon life. Suddenly Fernwing called out, and the others turned to see the small form of a pidgey resting on the branch of a stunted tree.

To their surprise, the little bird pokémon only watched them curiously as they approached, and didn't try to flee. He seemed to ignore the humans completely as the two pokémon – along with their riders – landed in front of him.

"Hello," the pidgey chirped cheerfully, addressing Ray the pidgeot specifically. "You're not from the flock. Where did you come from?"

Fernwing and Ray shot each other confused glances. "We're trainer pokémon," the tropius said after a moment, nodding toward the two humans on her back, who were remaining quiet and still.

The pidgey cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Those humans are with you," he said. It was more of a statement, not a question. "We've seen some around here before," he continued. "Did you come from the desert, like they did?"

"Look," Ray interrupted, realizing that he was likely to gain the small bird's respect and attention easier than Fernwing could, "we need to ask you some questions. You see that arch up there?" He angled his wing toward the cliffs, which now towered above them, and the distant shape of the arch at the top. "Has anything...strange ever happened around there? Maybe around when the humans came? Do you know of anyone who...vanished?"

The pidgey titled his head. He seemed at a loss for what to say. He glanced first to the pidgeot, then the tropius. Finally, he spoke.

"I'm...not sure what you mean," he said, sounding genuinely clueless. "Pokémon vanishing? That sounds ridiculous."

Fernwing and Ray gave each other a worried glance.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Stormblade paced back and forth impatiently as Arien studied the arch. The alakazam was deep in thought, still searching for any traces of energy that might have been left behind. The other pokémon, not seeing what else they could do until the trainers got back, were either lounging near the rock arch or quietly conversing with each other. Stormblade was pretty certain that Arien wasn't going to find much; from what the trainers had said, the portal didn't seem to have anything to do with psychic types at all. It was something else.

Arien, however, was convinced he would be able to detect something, whatever it was. Stormblade had left him to it, and resigned himself to waiting for the trainers to return.

Unlike the others, Stormblade didn't feel tired. Only the heat of the desert bothered him, and even then, he still felt energetic, and he wanted to keep moving. When he thought back to the previous few months, most of it was a hazy blur of pain to him, but everything now felt sharp and crystal clear, and Stormblade still felt as if he could run for miles. He knew, however, that the other members of the group didn't share his optimism. He thought, with a small bit of amusement, that they probably thought his cheerful attitude was a little over the top. He reminded himself that they weren't the ones who had been brought back to full health after being doomed to a slow and painful death. After that, Stormblade could believe that just about anything was possible.

The scyther looked up as Arien called him over. The alakazam was motioning for him to fly through the arch again. Happy to oblige, he darted through it, taking to the air once his claws left the cliff. Just as before, he merely ended up in the air high above the plains, rather than whisked away to wherever the portal led. He landed back on the cliff edge, facing Arien. "Sorry," he said with a shrug.

He watched as the psychic type sighed and went back to whatever he was thinking about. Some of the resting pokémon stirred, disturbed from their dozing when Stormblade had rushed past them.

"Nothing yet?" Spark asked drowsily.

"I'm afraid not," Stormblade sighed. "But we'll get there. We've still got plenty of time."

"It should be time to head back," Dusk muttered. The absol stood and stretched his hind legs. He, along with his teammates Todd the elekid and Inferno the flareon, had been huddled at the arch's base near Arien. "It's too hot to be sitting here out in the open." He shook his head, scattering puffs of dirt from his white fur and leaned down to lick his wounded paw. "What's taking Damian and the others so long?"

"Oh, he's probably doing something important," Inferno replied, standing up and sitting next to his teammate. "Just have a little patience." He lifted his leg to scratch behind his ear.

"Easy for you to say, fire type," Todd mumbled at the flareon. He had been leaning against Dusk in his sleep, and now, without his fluffy makeshift pillow, he stood up grumpily and folded his arms. "Maybe I should've stayed in my poké ball like Scytheclaw did."

"Quiet," Arien whispered urgently, his voice firm and focused.

Todd mumbled something under his breath.

Spark, who had been watching the trainer's progress from the edge of the cliff, turned his head toward the group of pokémon. "Some help you guys turned out to be. Stormblade and Arien are the only ones doing any work besides me!"

"You guys aren't doing much of anything," the elekid protested. "We're just sitting here waiting! Maybe we should go back and find Snowcrystal and the others, and wait for the trainers there."

"If you want to go back, then go," Arien told them. "But I want Stormblade and someone who can keep an eye on the trainers' position to stay here."

"Hey! I've already got that covered!" Spark shouted back.

"Relax, Arien," Inferno told the alakazam. "Nothing's going to happen to them."

"Well, we're still in unfamiliar land," Dusk argued. "He's right to be careful."

"I'll take over for Spark if he wants to go back," Redclaw offered.

"I never said I needed anyone to take over!" Spark protested. "Come on, guys, have a little faith in me."

Stormblade was momentarily distracted by the conversation, and didn't notice that Alex had walked up to him until the floatzel's paw gripped his upper arm.

"Stormblade," the water type whispered. Her voice, usually so upbeat and chipper, now sounded worried and confused. "Thunder's coming back. I think something's wrong."

Stormblade turned around, following the floatzel's gaze as he peered out at the desert. Sure enough, Thunder was racing toward them, and she had already almost reached them. It surprised him that he'd been so distracted that he hadn't even noticed a figure coming toward them across the desert. And neither had any of the other pokémon, who had all either been slumbering or focused on the arch and the plains beyond it.

"And, uh...I think _that_ might be a problem," the floatzel mumbled, moving her paw to point at something a ways behind Thunder.

Stormblade narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the shape of a second pokémon in the distance. It was further away, and much harder to see clearly, but he could recognize the species. It looked like a yanmega, but...what would a yanmega be doing in the desert? He turned toward the more familiar figure again. In her race toward the group, Thunder didn't seem to have noticed the other bug type at all, or if she had, she didn't care. Stormblade felt a sense of unease grip his mind. "Something's wrong..." he whispered.

The other pokémon, even Arien, had stopped what they were doing and turned around to see what Stormblade and Alex were looking at. It was then that they noticed that there were more pokémon, the tiny, distant shapes of flying types, and they were circling downward toward a portion of the rocks, near where their friends were resting.

Each member of the group looked frozen in shock, but before anyone could start to formulate a plan of action, Thunder covered the last stretch of desert ground and came to halt right in front of them.

"Where are the trainers?" the scyther gasped between breaths.

"W-why?" Inferno cried, his fur standing on end as heat rose from his body. "What's happening?"

"I need them!" Thunder shouted.

"Th-they're down in the plains," the flareon stuttered, backing away as Thunder shot a glare at him.

"Thunder," Redclaw said gently as he stood in front of the others, who looked like they were about to start bombarding the scyther with questions, "are the others in danger? Who's that pokémon following you?"

Thunder's eyes narrowed, and she whirled around, noticing the shape of another bug type for the first time. It was about halfway from the rocks to where they were standing at the cliff's edge. She figured that it had left the rocks soon after she had. Like Stormblade, she recognized the species, even at such a distance. She had seen a yanmega once before, though she had never fought one personally. It had been in one of the arenas where many pokémon were forced to fight at once, the last one alive being deemed the winner. She suddenly recalled watching the yanmega in the arena bite chunks out of a blaziken's head before being dashed against the wall and bludgeoned to death by a steelix. She dug her claws into the dirt. If that thing had hurt Nightshade, she was ready to rip it apart.

' _No,'_ she thought, shaking her head. There was no time. The pokémon was headed _away_ from where Nightshade was, so she could ignore it. If she couldn't reach the humans, she would need to do something else, but either way, she couldn't leave Nightshade alone. She needed to go back.

"Are they in trouble?" Todd called, trying unsuccessfully to get Thunder's attention. He turned to Dusk, shoving his claws against the absol's leg. "I thought you were supposed to sense disasters!" he shouted, unable to keep the worry out of his voice.

"Sure, _natural_ disasters!" Dusk cried. "I can't predict what other pokémon are going to-"

"Quiet, everyone," Redclaw called out. The arcanine was tensely watching Thunder and Stormblade, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. The other pokémon gathered together, ready to come to their friends' aid.

Stormblade focused on Thunder, realizing from her expression that they needed to take action as soon as possible. "Thunder..." he asked urgently, wanting to know what they were up against before they charged headlong into any sort of danger, "...what is going on?"

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal found herself gripped roughly by the talons of a staraptor and hauled away from the rocks, then dragged back toward the open desert and further away from her friends. From the cries of her companions, she could tell that they were being treated the same way. The hostile pokémon grouped tightly around them, nearly twenty pitiless gazes fixated on her and her three friends.

The espeon, the one she knew was called Solus, was clearly leading the group, and at his orders, she, Nightshade, Rosie and Wildflame were dropped to the hot desert ground. Snowcrystal coughed, shaking gritty dust from her fur. "Nightshade?" she whispered, shakily getting to her feet so she could edge closer to the heracross. "Are you okay?"

Nightshade did nothing but shoot her a worried glance that warned her to stay quiet. For a moment, his gaze darted back toward the rocks, and Snowcrystal glanced in that direction as well.

They were out in the open, but the rocks now lay between them and the rest of the group, blocking the desert's edge from sight. Snowcrystal didn't know if that had been done intentionally, but out in the open and away from the boulders, it was easier for Solus's pokémon to surround them in a tight group. Most of them were standing in front of the rocks, making it impossible for any of them to try to run toward a hiding spot.

Snowcrystal turned her gaze to the larger group of pokémon still out in the desert, headed straight for them. _That_ part of Solus's small army numbered far more than twenty, and once they arrived, Snowcrystal couldn't see what hope she and her friends would have.

Her worried thoughts were interrupted as Solus stepped closer. Snowcrystal's fur stood on end as she looked at him. Even if she hadn't known of the terrible things he'd done, she would have been able to tell right away that this espeon was twisted. The look in his eyes as he watched them and the grin that stretched across his face when he saw their terrified expressions sent shivers down her spine.

Solus gave a dark chuckle as his paws came to a halt so that he was standing right in front of the cowering pokémon. "Well," he began, in a voice that would have sounded jovial if the group had not been sure of his intentions, "I can't believe it. It's actually them. The white growlithe and her little 'friends.' You're the last pokémon I would have expected to run into out here. And I'm guessing that houndour's somewhere around here, isn't he?"

"He's dead," Wildflame said before anyone could speak. Solus's gaze snapped to her, and, without even a pause, she continued, "None of us have the Forbidden Attack. I don't know who does. It happened in a forest and there were lots of pokémon there. We left before we found out."

A silence fell on the group after the houndoom finished speaking, and Snowcrystal tensed, watching the faces of the enemy pokémon around her. The ones closest to them gave Wildflame suspicious looks, while some of the others seemed distracted, as if something else was on their minds. Wildflame sat tall and steady, her gaze unwavering as she looked Solus in the eye. Snowcrystal had to admire her acting. She didn't think she could tell a lie while looking that calm.

Solus merely grinned again, giving a low, cruel sounding chuckle that grew into full laughter. "I don't need to read your mind to know that's a lie," the espeon jeered. "He's with you. I can see it in your eyes."

Wildflame wilted under the espeon's gaze, suddenly looking more scared than Snowcrystal had ever seen her. Though the pokémon standing in front of them didn't look like much, they were all aware of what he was capable of.

"I don't tolerate lying," Solus said coldly, any hint of humor in his voice gone. He nodded toward the staraptor that had dragged Snowcrystal out of the rocks.

Faster than she could blink, the massive bird pokémon lashed out at Wildflame with one clawed foot, raking his talons across her face. Wildflame yelped and scrambled backward as drops of blood splashed across the ground.

"Wildflame?" Nightshade said weakly, turning his head to look at the houndoom. Wildflame turned toward him, showing him that although the scratches were deep, they had missed her eyes.

"Pathetic liar," the staraptor sneered, and Wildflame closed her eyes, turning her head toward the ground.

"I don't think I need to be any clearer," Solus said calmly. "Tell us where Blazefang is."

It suddenly struck Snowcrystal as odd that the army pokémon didn't just go out and find him. She glanced to Rosie, who seemed frozen with fear, and then to Nightshade. They had no chance of fighting their way out; their only hope was that their friends had noticed something was amiss. But if help was coming, it could be too late.

Then she noticed that there was a look in Solus's eyes, beyond the cruelty. The way he stood, tense and angry, the way his eyes flickered to the rocks every few moments as if watching for something, it all made her begin to realize...that Solus was _afraid._

He was scared of Blazefang's Shadowflare. He wanted to wait until the rest of his small army caught up, so that he could have them swarm the houndoom all at once. That gave her and her friends a small amount of time. However, she also knew that the group at the arch was too far away to hear her shouts.

"Don't think about trying to call out," Solus jeered. "No one will hear you."

Snowcrystal jumped. It was as if he had read her mind, and with a chilling thought, she realized she wasn't entirely sure he hadn't.

"What about Yenn?" a rapidash asked, turning toward Solus. Though he clearly wasn't in charge, there was an air of authority about the fire type. A few of the other pokémon backed away from him as he stamped his diamond-hard hoof into the cracked earth.

"Look," a zebstrika began, sounding much less hostile than the other pokémon who had spoken so far, "we were supposed to be the scouts. We can't just go after him without-"

"That's enough," Solus said calmly, and the zebstrika was silenced immediately. "The others will be here soon. We'll go after Blazefang first, then Yenn. We're close enough that Yenn won't reach the plains, and not even Blazefang's Shadowflare could kill all of the pokémon with us."

Snowcrystal, Nightshade, and Rosie looked out over the desert at Solus's fast approaching allies, realizing that they could reach them within minutes.

Suddenly Wildflame spoke again, but this time it was not to try and deceive her captors. "Who's Yenn?" she asked calmly, straightening up and looking Solus in the eye again. "Is he a...yanmega?"

Solus gave her a wicked grin. "He is...a friend of ours."

Wildflame kept her gaze locked with Solus's. "Well...why are you after him? What did he do?"

"We're getting off topic," Solus said. The espeon turned away from her, nodding to the pokémon surrounding the group. Several of them stepped closer, looking very ready to attack if any of the prisoners made a move. "We will find out where the houndour is," Solus said, addressing his followers. "Then we will take them with us." He shot a smile at Snowcrystal and her friends as his eyes examined them, taking in the details of their dust-covered bodies. "The houndoom would make a good recruit. We might be able to do something with the growlithe and the ninetales as well. As for him..." He turned his gaze to Nightshade, taking in the heracross's pitiful condition. "I say we kill him and see if any of the carnivorous pokémon are willing to give heracross meat a try."

"NO!" Snowcrystal shouted. As Solus turned his cold glare on her, she felt her courage wavering, but didn't back down. "He's...an incredibly strong pokémon," she explained, realizing that she had to give Solus a reason to keep Nightshade alive that would be convincing enough for the espeon. "Once he's healed, he-"

Solus narrowed his eyes, clearly wondering if he should even bother to give the growlithe an answer. After a few moments, he turned his head calmly to the staraptor. "Hold her mouth shut," Solus instructed the large bird. "I don't think I even want to let this one scream." His lithe form started to pace slowly back and forth on the dusty ground. "I'm going to find out where that houndour is, whether or not something funny happens like it did with that scyther. We'll see if she's ready to talk after this."

Snowcrystal felt the staraptor's talons slam her to the ground, one set of claws wrapping around her face and muzzle and the other holding her to the ground. As much as she knew she should feel terrified, something else had appeared more strongly in her mind. It was a memory...a memory of something Stormblade had managed to tell them at one point in their journey. When the scyther had been tortured by the sadistic espeon, something had stopped Solus from getting to any information about Blazefang's whereabouts. It had remained locked in Stormblade's mind, out of the psychic type's reach.

Snowcrystal didn't think Stormblade or anyone else had thought much of it in the time that had passed since, and for some strange reason, she started to wonder about it in spite of the predicament she was in.

She was quickly brought back to her current situation when the staraptor slammed her head roughly against the ground. Even from that angle, she could see her three friends staring at her in horror. _'Don't be afraid for me,'_ she tried to tell them through the look in her eyes. _'Please, find a way out of here.'_ She knew it was useless; she wasn't sure how long she could stop the fear that was threatening to overwhelm her own mind, and her friends were helplessly trapped. What could they really do?

Solus's eyes glowed as he approached the motionless growlithe, and Snowcrystal knew in that instant that whether or not he found the truth about Blazefang, he intended to cause her great pain. She could tell that he wanted to take out his frustration on her, and maybe he simply looked for any excuse to torture another pokémon. She wasn't sure how to feel; she figured she was simply numb with shock, because as Solus approached her, she didn't start to panic. She just felt angry at the espeon, angry that he was able to get away with the things he did, and that she was powerless to stop it.

But as Solus came closer, the glow in his eyes brightening enough that Snowcrystal knew she was going to feel excruciating pain at any moment, a voice interrupted him.

"Stop."

It wasn't a shout, nor was it a plea or a request. It was a demand. For reasons Snowcrystal didn't understand, Solus turned his head toward the speaker as the glow from his eyes faded.

The speaker was Nightshade.

Solus's eyes narrowed. "Do you want to take her place?"

Without waiting for an answer, the espeon walked toward the heracross. The rapidash that had spoken earlier slammed his hoof into Nightshade's back, sending him sprawling forward. Solus stopped just short of the bug type's quivering body. "Let's see what we can find," he began, his eyes taking on the familiar eerie glow. However, he did not unleash his psychic powers immediately, as if he was waiting for the heracross to respond, to beg to be spared.

Yet Nightshade had no reaction other than to slowly stand back on his feet again. He faced Solus with a sort of resolute calmness that Snowcrystal knew, if she were in Solus's place, would leave her chilled. Due to his injuries, he couldn't stand fully upright, but he met the espeon's gaze with fierce eyes. He said nothing, merely waiting for the psychic type to speak.

Solus paused, the glow fading from his eyes. A flicker of unease crossed his face as he spat, "Do you think you're being funny?"

"No," Nightshade replied.

Solus laughed, glancing behind him at the distant shapes of the pokémon comprising the remainder of his army, still steadily approaching them. Then he stepped closer to Nightshade. "Feeling brave now, aren't you? Every pokémon breaks eventually, heracross. I could make you do anything I wanted you to."

"I was under no illusion that you couldn't," Nightshade replied coldly.

"Are you mocking me?" Now it was Solus's turn to seem eerily calm.

Snowcrystal had realized that Solus was only stalling, taunting them until his allies arrived and they had a better chance of fighting Blazefang. He had only been toying with them for his own amusement, but as he stared down Nightshade, it was clear that his demeanor had changed.

Nightshade watched the espeon, thinking back to the night, months ago, when he had found Stormblade after the scyther had been tortured. At the time, he hadn't known what had happened to him, but he had thought back to it many times since. Remembering Stormblade's state, he knew exactly what Solus was capable of. Yet if he begged for mercy or tried to reason with a pokémon like the one standing before him, it would make no difference. He was not going to give Solus the satisfaction of seeing him terrified and pleading until the torture managed to break him. Maybe then, but not before. And if it distracted Solus for a time, maybe something good would come of it. "No," Nightshade answered simply. "You can see that I can't defend myself. Why do you think you need to convince me that you have the upper claw?"

For reasons Snowcrystal didn't fully understand, this seemed to make Solus's temper snap. Any trace of calm vanished from the espeon's face, and his body tensed like he wanted to leap forward and claw Nightshade's eyes out. The growlithe expected to hear her friend's screams at any second, but when the espeon's eyes glowed, Nightshade didn't react with anything other than mild surprise. For one strange moment, a connection between the minds of the unwilling Nightshade and the angry Solus formed, and then Solus broke away, calling loudly enough for his followers to hear.

"Blazefang ran out towards the desert on the other side of the rocks," the espeon shouted. "Toward the cliff. As if he had anywhere else to go." It was clear that Solus was tiring of his own game, none of the jeering mockery in his voice. He stared into Nightshade's eyes again, his own narrowed in anger. After a moment, the anger seemed to vanish and the espeon grinned. "I think I see something interesting here," he began, his eyes growing wider as he delved deeper into Nightshade's mind.

Nightshade's expression suddenly changed from one of defiance to shock.

"Your family was killed because you weren't there to protect them," Solus continued, the mocking tone returning to his voice. "Some father you had turned out to be-"

Faster than any of the pokémon watching would have thought a badly injured heracross could move, Nightshade raked his claws across the espeon's face. Solus let out a scream and stumbled backward, blood trickling down his muzzle to spatter on the ground. Nightshade felt a hoof slam into his back again, and he found himself lying face down on the ground.

Solus turned his face toward the heracross, his eyes blazing through a mask of bloodied fur. The gashes Nightshade had inflicted were deep, and had barely missed his eyes. The espeon strode forward, and it was clear that he was done trying to toy with the bug type. He looked to some of the army pokémon standing near him, who had been looking at Nightshade hesitantly, waiting for orders.

"We'll take this one back with us," Solus hissed. "Death out in the desert is too good for him. And maybe some real pain will make him think twice about-"

In an instant, Wildflame seemed to snap out of any fear she'd had. Ignoring her captors, she leaped forward and turned to stand between Nightshade and Solus, her lips drawn back in a snarl as she spat in the espeon's face. "Don't you touch him, you piece of filth!" she shouted. "And if you harm Snowcrystal again, I'll tear you apart. You can't hurt me with your psychic attacks, and you won't find it so easy to get into my mind."

Solus regarded the houndoom with contempt, but he didn't argue with her. Instead, he turned to two pokémon, a scarred pidgeot and an arcanine with a mean looking expression. "Teach that one a lesson," he said, giving his head a shake to flick blood out of his eyes.

As the arcanine leaped toward Wildflame, time seemed to stand still for Snowcrystal, still held against the dirt by the staraptor. She watched as Rosie fired a blast of flame at the pidgeot, only to fall to the ground jerking and twitching as a zebstrika sent a blast of electricity into her body. She saw Wildflame jump out of the way, and the arcanine landed just sort of Nightshade. Another pokémon, a talonflame, knocked the houndoom to the ground and the arcanine stopped, standing over her.

Then there was a flash of green, and the arcanine fell to the ground with a high pitched whimper. Blood seeped into the cracks in the parched earth. The talonflame looked up in surprise, but the newcomer, the same scyther who had saved Nightshade's life in the tunnels beneath Stonedust City, hardly paid attention; Wildflame had already struggled free on her own. Instead, Thunder made a direct dash toward Solus himself.

Solus threw up a protect barrier just in time, but even still, Thunder's blade broke through it halfway, leaving the tip a fraction from his nose. Solus scrambled backward, his eyes wide as he created another barrier. "Kill her!" he shouted. "Kill the scyther!"

Some of the bolder pokémon didn't even need the command. A rapidash was already upon Thunder, raising his hooves as the wounded arcanine created a circle of flame around them. Thunder dodged as the hooves came pounding down, slicing the rapidash across his face and chest. He shouted with pain and darted out of the fire circle, but before Thunder could follow him, a zebstrika, the salamence, and the noivern were upon her.

Solus watched the battle as he gasped for breath, letting his protect barrier fall. A haunted look had come over the espeon as he watched the scyther do battle with three of his best pokémon. He recognized that scyther. Anyone would. More importantly, he had battled her before.

It had been at the Stonedust City Pokémon Center, before his Team Rocket masters had blown it to smithereens. The scyther had been weak and injured then, and she had still beaten him. Even as he watched, he could see that she was winning the fight; the noivern had fled with a torn wing and multiple gashes, and it looked like the other two were about to end up the same way, or worse.

Then Solus remembered that back at the pokémon center, the scyther had taken him by surprise, injured him so that he could no longer focus well on his psychic attacks. He was not nearly so foolish now, and he had grown much stronger in Cyclone's army. He braced himself, waiting for the moment when the scyther would step through the flames and challenge him again. Enough time had passed that he was able to create another protect barrier. He watched as Thunder flew clear over the flames and bolted toward him. Now that she was within range and his mind was clear, he did what he had done to so many pokémon during his time in the army. His eyes took on an eerie glow.

From her position on the ground, where she and her friends were surrounded by Solus's followers, Snowcrystal could practically feel the pain she knew had exploded in Thunder's head. The scyther stopped, shrieking, and stumbled forward, thrashing from side to side as the faint glow from Solus's psychic energy surrounded her.

Even Rosie, for all the anger she held toward Thunder, looked shocked at the sight before her. Nightshade stood up, ignoring the guard who told him to hold still. His weakened body shook, and he seemed frail enough to collapse. One of the pokémon moved closer to him, as if he believed that a wounded heracross, of all the pokémon, actually posed enough of a threat to warrant action. Nightshade ignored him, stepping forward as he shouted out, "Thunder!"

A talonflame darted toward Thunder at incredible speed. Snowcrystal's eyes widened, expecting Thunder's blood to be spilled upon the ground. But when the large bird pokémon came close, Thunder whipped her scythe up toward it, ripping into its side and sending it crashing to the ground. Then, slowly, she stood up...and walked toward Solus.

The espeon faltered. In all his time as a torturer, a punisher, he had watched the reactions of every pokémon he'd ever tormented with his psychic powers. Regardless of age, species, or strength, he had watched them scream, cry, plead with him...watched them claw frantically at the ground or at their own heads, or even run madly in circles. Yet he had never seen one stand up and take a step toward him. He looked to the scyther in terror, hardly realizing that most of his pokémon had frozen as well, either as startled as he was or too afraid to attack. Thunder was clearly struggling, but she was nevertheless taking step after step toward him, her eyes no longer showing pain, but anger, as she stared down the espeon. Even as he was doing his worst. _'What sort of pokémon was this?'_

"What are you waiting for?" Solus cried at the pokémon nearest to the scyther. "Kill-"

The pokémon following Solus's orders had barely started to move before another pokémon leaped over one of the boulders, slashing at a rapidash who was standing close to Thunder. The flaming pokémon reared back in shock, and the newcomer came to a brief halt. It was Stormblade.

Stormblade only stopped a moment before he launched himself at the staraptor holding Snowcrystal captive. In the same instant, a bolt of lighting shot down from the sky, arcing over the rocks to strike a pidgeot who was making his way toward Stormblade. A moment later Spark appeared, racing for the group of enemy pokémon with the blinding speed of a jolteon.

Stormblade and Spark were not alone. Racing around and over the rocks were several more pokémon. Alex and Redclaw charged into the fray, followed by Inferno – Todd the elekid gripping the flareon's ruff of fur – and the rest of Katie's pokémon. Overhead, Ray the pidgeot carried Katie herself, with Damian and Justin riding Fernwing right behind her.

Alex slammed into an arcanine with aqua jet, while Redclaw targeted one of the pokémon in the air, blasting it with a flamethrower before it had the chance to swerve out of the way. Todd and Inferno separated, the flareon racing to help Stormblade and the elekid making his way to the captives. Katie's azumarill knocked out a fire type with her water attacks, while her sylveon targeted the noivern. Scolipede appeared around one of the boulders – already curled tightly into a ball – and bulldozed into a group of Solus's pokémon.

While chaos began to erupt all around them, Snowcrystal broke free as Stormblade took on the staraptor that had been holding her down. She made a move toward Nightshade and the other captives, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Solus.

The espeon had broken his hold on Thunder, but the scyther had been swarmed by enemies and lost sight of their leader. Solus, however, wasn't moving. There was not a scratch on the espeon's body, save for the gashes Nightshade had inflicted, but he was standing in shock, his legs almost faltering as if he had been wounded. It took the growlithe a moment to realize that he was staring at Stormblade.

Looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Solus!" one of the enemy pokémon shouted, and the espeon snapped his attention to the direction the voice had come from.

He did so just in time, and had the chance to form another protect barrier before Thunder could slash his throat. Solus scrambled backward, finally overcoming his shaken nerves. This time he used his psychic attack to lift Thunder bodily into the air and slam her into the nearest boulder.

Snowcrystal watched as Todd skidded to a halt in front of the small group who had briefly been Solus's captives. "Nightshade," the elekid gasped. "Can you walk? We've gotta get out of here."

"I..." the heracross began.

"I'll help you," Wildflame offered, standing next to the heracross so that he could lean on her for support.

"Thanks," Nightshade replied wearily.

Snowcrystal was about to ask what she could do when Rosie suddenly released a blast of flame that rushed straight by her. She heard a staraptor shriek and turned to see the bird pokémon blunder away from Stormblade as the scyther fought head to head with a fearow and Inferno blasted a zebstrika with overheat. Fernwing sent a solar beam into the throng of fighting creatures and one of Solus's pokémon cried out in pain. Large amounts of dirt had been kicked up in the air, making it hard to discern much else among the chaos.

"Let's get off the battlefield, all right?" Todd continued, trying to usher Wildflame and Nightshade toward the group of boulders.

"Wildflame!" another voice shouted, and Snowcrystal was shocked to see Blazefang emerge from behind one of the rocks. He bounded toward the other houndoom, ignoring the pain from his wounds. "I'll take Nightshade," Blazefang said. "Stay here and help the others."

Without waiting for a reply, he stood on Nightshade's other side so that the heracross could walk with his support. They quickly headed toward the boulders, leaving Wildflame standing with Snowcrystal and Rosie.

"Well, then we're going to cover their retreat," Wildflame stated. "Rosie, go tell some of the others to go back with Blazefang! We can't have them laying a claw on him or he might lose control of Shadowflare."

Wildflame hadn't even finished her sentence before Rosie bounded off. Snowcrystal stood beside Wildflame, ready to battle if needed, but at the moment, Solus's pokémon were in such a state of disarray that it wasn't necessary. Their enemies were being overwhelmed, and she could see that her own group was more than a match for them.

Rosie quickly returned with Katie's Sylveon and Redclaw, and the three of them bounded toward where Blazefang and Nightshade had gone. Luckily, no one seemed to have thought to follow the wounded pokémon in the confusion.

Solus had been driven back further from the group, still facing down Thunder. Though his protect barriers lasted longer than those of an ordinary psychic type, they were not enough. Solus's limber body and fast reflexes were the only thing keeping him on even footing with the scyther.

Thunder was fighting through a haze of pain; Solus had regained enough focus to continue wracking her body with pain through his psychic attacks, even as he dodged her slashes. A few of her attacks had left their mark; Solus was sporting a gash on his forehead and another on his back. Yet his eyes blazed with determination, an almost feral look of rage in his eyes.

Thunder did not slow her stride, pushing Solus back with every pace. The espeon wasn't used to a pokémon that could power through pain like he was inflicting, and his psychic attack was weakening as the battle went on. Thunder could see, in her mind's eye, that the espeon was trying to pull up painful memories, trying to distract her, and she might have laughed were it not for the pain lancing through her head. This pokémon actually thought he could use that to control her.

She saw a memory flash in her mind, her brutal attack on Nightshade. She paused for a moment, and Solus's eyes blazed as he realized he'd struck something. And in that moment, the espeon paused for a second, which was exactly what Thunder wanted.

Solus saw the blade coming a split second too late. Though he dodged, he felt the scythe rip into his shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground. Yet through some sort of determination or instinctual terror – or both – his psychic hold on Thunder was not broken. As the scyther went in for the kill, Solus threw back his head and screeched in agony, sending a psychic wave through the scyther's body that was more powerful than any before it. It stopped Thunder in her tracks, and she stumbled back to the ground with a yell, frantically rubbing the dull edge of one her scythes against her head.

Snowcrystal heard Solus's cry, but she couldn't see the espeon through the swarm of battling pokémon and their attacks. Any time a pokémon came within reach, she and Wildflame fired a jet of flame in its direction. Snowcrystal could tell that the tide of the battle was turning; some of Solus's pokémon even broke ranks and fled. As she watched a rapidash bolt back into the open desert, her heart suddenly sank.

The rest of Solus's pokémon, the ones who had been flying after the smaller group from far behind, were now almost upon them. The closest ones seemed like they could reach them in mere moments. The growlithe heard Redclaw shouting from behind one of the rocks, and turned to see a few of her friends breaking away from the battle and running towards him. She noticed that Solus's group was no longer fighting; they were backing up just enough to be out of attack range, knowing that the rest of Solus's army was quickly coming to their aid.

"Snowcrystal, we've got to run," Wildflame hissed in a panicked voice, angling her head toward the rocks. "We can't fight that many. We're going to be slaughtered if they catch up to us."

"Run where?" Snowcrystal asked as she followed the houndoom and the rest of her allies as they headed toward the boulders Blazefang had vanished behind. "There's nowhere to go!"

She cast a glance back at the pokémon bearing down on them. There were far more than she'd realized; Solus's 'scouting' group had been tiny in comparison. _'What on earth did these pokémon come to do out in the desert, and why?'_ she thought. _'They couldn't have known Blazefang would be here!'_

Back with his followers, Solus staggered to his feet, blood trickling through his lilac fur. The scyther who'd wounded him remained upright, but he could tell that his psychic attacks had weakened her. She had resisted his torture more than any other pokémon he'd met, but she was still a pokémon. She still had limits. And he had begun to reach them.

"Thunder!" a voice shouted from behind.

Solus's eyes widened. It was the other scyther... _that_ scyther. The one who should have been dead by Shadowflare burns. He watched the female scyther – Thunder – flick her gaze in his direction.

Solus created a shimmering protect barrier in front of him, staring at the scarred scyther through it. He could hear the footsteps and wingbeats of the remaining battlers from his scouting group as they gathered around him. Now that his enemy was weak, and he had numbers on his side, he knew the danger had passed. The scyther would have to be insane to attack him again now. "Run, Thunder," he said with a mocking grin. "Run back to all your friends."

"Thunder!"

Thunder turned her head, watching as Stormblade made his way toward her. Without another look at Solus, she turned and followed him. She knew Solus's pokémon wouldn't attack while she was fleeing; that would just invite Stormblade and the others to fight back. And it was clear that they were going to get a lot more help from the bloodthirsty army of pokémon that were almost within range of attack.

Thunder and Stormblade were the last to arrive as the rest of the group clustered behind some of the boulders.

"Todd, up here!" Damian called from on Fernwing's back, reaching down and picking up his elekid while Justin helped Katie lift Nightshade onto the tropius's back as well. Damian grabbed hold of Blazefang, lifting the houndoom up and holding him over his lap. "You can fly us all back, right?" Damian asked. The tropius gave him a worried nod. "Inferno, return!" he shouted, holding out his poké ball and enveloping his flareon in a beam of light.

"Don't wait for us," Katie cried to the pokémon as she returned her sylveon, azumarill and scolipede to their poké balls and mounted her pidgeot. "Run!"

The shaken pokémon needed no further bidding, and they took off through the rocks while the trainers and their mounts lifted off into the air. Redclaw lifted Snowcrystal by the scruff as he ran, following the others as they darted in the opposite direction of Solus's pokémon, back toward the arch.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Dusk waited tensely near the arch, his paws aching to run. Behind him, Arien was still focused intently on finding a way to activate the portal, but the absol wasn't convinced it would do them any good; the alakazam had so far found nothing.

Dusk couldn't see just how many pokémon had attacked Snowcrystal and the others, but from what Thunder had said, they were pokémon from Cyclone's army.

"Arien, it's not working," he cried, shooting a glance back at his teammate. "We need to find a hiding place...or a shelter...somewhere along the cliffs!"

"And just how would we all get there in time?" Arien shouted back furiously. Dusk could tell that the alakazam was stressed, because Arien rarely reacted angrily otherwise. "I need to focus. There has to be some trace of something..."

The absol narrowed his eyes as he turned away, watching the ever nearing line of flying pokémon on the horizon. There had to be at least sixty of them, and the thought filled him with dread.

Movement caught his eye, and he realized that that the lone yanmega, the one he'd first seen approaching them when Thunder had shown up, was not far from the cliff's edge and was heading straight for them. He cursed himself for not keeping track of it – it wasn't like it was hard to miss out in the flat expanse of the desert – and tensed his muscles, letting the scythe on his head glow a bright white before he sprung forward and darted across the dry ground, ignoring the dull pain that pulsed from his recent paw injury.

The distance between him and the yanmega closed far faster than he'd expected, determination and fury giving him strength. His red eyes narrowed. This was likely a pokémon that had slipped away from the main group for some reason, possibly to attack anyone waiting at the arch. Dusk had no idea why, but they had not come as far as they had to be slaughtered by pokémon who wanted to use the very Forbidden Attacks they were trying to put a stop to.

He reached the bug type with a startling speed, leaping up to its height in the air and slamming his scythe into its body. To his surprise, the pokémon crashed to the ground with the force of just the one attack, its wings going completely still. Keenly aware of his type disadvantage, Dusk rushed to the pokémon's head, lowering his blade toward the yanmega's neck. "Who are you and what are those pokémon trying to-"

He broke off, realizing that the yanmega wasn't trying to reply, or plead for his life, or make any move to fight back at all. He looked completely limp, and even as Dusk watched him, his head lolled to the side and he weakly struggled for breath, not even seeming to notice the absol's blade. Dusk's eyes then looked over the rest of his body, and he realized that this pokémon was battered, emaciated, and barely alive. His scythe fading back to normal, the absol gave the yanmega a horrified gaze as he stepped back.

"...What the-"

"DUSK!"

It was Arien's shout. The absol whipped his head back in the direction of the alakazam, who was gesturing for him to come back toward the arch. From the look of Arien's face, however, it wasn't because he had any good news. As Dusk looked in the opposite direction, he realized why.

In the distance, he could see the rest of his group – his trainer, the other humans, and all the wild pokémon – making a desperate dash back toward the cliffs. In the air above them, the swarm of flying pokémon were gaining with frightening speed.

"Arien!" the absol cried in a panic. "What are we supposed to do? We're going to be killed!"

Either the alakazam hadn't heard him, or he couldn't think of an answer himself. Dusk shot a look at the yanmega, who had stopped moving completely, looking as motionless as if he were dead. With a pang of horror, Dusk realized that he wasn't quite sure his attack _hadn't_ killed him. He shook his head as he backed away.

"Dusk!"

The absol looked back at Arien again, and toward his friends and companions, fleeing so desperately toward them. Then he made his decision.

Ignoring the alakazam's shouts, he darted in the direction of his fleeing friends. If there was anything he could do, maybe he could help buy them time.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Redclaw heard shouts from the pokémon in the air behind him. He could almost feel the pounding of the hooves and paws belonging to the ones running after them. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see another arcanine a ways behind him to his left, its eyes fixated on Wildflame and Rosie as they fought to keep enough distance ahead of their pursuers. He could also see a rapidash racing toward Alex and Stormblade. The only thing keeping his friends ahead at all was the fact that Solus's pokémon were clearly exhausted. Yet even still, the gap between Redclaw's companions and his enemies was closing.

Redclaw couldn't try to fight the bloodthirsty pokémon with Snowcrystal's scruff in his jaws, so he raced toward Stormblade and Alex, keeping just behind them in case any attacks came their way.

Thunder and Spark were in the lead, the trainers' pokémon flying just overhead. Redclaw knew that their winged pursuers were likely about to outpace them, but the trainers were refusing to fly too far ahead.

Redclaw had no idea where he was running to, where they could possibly _go,_ but he figured that once they reached the cliffs, the humans would try to find a way to get them all down. At least that way, the army pokémon that lacked wings couldn't follow them.

Redclaw was so lost in thought, and so focused on running that he almost didn't leap out of the way in time when the ground in front of him exploded, sending a shower of dirt raining onto the ground. Snowcrystal cried out as the arcanine landed awkwardly, almost stumbling before he found his footing again. Redclaw glanced up toward the sky, realizing that a salamence had fired some sort of attack, and it had nearly struck him.

Panic spurred the fleeing group onward, but Solus's pokémon were closing in. Somewhere to Redclaw's left, huge chunks of earth were sent flying into the air. Another beam struck the ground not far from Rosie, and he heard the ninetales shriek in fear.

Up ahead, Spark skidded to a halt, shooting a bolt of lighting into the air. Though the flying pokémon were well out of reach, it caused a few of the leading ones to swerve back, giving Redclaw and the others more time. The jolteon bounded forward and kept running, firing bolts of electricity as high as he could, hoping it would at least keep some of Solus's pokémon back.

Redclaw ran as fast as his paws could carry him without leaving any of the others behind. Panic was lending the group speed; they were closing the distance between themselves and the cliffs fast. Redclaw could now make out Dusk and Arien's forms clearly in the distance.

Dusk, however, wasn't staying still. Instead, the absol was charging right toward them, in spite of his limp. The dark type met up with the fleeing group faster than Redclaw expected, charging past them and firing a charged razor wind attack at the front runners of Solus's group. Redclaw heard cries as at least a few of them tumbled to the ground. Dusk turned and caught up with them, charging another attack in case any came too close. Redclaw was dismayed to see that his limp had suddenly grown worse, aggravated by his frantic dash.

The ground shook with a deafening crash; another hyper beam had slammed the earth right behind them. The shockwaves had not stopped reverberating through Redclaw's paws before another attack hit, somewhere to his left. They were now within range of most of the flyers, and Redclaw could see a blast of flame that nearly reached Stormblade and Alex.

Dusk skidded a stop with a cry of pain, wrenching his injured paw off the ground. The absol hesitated, then turned toward his enemies.

"No!" Stormblade shouted to him. "Keep going!"

"But Stormblade-" the absol began.

"You can't fight them! They'll catch up!" the scyther shouted over his shoulder.

Dusk gritted his teeth and turned back around, following with the others as fast as his injury would allow. Redclaw slowed enough to be running side by side with the absol, knowing he could at least try to block any fire attacks that came his way.

"Spark!" Stormblade cried. The scyther was now almost matched in pace with Spark and Thunder at the head of the group. "Get to Arien! Find a-"

From further behind, Redclaw and Dusk had to leap aside as another attack from above came dangerously close. The pokémon following them would soon be close enough that they wouldn't miss.

"Go ahead..." Stormblade said through gritted teeth as he glanced at the jolteon. "Find a way for us to get down!"

"Storm, we can't make it down there. We need to activate the portal."

"No..." Stormblade replied, fighting to speak while gasping for breath. "Get Arien, the humans...find a way..."

The jolteon shot Stormblade a helpless look before he nodded, then sped up.

Up above, Fernwing and Ray were firing attacks at the flying pokémon behind them whenever they could. Fernwing was trying to use herself as a diversion, skillfully dodging attacks blown her way from afar. It was clear, however, that if her enemies got closer, she wouldn't find it easy to dodge them. There was nowhere for her to hide out in the open.

The arch loomed closer, and Spark, ahead of the rest, skidded to a stop within earshot of Arien. "Find a way down!" he shouted to the alakazam. "We have to hide!"

"There's nowhere to hide! Are you mad?" Arien shouted back at him, his voice uncharacteristically panicked. Spark realized that he was hunched over by the arch, a psychic glow surrounding him. He was straining to detect anything that might give him a hint, help him find something he hadn't noticed before.

Spark glanced over his shoulder. His friends had almost reached them, but Solus's small army was right on their heels. "Arien, we need to get down! At least the runners won't follow us there!" As he spoke, his eyes wandered toward the limp form of a stranger. The yanmega, lying ragged and motionless on the ground. If the situation had been less dire, he would have questioned Arien about it, but seeing as the bug type didn't look to be in any state to attack anyone, he decided to ignore it. Whether it was part of Solus's group or not, it didn't matter. "Look, Arien, if we stay on these cliffs, we're going to get killed!"

The alakazam didn't move, and Spark gave a cry of both frustration and fear. Behind him, he could hear Dusk's voice as the absol ran with the rest of the group.

"Arien! Activate the portal!"

"He _can't!_ " Spark cried back at him. Seeing the wild look in Dusk's eyes as the absol approached, Spark realized the dark type was becoming panicked, for both himself and all the others. He wasn't speaking rationally. "The portal _won't work!_ "

The others were almost upon him now, and Spark realized they were wasting time. He darted to the edge of the cliff himself, peering over for any sign of a way down. He doubted the flying types would be able to carry each member of the group to the bottom fast enough. However, all that he was met with was a sheer drop.

"Arien!" Dusk called from somewhere close by. "Try harder! You're a psychic!"

"Stop!" Rosie cried, and the panic in her voice made Spark's heart wrench. "It's just an arch!" The ninetales sounded close to hysteria. "There's no portal!"

An attack from the enemy pokémon made the ground beneath Spark's feet shake, even though he was quite some distance away. Every hair on his body stood on end, sharpening into spines against his will. There was nowhere to go. The trainers might get a head start on their flying pokémon, but how far could they go? They had Blazefang with them; Solus wasn't going to give up easily.

Somewhere in his haze of fear, Spark could still hear Dusk shouting, and in response, Rosie was shouting back.

"There isn't a portal! It's just a bunch of rocks! There is...no...portal!"

Rosie's words repeated over and over again in the jolteon's head. _Portal...arch..._ it was all beginning to become background noise to the certain death that was stampeding their way. He closed his eyes, willing himself to think, willing some stroke of brilliance to come to him, some way he could figure out how to save himself and the others.

But it wasn't a thought that came to him. Instead, a strange sound pierced his ears, and it took him a moment to realize that it was a weak cry coming from the fallen yanmega. Why it had stood out to him amongst the noise and confusion, Spark wasn't sure. The dragonfly creature wasn't far in front of Spark's fleeing friends, but it didn't even seem to notice them, nor the pokémon in the air.

The yanmega weakly staggered to its six legs. Spark could tell that it was barely able to stand; it was hanging onto life by a thread. Why he had stopped trying to think in order to pay attention to it, the jolteon didn't know.

But as he watched it, he realized that the yanmega's head was turned in the direction of the arch. Then, using what must have been the last of its strength, it lifted into the air and headed towards it.

There was no mistaking it; the half-dead yanmega was clearly making the arch its goal, and for no reason that Spark could think of other than that Dusk and Rosie had been shouting about it.

Spark knew the yanmega would have no reason to listen to them, no reason to take anything they said seriously. To an outsider, they probably looked like mad pokémon, shouting about a portal the way they were. But as the jolteon watched the bug type, he realized that something in the yanmega's ravaged mind must have focused on what they'd said without realizing how absurd it sounded.

Spark watched the winged pokémon – which was now close enough to identify by scent as a male – shakily fly toward the arch, probably not even knowing exactly why he was doing it. Or maybe, Spark thought, he was just desperate for any sort of hope and delirious enough that a magical portal existing in the arch right in front of him seemed plausible.

Spark wasn't sure why, but he wanted to get the yanmega's attention. Perhaps he could tell them what was happening, or perhaps he had an idea. Both thoughts were stupid, Spark knew; there was nothing a weak and dying pokémon could do to help them. But he called out anyway, more out of sheer desperation than anything. Not surprisingly, his cries were ignored. He could hear Dusk and the others approaching fast, and right before he turned to look at them, he saw the yanmega reach the arch and fly underneath it.

And then vanish.

At the front of the running group, Dusk skidded to a halt. His eyes were wide with disbelief, and it took a nudge from Rosie for him to keep running to Arien again. As they sped toward him, Spark continued to stare, his mouth agape. He couldn't help but voice his astonishment.

"Why'd the portal open for _that guy?_ "

"Spark, go through it now!" Stormblade called out.

Spark was about to comply when Arien cried out. The psychic type's eyes were wide as he turned again to the portal. "It's stopped."

"What?" Spark repeated, dread filling his heart at the words. He raced to the alakazam's side.

"It's inactive!"

"What do you mean it's not active? You just saw him go through it!"

"There's no energy coming from it anymore!"

"Spark!" Stormblade shouted. His voice was close enough that shouting wouldn't have been necessary were it not from the pokémon attacks pounding the ground, closer and closer to them. "What happened?"

"I don't know! Arien, what did he do? What did that yanmega do?" Spark turned to the alakazam desperately.

"He didn't do _anything-_ "

Stormblade, Dusk and Redclaw skidded to a halt in front of them, followed shortly by Wildflame, Rosie, and Alex. Thunder was already on the cliff edge; Spark hadn't even noticed her stopping.

"Well, look what a mess you've gotten us into," the scarred scyther growled, her comment likely aimed at the group as a whole rather than any one pokémon. She turned and glared at the oncoming army, narrowing her eyes grimly as she raised her scythes.

Spark angled his head toward the pokémon in the air. His trainer, Justin, stared back at him. He heard the boy shout to Damian, telling him to fly down to pick up Spark. The jolteon, lost for words, just shook his head frantically, hoping Justin could see. _'No...'_ he thought. _'Keep going. You could make it...'_

But instead, Fernwing dove toward the ground. He heard Katie shout something, heard Stormblade and Arien arguing as the scyther flew back through the arch, proving that the portal was once again useless. An attack from one of Solus's pokémon struck close to the arch, sending pieces of rock flying over the cliff edge and into space.

"Spark!" Justin cried, reaching out his hand as Fernwing neared the ground.

Then Spark felt something that sent chills down his spine. It was a feeling like powerful energy... _radiating from the arch._ The pokémon close enough to feel what Spark had turned their heads and looked at it.

They didn't need Arien to tell them it was active.

"Katie!" Damian shouted, shooting a glance toward the pidgeot circling uncertainly above them. "We've got it to work!"

Katie and her mount shot down toward them as Damian turned to the others. "All together now," he said, clutching Blazefang closer to him as Todd gripped his shoulder. Fernwing cast a nervous glance at the army that was quickly approaching. As soon as Katie joined them, Damian gave a shout, and they charged toward the arch as one, pokémon with wings at the front. A few at a time, but quickly in succession, each of them passed through it.

Then they began to fall.

On the back of Fernwing, Justin had been clinging tightly to the tropius's pack, calling out for his jolteon. But now, he couldn't feel the grass type beneath him, couldn't hear any of the other pokémon, although he knew they had to be there. He was free-falling in complete darkness, or maybe it was nothingness rather than darkness. For a moment, he wondered if they'd all just foolishly jumped to their deaths.

Then they hit something. The movement jarred him enough that he fell off the tropius's back, tumbling through some sort of bush and hitting the ground. He lay stunned, though he realized from a distinct lack of injuries that he must have really only fallen a few feet. He coughed as he lay there, feeling too dizzy to get up. After a moment, he realized he could see again.

There wasn't much to see, however; the bush he had fallen through, which surrounded him on all sides, was thick and blocked everything else from view. He also figured it must be near nighttime in...wherever they were, because it was much darker. At least, he realized, it was cooler.

Justin suddenly remembered the bloodthirsty pokémon that had been chasing them, and he flattened himself to the ground, hoping that if they could follow, they would miss him and just charge on by.

He realized a moment later that such a thing would be impossible; all around him he could hear the others struggling through bushes, calling out to one another, and likely drawing the attention of anything hostile. "Get _down!_ " he hissed at them, although he knew it was pointless. After what seemed like a few minutes of chaos, pokémon crying out and everyone stomping through more bushes like his own, the others quieted down, and he heard his fellow trainers speak.

"Can they come after us?" That was Katie's voice.

"No," Damian responded. "Arien says it isn't active."

"They can't activate it, can they?"

"They must be trying right now, and it's not working...I don't think they can get in."

" _Yet._ "

"I don't know...Arien says there's something different this time. I don't think they're getting through."

"Well...why did it work for us then? When it didn't before?"

Justin pushed himself to his hands and knees, wincing as twigs and branches scraped his skin. "Would you guys stop?" he cried, still reluctant to leave what little shelter he had.

"The portal isn't opening," Damian told him. "They would have had time to get in already. I think we're safe, Justin."

His words were calm enough to be reassuring, and in spite of his wariness, Justin relaxed a bit.

"And..." Katie added, "you'd better get up and look at this."

Unsure of what he was going to find, Justin slowly stood up, pushing aside the bush's branches as he fought his way to his feet. Once he could stand fully, he stepped back from the bush, his eyes growing wide as he stared in awe at what surrounded him.

Trees taller than the tallest skyscrapers in Stonedust City, some nearly as wide. A canopy so thick that it blocked out much of the light, making it seem like they were in a gigantic cave, the trees taking the place of stone pillars. Thick vegetation carpeted the ground where small amounts of light flickered through from the branches seeming as high as the clouds above his head.

The trees seemed to span endlessly in either direction, and Justin took a wobbly step back, finding the sight dizzying. "Where are we?" he managed to gasp.

Katie shot him a glance that looked just as confused as he felt. She shakily held up her pokégear, turning on the map feature. Her eyes lit up in surprise as she waited for the data to load. "Well...it still works. We have to be in Inari..." Though she seemed relieved that they hadn't landed in a completely different dimension, her eyes narrowed in concern as she watched the screen. "But...I'm not getting a location."

"...What do you mean?"

"Look, according to every map I've ever seen, every book I've ever read...according to everything I've ever heard about our region...this place _doesn't exist._ There are no pictures of it, no mentions of it anywhere-" She held up her pokégear map, which had come up blank. "I haven't even heard _rumors_ of anything like this!"

"Maybe it's a protected place?" Justin suggested. "A sanctuary of some sort?"

"Humans couldn't keep a place like this secret!" Katie retorted. "They-" She paused, her expression changing suddenly to one of realization. "The legendary...of course this couldn't have been any _human's_ doing. The legendary must be behind this, and is somewhere in the forest. And we're going to need to start looking." She strode forward through the bushes.

"Uh, Katie?" Damian stammered. "We need a plan first. We-"

Katie, however, didn't seem inclined to listen. She kept walking, not even caring that the other trainers and the pokémon were still waiting back where they'd fallen.

"Wait!" Justin cried, nearly stumbling as he tried to follow her. "W-why did the portal work? Why would it just-"

"I don't know, okay?" Katie answered, turning around to look at him. "But right now, I don't care. Let's go."

"Hang on a moment! Maybe Damian's right-"

As the two trainers argued, Snowcrystal narrowed her eyes as she thought back on their recent escape. "Wait a minute..." she whispered. She turned to Spark, who was sitting beside her. "Spark, we saw that yanmega go in the portal first. I don't know what he was doing out there, but he was being _chased._ He ran into us right before...before..."

"Before what?" Spark asked.

Snowcrystal gave a small gasp. "Before Solus came! But Spark, that's not what I-" She turned away from him, rushing to Arien's side. "Look, I need you to tell Damian something, okay?" she told the alakazam. "It's important."

Katie was still marching ahead, willing the stunned pokémon and trainers behind her to follow, when Damian called out to her.

"Wait!"

"What?" she called back to him, aggravated.

"You saw that yanmega go through the portal first, right?" he called.

"Yeah, I did. It was weird. Now can we go?"

"Arien says that...that Snowcrystal and the others told him the yanmega wasn't with Solus's group."

"Clearly not," Katie retorted. She hadn't gotten a good look at the yanmega, being so far above it on her pidgeot's back, but it had been clear to her that it had been weak and flying listlessly.

"They said it was being _chased,_ " Damian added.

Katie paused, turning back to him.

"They say that Solus...wasn't expecting to find Blazefang, or any of us," Damian continued. "He and his pokémon were following that yanmega."

She watched as Justin rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Now why would Cyclone's army be after one yanmega?"

Immediately after he spoke, the entire group fell silent. As soon as he'd said it, Katie had known the answer, and she could tell from the looks of horror on the others' faces, Justin's included, that they had realized it as well.

" _Because that thing has a Forbidden Attack..._ " Katie whispered. She turned toward Damian, who looked as shocked as she was. "Then we have to find the yanmega," she said. "Before it does any damage. And let's just hope this legendary knows how to sort it out too."

"But first, we need a plan," Damian said again. "And some of the pokémon need help."

Katie sighed, knowing he was right, and trudged through the undergrowth back to the group. "Well," she sighed, sitting down on one of the bare patches of ground, "all I can say is that...this legendary better be able to tell us what we need to know."

_To be continued..._


	71. Haven

There was still a day or two left before Solus was likely to return.

Ashend hovered silently at the edge of the camp, facing the direction she knew Yenn had gone. The misdreavus hoped that there would be no news, no scouts coming back to tell Cyclone that his twisted plan had succeeded. But deep inside, there was a part of her that wished news would come. She hated not knowing, having to wonder whether Yenn was dead or alive. She had found out from one of Cyclone's commanders that he had flown into a desert. A _desert._

He was probably dead, she had forced herself to admit. There was not nearly enough food in a desert to satisfy a yanmega's extremely high energy needs, and she had no idea if there was even water on the surface. Feeling tears starting to form, she closed her eyes and lowered her head. _'Not now...'_ she told herself. _'Not while they could be watching.'_ With great effort, she pushed the thought away.

"Ashend?" a quiet voice said behind her.

The ghost type turned to see Itora. The manectric was standing with her tail hung low. Luckily, there was no one else with her, but Ashend knew that they were in view of scattered groups of nearby army pokémon.

"Yes, Itora?" she asked, managing to wipe the emotion from her face.

"Don't worry, no one's around to hear us, and they don't have any psychic types as strong as Solus who can read our minds from here." She slowly trotted over and then sat beside where the misdreavus was hovering. The wind blew furrows in the patches of fur on her head and shoulders. "So...what are we going to do?" the manectric asked after a few moments. "About everything Cyclone's-"

"I don't know yet," Ashend snapped, but seeing Itora's surprised look, her expression softened. "I don't think there's anything I can do now, but I'm learning everything I can about Cyclone and the strongest who work for him."

"I could help, you know. I-"

Ashend shook her head. "It's too dangerous. Observe what you can, but don't go looking for trouble." There was another silent pause after the statement.

"I don't think Silverbreeze believed me when I said I used Voltgale today," Itora whispered.

Ashend looked to her in alarm.

"She didn't do anything, I swear," Itora insisted. "I told her to go stick her head in a magmortar's arm cannon. Then she just wanted me gone."

Ashend moved closer to her. "Dear, they haven't noticed anything odd about-"

"They think I'm mad at _Yenn,_ don't worry," the manectric replied, her eyes downcast.

"Listen..." Ashend took a deep breath. "Itora, when Solus and the others...come back...I want you to stay in your cave for a long time. They know we care...cared...about Yenn, but they don't have to find out how much we know. Solus will be busy with Cyclone at first, so we need to make sure they..." Her voice faltered. "If anything happened to you too, I'd..."

"They won't, I promise!" Itora protested. She perked her ears up, trying to seem strong and determined for Ashend. "Look at them over there," she said, turning her head to where the nearest army pokémon were resting, on break from training. "Most of them are too stupid to-"

"Itora, you can't just assume that," Ashend said seriously. "They _can't know._ Nothing is more important than that right now."

Itora turned her head away. After a moment, she said, "I wanted to kill a few humans for him. Find some in white coats...the humans in the lab Yenn was in couldn't have been much different from mine...shock the life out of them. He said he'd do the same for me."

Ashend didn't reply at first. Her eyes narrowed, and she looked for a moment as if she was about to use an attack. "I want to kill _Cyclone_ first," she hissed.

Itora gave her a look of surprise, then a worried glance back at the groups of army pokémon in the near distance. "Ashend, you can't say that out loud!"

"You said they can't hear us," the misdreavus responded dryly.

"Yes, but...Ashend, how would you ever do that? We can't even get Cyclone alone now, and his Acidstorm attack is far more powerful than-"

"I don't know, Itora, and it may be a long time before I do. But after what he did to Yenn, I'll make sure it happens, one way or another."

Itora said nothing and stared at the ground. She suddenly wondered if anyone would think they were acting suspicious, staring out over the landscape like that, but Ashend didn't seem worried.

"I was the first of us to be accepted into the army," Ashend said quietly. Her voice had a hollow, pained tone to it, and there was a faraway look in her eyes. She seemed lost in a memory, and Itora remained quiet as she continued. "It wasn't long after that Blazefang houndour had left. Everyone talked about it back then, but at the time, Cyclone simply didn't have the resources to go after him. He tried, but there weren't enough pokémon and Blazefang took a dangerous route. Cyclone gave up and sought other stones and, well, very soon, learned the location of two of them."

"Bug and ghost," Itora said.

"Yes," Ashend replied. "I believe he found out about the bug one first. Maybe even before I arrived. When he told me about this, I thought he was going to hand it over to Silverbreeze. You see, it wasn't as hard for him to get our stones as it was yours. The legendaries didn't know their locations, so they weren't guarding them. I'm not sure who was, if anyone. I wasn't there for either retrieval. But for whatever reason, he didn't give it to Silverbreeze. He had some pokémon retrieve the stone, and he just kept it. Soon after that, I was given my own. I still don't know where he got it."

"Then they brought in Yenn." Ashend's voice shook, but she carried on. "I can imagine how Cyclone and Solus decided he was suitable. Someone they deemed 'broken' enough to be manipulated the way they wanted him to. Just like me. But of course, we didn't know that then. And in the beginning, I think Cyclone did care about us. Not as much as his own agenda, but I do believe...he cared. At first.

"Yenn didn't act nearly so calm back then. He would often go into a panic, or start screaming at the underlings and even the higher ranking pokémon. Cyclone ordered them all to be patient with him and leave him alone, no matter how much of a...'scene,' as Cyclone put it, he was making. I didn't pay much attention at first. I just ignored Yenn, like I ignored every other pokémon – save for Cyclone and the ones who brought me food and other comforts – and Yenn didn't try to talk to me either. Whenever we were forced together, we seemed to have a sort of unsaid rule to keep to ourselves. I didn't want to bother with Yenn at all; he always acted so angry.

"After a few weeks, Yenn started focusing that anger elsewhere. He was very enthusiastic about stopping the humans, and much more outspoken about it than I was. He later told me that having a solid goal helped him focus on other things, gave him hope. I can also remember some things, things that didn't seem important at the time, that Cyclone and his higher ups said to him. They told him that he needed to focus if he didn't want more pokémon to be tortured by humans, or for the humans to come after him, and that if he did everything right...everything they wanted him to...we could stop the humans and it would all be over. They said the same sorts of things to me, and to you."

Itora's eyes narrowed as she tried to think back to what was said to her, whether anything sounded odd, but Ashend continued speaking and she directed her attention once again to the misdreavus.

"Obviously, I had no idea what he and I were getting into. One night, though, I couldn't get some of the things that had happened to me at Team Rocket out of my head. I went out of my shelter and in a fit of anger I started using psychic to throw rocks around. It was silly, but I was so upset I didn't know what else to do. There weren't many pokémon around, and I think the other army pokémon must have tried to steer clear of me.

"Then Yenn appeared. He had been flying close by and spotted me, and for some reason I didn't understand, he stopped. He had been acting calmer than he previously had by then, but it had been one of his bad days as well. I had heard him screaming hardly an hour ago...much like I was at that moment, but he had calmed down by the time he saw me.

"I just sort of stared at him for a moment, not caring what he might think of me and ready to go on ignoring him. But he came right up to me. And he just said 'The humans did something terrible to you too, didn't they?'

"It was obvious what the answer was; Cyclone had let it be known that we had had horrific experiences at the hand of humans, and Yenn couldn't exactly hide his scar. But up until that point, I had mostly kept hidden away. He hadn't seen my anger or sadness. I had no scars. Maybe he had just assumed that I was calmly fighting for the freedom of other pokémon, that I didn't really have any lasting anger of my own. I guess he realized then that I'd just been hiding it.

"Then he told me I wasn't alone, that I could go to him if I needed help. I guess I was surprised...Cyclone had given me understanding, but he had never asked for me to come to him for something like that. Yenn told me that I didn't have to right then, or ever if I didn't want to, just that I could. I decided I wanted to be alone that night, but the next night...I decided to reach out to him. And the night after that.

"It didn't take us long to become friends. The other army pokémon were just doing their jobs, but Yenn actually took the time to listen. Cyclone was often busy and well...we both know what his true colors are now. But neither I nor Yenn had anyone ordering us around, or places we needed to be. We spent a lot of time together, and found we could talk about happy things sometimes. It was so nice to finally be able to laugh again, to talk about things like normal pokémon. After all my time in Team Rocket, I had almost forgotten how.

"Then you came along. In the weeks Yenn and I had known each other, we had become more relaxed, and opening up to you was easy."

Itora was still silent, thinking back to her own introduction to Cyclone's army. It had seemed so welcoming at first; she had been given food, safety, power...but Cyclone had been using them the entire time.

"I wanted to protect you two," Ashend continued. "I thought we were doing the right thing by following Cyclone's plan. I didn't care about him killing legendaries. After all, what had the legendaries ever done for me? But now that he has probably killed Yenn...I hate him. I hate him more than the humans. And Acidstorm or not, if he so much as lays a paw on you, I will make him regret it tenfold."

"Well, then I'll help you, Ashend. We'll find a way to make him die, even if it's not by our own attacks. Then we'll figure out what to do with the humans."

Ashend gave her a grim smile, but something told her that they were unlikely to get a chance to attack Cyclone and also escape with their lives. "Don't do anything rash," she warned. "If we attempted it now, we'd both end up dead. But we'll wait. We'll learn everything Cyclone and Solus know."

Itora turned her gaze back to the horizon. "I bet Yenn's still alive," she said. "I bet he's shown Solus a thing or two as well."

Ashend smiled. Though she couldn't quite share Itora's optimism, she didn't want to give in to defeat. Until she learned otherwise, Yenn was alive. Until she knew Solus had killed him, she wouldn't give the sadistic espeon or his followers the credit. And when the day came that Solus returned, the espeon would be wise to watch his back.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Trees...there were trees all around him. Enormous trees.

_Where was he?_

Yenn was flying as fast as his dying body would let him. Everything around him was bathed in a murky light, and with his fading senses, the outlines of the trees seemed to blur into each other, creating confusing patterns. Frightening images leapt at him from the gloom.

He faltered, and for a moment he was heading straight for the ground, the world tilting sideways.

Then he managed to right himself, barely swerving with enough time to avoid a large object that could have been a tree or boulder. His vision swam; everything was going dark.

He couldn't stop. They were...no, something was chasing him. Something was after him, and there would be terrible pain if it caught him. He had to...he had to...

The yanmega blacked out for a moment, his wings clipping painfully on the side of a tree. He almost allowed himself to fall to the ground.

Then hazy images started to appear through the blackness. Smeared objects that he knew were trees flickered in front of him. A beam of light coming through a break in the branches seemed to stand out from the muddy blur.

Something glimmered on the forest floor.

It was thin and winding, snaking through the trunks of the trees. As he tried to look at the shimmering patch, he realized that it moved, rippled like...water.

He headed toward it, realizing as he got closer that it was a stream, just barely distinguishable through the muddled objects fading in and out from the blackness of his vision. He readied himself to land on the bank, but his movements faltered, and he found himself splashing into the water.

Yenn's legs collapsed beneath him, but luckily the water was very shallow and his head did not go under. His body started to shake, seizing from the cold, so drastically different from the heat of the desert. For a few moments it felt hard to breathe.

He tried to focus on what he could see above him, the waving beams of light coming down from the treetops so high above. He wanted to cry out for help; he was vaguely aware that the sudden temperature change was such a shock to his system that it threatened to throw him into unconsciousness. Some part of him was confused at his reaction; the small part of his mind that was still rational knew that the stream itself couldn't be so terribly cold, as the forest was green with the coming of summer.

His vision went black, but the muffled forest sounds around him remained. He lay still, feeling his awareness flickering in and out, before light and color began to return again.

As soon as it did, he shakily stood up and lowered his head to the stream's surface. He began gulping down water, losing track of everything else around him. He wasn't quite sure the cool water wasn't some sort of vivid hallucination or dream, but at least if it was, it was a good one. As he drank, he momentarily forgot that anything was following him.

After he finally finished, his mind felt clearer, and his vision was steadier. He lifted his wet wings, gave them a small shake, and weakly forced himself back up into the air. He flew the short distance to the bank, then collapsed. In spite of finding water, Yenn didn't think he had enough strength to fly up to a tree branch in order to rest. He had spent his last bit of energy on finding water, and now that he had it, he could go no further. He would have to sleep on the ground.

It was then that he remembered the fear. Something was coming for him. His mind couldn't grasp any details, couldn't remember what had led him to where he was, but he knew he had been in grave danger.

He could see a few large bushes near the stream, a short distance from where he lay. If nothing else, he could at least rest under them to be safer from the watching eyes of whatever was following him. With his last bit of willpower, he forced himself to fly to the bushes and crawl underneath. He had to curl up to fit beneath the bush's leaves, but it would at least keep the red of his eyes and spots from standing out amongst the green.

If anything was still coming after him, there was nothing he could do. He had been awake for so long, flying for so long, starving, dying of thirst...he had no more energy to keep fleeing. He couldn't think...could only lie down...

Before he knew it, he had slipped into sleep, lying beneath the bush near the bank of a sparkling stream.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal and the others rested right beside where the portal, which had transported them to the forest just minutes before, had vanished. Trees reaching higher than many of the tallest buildings surrounded them, their thick roots spreading across the ground. The uppermost portions of the trees were impossible to see through the mass of leaves and branches far overhead, and pokémon cries of all kinds echoed back at them on all sides.

On the forest floor, the group of travelers huddled in a ragtag circle, trying to catch their breath and plan their next course of action. Pokémon sprawled out in the bushes, beneath clumps of ferns, or even over tree roots as they lay, both exhausted and overwhelmed by what they saw around them. At the base of one of the enormous trees, Damian quietly checked Nightshade for new injuries while Thunder looked on. Beside him, Katie was cleaning the scratches on Wildflame's face.

Luckily, there had been no serious injuries from the brief battle, only scrapes and bruises. The pokémon were more tired than anything, and still trying to wrap their minds around everything that had occurred.

"Okay," Katie said once she was sure that Wildflame's wounds were clean. "Arien, ask the pokémon what they know about this yanmega and anything those pokémon out in the desert might have said about it." She gave a nod to both the alakazam and Damian.

The pokémon conversed quietly while the three trainers waited. To their surprise, Nightshade joined in the conversation as well. Less surprisingly, Thunder hung back a short distance from the main group, looking appalled that they were even discussing seeking out a strange pokémon.

"Well," Damian said after a few minutes, "Arien told me that Nightshade and the others who stayed by the rocks saw the yanmega up close. He said it was a young adult male, very sickly looking, and he had a scar...something like this..." He leaned down and made a long mark in the soil with his finger, intersecting it with smaller marks.

"That's weird...but it'll be immediately recognizable at least," Katie stated, though she sounded less than hopeful. "But a forest this big is bound to have hundreds of yanmega in it, probably thousands. And even if the one from the desert didn't get far, we could be looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Arien also told me that Wildflame thinks this yanmega is named 'Yenn.' That espeon working for Cyclone...Solus...he or one of his pokémon mentioned the name before we came to help." Damian turned to the other trainer. "At least that gives us something more."

"Yeah, let's ask around and see if any of the forest creatures happen to know a random pokémon's name," Justin scoffed.

"It might be useful when we do find him," Katie argued. "Tell him we know who he is and want to get him away from those maniacal pokémon chasing him."

"Yeah, sure," Justin muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, obviously the yanmega's going to be looking for water," Katie said, ignoring him. "We'll find ponds and streams and start from there so we-"

"Well," Justin muttered, suddenly seeming very uneasy about the whole prospect, "it probably already found water and continued flying. I mean, it thinks pokémon are trying to kill it. Shouldn't we _not_ go charging after it now that it's been chased for who knows how long? If it has a Forbidden Attack, and it's weak, it'll probably fire it at any living thing it finds following it."

There was silence, and Spark suddenly looked to Justin with wide-eyed fear. Katie and Damian exchanged glances.

"Good point," Damian said. "We'd better wait. Give him time to rest, and time to realize that Cyclone's pokémon aren't coming after him. That'll give us time to rest too."

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't start getting a head start on finding out where he might have gone," Katie responded. "And we shouldn't wait longer than a day or two, in case this pokémon really does have a Forbidden Attack."

"This is crazy," Justin muttered, turning away from the trainers and the quietly waiting pokémon. "What do you expect to do with this thing once we find it?"

"Hopefully the legendary has an idea," Katie replied.

"Oh, right," Justin mumbled. "Here's _hoping._ "

Katie ignored him, pulling out her pokégear. After a few taps and swipes of the screen, she had pulled up a three-dimensional rotating image of a yanmega. The small blurb of information next to the image made Justin scowl as he looked over Katie's shoulder.

"Katie, this says here that a yanmega's wings can create shockwaves strong enough to cause serious _internal damage._ That and they're pretty infamous for being good at biting apart the heads of other creatures. Forbidden Attack or not, you've got to be insane to want to go after this thing."

Katie gave him a glare. "You see this forest? You want it destroyed?"

"A yanmega is a killing machine! It's basically like a scyther that has more powerful wings, only with bigger teeth instead of blades," Justin retorted.

From the center of the group of pokémon, Katie saw Stormblade flinch a little and draw back. She turned to Justin again and said, "Yeah, you're right. One and the same. Things Justin really should stop being afraid of. Your jolteon could kill you just about as easily."

"Uh...look guys," Damian said worriedly, not wanting a fight to escalate. "We have some time to figure out what to do. This yanmega _is_ a wild pokémon and we don't know how he reacts around strangers. We'll be cautious, Justin."

Katie flicked her finger over the 'more information' section on the pokédex screen, revealing a new page of listed facts. She read over them while the others rested in silence.

Watching her, Snowcrystal suddenly felt bad that she had left the first aid kit she'd carried across the desert back at the rocks. She knew the trainers had plenty of other medical supplies, but it still made her feel like she had somehow failed her companions, even if in a small way. The humans and the other pokémon had done so much for her. And it wasn't only them who had, but many others as well. Moonlight and Darkfang had lost their lives. Darkfang had died trying to save them down in the tunnels. She suddenly felt a new wave of sorrow as the thought crossed her mind, and she wished more than anything she could have thanked him.

Suddenly she felt claws rest gently on her back. "Snow?" Nightshade's voice whispered to her. "It's okay. We'll figure this out." She allowed him to draw her closer, resting her head against his side.

"We'd better get moving and at least find a suitable place to camp," Damian called from up ahead. "We'll rest and scout the area for water sources. We can start looking for the yanmega tomorrow. He'll probably be looking for a place to rest too."

"Fine," Justin sighed. "Let's find a place to set up camp so we can go find us our giant flying murder machine."

The weary pokémon all got back to their feet, and after Nightshade was returned inside his poké ball, they set off. Despite the massive size of the forest, there was enough room for several pokémon to walk side by side on the ground. The group bunched together, keeping their eyes and ears out for any sign of potential trouble.

"Wait," Thunder stated to the other pokémon, glaring at the group as they headed off. She had become much more agitated after the humans had returned Nightshade. "Are you just going to let some random stranger come with us? Let the yanmega fend for himself. He's not our problem."

Redclaw looked over his shoulder at her. "If he uses his Forbidden Attack in this forest," he said gravely, "it will be everyone's problem."

The scyther had nothing to say in response. She merely trailed after the group, shooting glares at anyone who turned to look at her.

 

  
**-ooo-**

It wasn't long before Damian had found them a good camping site. Sheltered between two of the massive trees, they set up their tents while the pokémon rested or scouted the nearby area.

Snowcrystal lay at the base of an ancient tree with a large fire scar, a short distance away from Damian's tent. She wanted to be out with Spark and Stormblade and the others who were exploring the forest, but she had decided to stay with Nightshade to wait at the new campsite. As the day wore on into afternoon, she started to feel glad that she'd given her feet a rest. It also allowed her time to take in everything that had happened.

The portal had activated at precisely the right moment, and though she didn't understand why, she wasn't worried about not knowing. There were much bigger things on her mind, and the forest itself provided another new sense of wonder.

She had never even dreamed that trees could be so big. The other forests she'd traveled through had been nothing like this; those trees now seemed like tiny twigs in comparison when she thought back to them. And there were so many _pokémon._ Anywhere she looked, she could see winged pokémon flying, not even seeming to care that the trainers were there. Larger pokémon occasionally wandered through the hazy underbrush in the distance, a few even giving them what looked to be curious glances. Sentret scampered up and down trees, and she even saw several heracross clinging to the branches and trunks higher up.

She wondered how Nightshade felt about being in such a place. From what she could see, he looked awed and amazed. She wondered if, had circumstances been different, Nightshade would have wanted to live here.

Not surprisingly, Thunder had also stayed behind at the camp, and she was currently pacing back and forth in agitation not far from where Snowcrystal was sitting with Nightshade. At least, the growlithe thought, she didn't seem quite as distrustful of the humans, or at least wasn't paying them as much attention. Snowcrystal hoped the fight with Solus had helped convince her, even a little, that the trainers were on their side.

Snowcrystal still wasn't used to seeing Thunder so healthy. She had been very weak and sick before being recaptured by Master, or _Mausk,_ but now she was strong, no longer bearing any serious injuries. She was also missing the old collar she had worn. Mausk must have fit her with one of those deadly ones that detonated, but it had obviously been taken off for the arena fight. Now she was free from any means Mausk used to control her.

A few paces from Snowcrystal and Nightshade, Wildflame was resting, taking in the details of the forest herself. The houndoom looked amazed, her eyes wide as she watched a group of light green and blue vivillon fly far over their heads. "This sure is different than anything we had back by the mountain," she said, her voice full of wonder.

Suddenly, Thunder stopped her pacing and turned her head toward Wildflame. "I saw you standing in front of Nightshade," the scyther said. "Between him and that twisted excuse for an espeon. I guess I can believe you now. You weren't lying."

The houndoom lifted her head in surprise. Thunder had been the one to throw Wildflame's apology back in her face, to tell her that she could never be trusted because of her past lies. "R-really? You do?"

Thunder didn't reply with words, instead just nodding before starting to pace again, this time with less agitation.

"...Thanks," Wildflame told her gratefully.

Thunder didn't respond, but she seemed less on edge, so Snowcrystal relaxed. At least Thunder didn't seem to see the humans as such a large threat anymore, and the growlithe could only hope it would last.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Stormblade appeared through the undergrowth, making Snowcrystal jump. "Everything seems fine," the scyther announced. "The forest pokémon didn't give us any trouble."

"Where are Spark and the others?" Arien asked from beside Damian's tent.

"Still out there exploring," Stormblade replied. "Some of them went to find berries. The native pokémon here don't seem to mind us at all. Well, those that aren't prey species, of course. Some were even friendly."

"Well, that's good news," Arien stated, heaving a sigh of relief. "And it's about time we had some."

As Stormblade took a drink from the bowl of water the trainers had set out, Snowcrystal peered up at the towering trees. "I wonder what the growlithe in my tribe would think if they could see _this,_ " she whispered.

Stormblade lifted his head. "They'd be pretty amazed, that's for sure. I bet they wouldn't have met any flying types that had seen-" He paused, noticing that the growlithe's expression had turned a bit forlorn. "Do you miss them a lot?"

Snowcrystal gave Stormblade a smile, not wanting him to worry. "Yes, but I want to try to help them, and that's why I'm here. If I can't bring Articuno back, well...getting rid of the Forbidden Attacks will make the world safer for everyone. And after they're gone, or put away where no one can find them, Articuno could return."

"I'm sure your tribe will be proud of you," Stormblade responded. "I bet they're thinking of you too. Your parents, family..."

"I hope so. It's not so much my parents I miss, but..." Seeing that Stormblade looked confused, she explained, "My parents...didn't really spend a lot of time raising me. They were important in the tribe and well, I guess they decided they had better things to do. But don't worry, I wasn't lonely! Some of the other adult growlithe took care of me. They pretty much raised me. I really miss them..."

Most of the time, she had tried not to think too hard about her tribe, the growlithe she had left behind. Instead, she had always focused on her goal of helping them. Even if she couldn't save their home, she wanted to make sure they could live in a world safe from the Forbidden Attacks. And to do that, she had to seek the help of other legendaries, as well as the pokémon she had come to know who were now family as well. "Do you miss your old swarm?" she asked Stormblade. "Or whoever you were with before meeting Spark and Justin?"

The scyther was silent for a moment. "Well," he finally said, "of course I do, but that's in the past now. I try not to think about it much." Though the growlithe looked to him curiously, he did not elaborate. "Besides," he said, "I've got you guys."

A shadow passed over the sunlit patches on the ground, causing both the pokémon and the trainers to look up. Fernwing swooped over their heads before landing on the ground near the tents. "Well, I didn't see any yanmega," she told Arien. "Though he can't be far; he would have found someplace to rest. He was in bad shape."

"Maybe we could leave some food for him once we find out where he is," Wildflame suggested. "Show him that we're friendly. Er...that is, if we can find a way to keep the forest pokémon away from the food..."

The tropius gave Wildflame a look that told the houndoom she was skeptical.

"We only have a few hours before it starts getting dark," Stormblade said. "We can look around and ask more of the forest pokémon until then."

"Look, Stormblade. I _asked._ No one saw him," Fernwing protested. "Most pokémon aren't going to be paying attention to what some specific yanmega looks like. If they see one, they're going to focus on moving as fast as they can in the _opposite_ direction."

"We're not going to really start searching until tomorrow," Wildflame sighed. "Give it a rest."

"Katie wanted us to have a head start," Stormblade argued. "Asking the pokémon is a head start."

"I'm surprised we haven't seen a Forbidden Attack going off already," Blazefang muttered.

"Well, it's not likely anything's going to bother a yanmega, is it?" Wildflame asked.

"Of course it's likely," Blazefang snapped. "We're the idiots who are going to do it!"

"Hey, look," Stormblade interjected. "I think if he was going to use his Forbidden Attack on anything that looked at him funny, it would have happened by now. We ask around, wait until morning to actually seek him out, and I doubt he'll assume we're part of Solus's group."

"Stormblade...you don't know that he feels the same way about the Forbidden Attacks as I do," Blazefang replied shakily.

"He was running away from Solus...doesn't that give you a clue?" Wildflame asked.

Blazefang didn't respond, and the pokémon fell quiet. Soon afterward, the makeshift scouting parties returned and the group gathered together around the tents. Before long, night had fallen over the forest.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn's dreams were a confusing haze of images. Many times he would see pokémon racing across the desert, only to jerk into semi-wakefulness and then fall back into the darkness of the dreams. Several times he would hear Ashend or Itora's voice, stare at the body of the dead smeargle beneath him, or look into Solus and Cyclone's wicked eyes.

In one such dream, trees shot up from the ground around the army's camp. A river ran through the center of it, and a group of bloodthirsty arcanine and rapidash charged through the water as if was not there. Yenn only just then realized that he was hovering at the south end of the river, where it wound into the trees. He could hear the calls of pokémon coming from deep within the woods. They were fighting, or in great distress; Yenn couldn't tell. Then Cyclone was sitting behind him. The vaporeon turned to look into his eyes.

"It was always like that," he said, and some part of Yenn's mind registered that his voice sounded strange and not like Cyclone's at all. "What did I tell you?"

Then Cyclone and the mismatched scenery around him faded, the real world replacing the dream images and showing him a dark mass of leaves through which soft moonlight filtered.

He struggled to collect his thoughts, unsure of where he was or what had happened. The dream was little help; it had seemed so vivid and clear in his mind, almost like it was important, but now that he was awake, he realized that it made no sense at all. His body shook as he recalled the images, but at least the dream hadn't taken him down the darkest path of memory lane, and he was able to will himself to relax.

He tried to recall where he was, and what had happened, but nothing came up. The remnants of the dream tugged at the edges of his mind, telling him there was something he needed to remember, yet he couldn't grasp it. He gave up trying, his mind and body too exhausted to keep up with the whirling thoughts.

After several minutes of lying beneath what he realized was a large bush of some sort, the yanmega lifted his head. His vision swam at first, then it cleared again. He realized he could hear something. Running water.

The sound put his mind on high alert, and his senses became less muddled. It also brought about the sensation of pain. His throat and mouth felt like they had been burned by fire. He cried out, but the cry only came out as a weak gasp. Yenn realized he could taste blood in his mouth, but it was only a small amount, so he knew it wasn't coming from inside him.

He needed to get to the water. Yenn shuffled his six legs, trying to find enough purchase on the ground to lift his body. He hardly had any strength left, but he managed to stand. Focused on the sound of the running water nearby, he crawled out of the bush. It was slow going; a yanmega's legs were not well suited to walking, but he knew he lacked the strength to fly. His wings simply dragged on the ground beside him.

He came upon a shallow stream and lowered his head to the water. It burned his throat as he drank it, but he did not care. Once he had his fill, he let himself collapse on the bank.

Yenn was sure he was about to drift into sleep again, and as the thought struck him, so did the memory of the dream. As he pictured the arcanine and rapidash running through the dream-river, everything came back to him all at once.

His mind raced in panic, his wings fluttering but his body still staying pathetically on the ground. He was fleeing from Solus, who, under Cyclone's orders, was out for his blood. His heart raced and he found himself staring through the trees, imagining that every pokémon cry or rustle of bushes was an enemy waiting to strike. His whole body froze as if his limbs had suddenly locked into place, and he found himself almost too terrified to move.

Then he realized that the sounds of the creatures around him were not frantic, not organized, not malicious. They were pokémon going about their normal nighttime activities. No one was crashing through the undergrowth, screaming at the forest pokémon or shouting orders. The place was peaceful. He could not fully put to rest the fear he felt of his would-be murderers, but he could tell that, by some miracle, they hadn't followed him into the forest. If they had, they would have already found him, or he would at least have heard some type of commotion.

He focused on what he could see around him, not able to make out much detail in the darkness, but nonetheless able to tell that he was in a forest like no other he had ever seen. His memories of the desert came back stronger, leaving him confused and lost. How had he gotten here? He remembered some pokémon shouting about a...portal? Then he'd landed in the stream. Yet apart from that, he couldn't recall anything that had happened after he'd realized that Solus's group was finally closing in for the kill.

' _A portal?'_ he thought, finding the idea absurd but too exhausted to care much. Somehow, he had ended up in a massive forest, and if Solus and the army pokémon had been able to follow him in, he would have been dead by now.

He let the thought sink in. Somehow, by what could be nothing short of a miracle, he was alive and had escaped Solus. He had ended up in a place where the espeon and Cyclone's army could not follow. Something had happened that he didn't understand. It didn't matter. He was safe from them... _safe..._

Yenn felt such a flood of relief that he started to wonder if it was still some sort of dream. Less than a day ago, he had been so certain that there was no hope, that he was going to die, that all his efforts in evading Solus' army and surviving the desert wasteland would amount to nothing. The thought of safety was so incomprehensible, he was afraid to believe it, even while he was standing in an almost surreal oasis.

Yet it was real. The water, the trees around him, the cries of the pokémon...it was all real. He moved the tip of one leg through the water, the doubts easing away from his mind.

As he rested on the edge of the stream bank, he thought back to his two friends at the army, suddenly realizing that they would have no idea he was still alive. For a moment the fear came swarming back to him, this time a fear for his friends, but then he remembered that Solus would return empty clawed. He would have no Forbidden Attack to present Cyclone. Then Ashend and Itora would know he was alive. They wouldn't be left to wonder. He desperately hoped they would be safe, and reminded himself that Ashend would know how to protect Itora.

He lowered his head down in front of the calmly running water. Sleeping there was the smarter option, he thought. He'd need the water as soon as he woke up again. When he'd rested enough, he'd follow the stream until he came upon a suitable place to stay.

The forest would be a place he'd likely stay for a long time, if not the rest of his life. He'd follow the other yanmega when they migrated for the winter, then return, year after year. He was clearly far from Cyclone's army, but he knew that if he ever ventured near them, he would be killed on sight.

For the rest of the night, Yenn drifted in and out of consciousness, confusing thoughts meeting him every time. Yet he had a source of water, and with each time he woke, his mind became a little clearer. But still at the forefront of his mind was the fact that he would never see Ashend or Itora again.

 

  
**-ooo-**

At first light, the group set off through the forest. Both the pokémon and trainers were quiet, speaking only when they thought it was necessary. Everywhere they looked were pokémon of all shapes and sizes, in the undergrowth, climbing in the trees, or soaring above them. Many of them stopped to watch the odd traveling party curiously, as if they'd never seen a human before.

"Arien told me that Fernwing found a river nearby, as well as a stream or two," Damian announced, turning to Katie, who was leading the group.

"We'll go to the river first, then," she said. "That's got to be the most likely place."

"We're not splitting up, right?" Justin grumbled from somewhere behind.

"No," Damian answered, and Katie shot him a glare that he didn't notice.

"It would be faster to go into groups," she protested. "We'll each have powerful pokémon."

"Well," Damian began, "I'm not sure..."

"Katie, Damian's right," Justin insisted. "We don't know what's out there. We should stick together. Sooner or later the forest pokémon will have to have seen it."

"We're not going to cover enough ground that way," Katie replied. "We'll have to split up. Flying pokémon search from the air, water types in the water, the rest of us on foot in groups."

Damian and Justin glanced at each other. "All right," Damian began hesitantly, "but we shouldn't search too far from each other."

"Hopefully we won't have to," Katie said. "And hopefully we don't get caught up in some sort of giant bug infestation or a tornado ripping through the forest...whatever sort of attack this yanmega has."

"We don't know he'd actually use it," Damian cut in. "If he was running from Solus like the pokémon said, he might be just as against it as Blazefang."

"And if not," Katie said, "then the pokémon have some convincing to do. Either way, we need to find this pokémon fast."

In the center of the group, Snowcrystal watched Blazefang struggle over a tree root taller than he was. She pushed her head against his foot to give him leverage, and then jumped up beside him with ease. The houndoom gave her an annoyed glare and leaped down the other side. His injured leg buckled, but he remained standing.

"When we get there," Alex was telling Stormblade, "I'll be swimming up and down the river for any signs of the yanmega. You and the other flying types will search from above. The other pokémon will check out the foliage and..."

As Alex talked to Stormblade and repeated the same thing to Redclaw further ahead, Rosie paused before hesitantly glancing to where Snowcrystal stood, Wildflame and Blazefang beside her. "Are we doing the right thing?" the ninetales asked, sounding uncertain. "Maybe we should be trying to find this legendary as fast as possible. Get out of here before the pokémon with a Forbidden Attack can-"

"No," Wildflame said firmly. "We're doing the right thing. If this legendary can help Blazefang, it can help the other pokémon. The least we can do is try to reason with him."

"The yanmega...Yenn...tried to warn us about Solus," Snowcrystal reminded her. "If he was going to attack us, wouldn't he have already? He could listen to us."

Rosie thought for a moment, but the wary look in her eyes remained. "I guess," she replied.

 

  
**-ooo-**

They could hear the river before they actually saw it. The forest was still bathed in a sort of green twilight, most of the sky blocked by the canopy. Yet up ahead, they could see a bit more light, where the forest surely gave way to open sky to make room for the river.

Nightshade had been sent out of his poké ball to enjoy the forest scenery, riding on Fernwing's back. Though the heracross was still weak and unsteady, he clearly felt calmer among the massive trees, and Fernwing took care to make the flight as smooth for him as possible.

Far above them, a large swarm of butterfree fluttered through the thin shafts of sunlight. Snowcrystal watched them with wide eyes, pondering for a moment what the forest would look like from such a height.

As they walked, four of the butterfree turned away from their group and flew down toward Snowcrystal and the others. They were completely unafraid, seeming more curious than anything. They gathered at the back of the traveling group.

"I've never seen such an odd pack," one of them muttered. "You must be one of the new ones let in."

At this, Wildflame stopped walking. "Let in?"

"Into the forest," the butterfree answered.

"By who?"

"By who?" the butterfree repeated, confused. "From the portal."

The other pokémon had stopped as well, and the three trainers turned, looking confused.

"The portal just...lets pokémon in?" Wildflame asked.

"How does it work?" Snowcrystal added.

The look in the eyes of the four butterfree told Wildflame and Snowcrystal all they needed to know; the butterfree had no idea. Wildflame heaved a sigh.

The butterfree turned their attention to Nightshade and Fernwing, suddenly seeming overjoyed. "They let in another heracross!" one cried. "Please," she asked Nightshade, "come to our part of the forest. You can stay with us."

Snowcrystal was momentarily confused until she remembered that heracross helped release tree sap for the butterfree. Even though she had seen several heracross climbing the trees, she figured the butterfree would want as many as possible to live among them.

"Sorry, no," Nightshade said, pulling his clawed arm back from a butterfree who was urging him to fly from Fernwing's back. "We're looking for someone. Have you seen a yanmega with a scar that-"

"No, no yanmega," another butterfree quickly said, and Nightshade gave a sigh. Of course. If any butterfree spotted a yanmega, they wouldn't stick around to pay attention to its details.

"We're also...looking for a legendary," Snowcrystal added.

The rest of the group, who had stopped, gathered closer to the butterfree and those who had lingered behind. Thunder was staring at the curious forest pokémon with a mixture of disgust and annoyance on her face.

"The Guardian," a butterfree replied. "You want to see the Guardian?"

"Yes," Snowcrystal said, eagerly nodding.

Stormblade stepped forward, and the butterfree backed up, wary.

"Where do we find this Guardian?" he asked.

Snowcrystal and Stormblade both expected the butterfree to hesitate, to be secretive, or to even outright deny them an answer. But to their surprise, the butterfree seemed completely calm and willing to explain.

"There's a lake in the forest," one told them. "If you follow the river upstream, you will find it. There is a pokémon there who can take you to the Guardian if you ask. You'll know him when you see him. If he thinks that what you need to say is important enough, he will lead you there."

One of the butterfree from the swarm high above called down to the four who had come to investigate the newcomers. "Good bye," the butterfree who had spoken about the Guardian said hastily. "And good luck."

With that, the forest bug types rejoined their companions, leaving the traveling group standing in awe. Arien quickly turned to Damian, and the look on the boy's face told the pokémon he'd received the translation.

"Well, if one pokémon knows where this 'guardian messenger' is," Snowcrystal began, "then more will. I think this is it. I think we've really found another legendary. And now we know how to get there."

"But first," Arien interjected, "we find the yanmega. This concerns him as well."

As soon as Damian had relayed the information to Justin and Katie, the group set off at a brisk pace, some of them practically running. Their tiredness was forgotten; now they had a clear goal, and that goal was in sight.

_To be continued..._


	72. Stormy Decisions

Rain fell over the forest. Thick and heavy, it broke through the treetops to spatter the ground below. Overhead, thunder rumbled, and many of the normally active tree dwelling pokémon hurried back to their nests. Flashes of lightning sent bursts of light through the leaves of the canopy.

At the riverbank, the weary group gathered, their moods dampened as they realized that the search had so far been fruitless. The pokémon huddled together at the base of one of the immense tree trunks, watching the river surge by, while the trainers stood a short distance away.

"We didn't go far enough," Katie said, shielding her eyes against the rain as she looked over to Damian. "What did Arien tell you?"

"Fernwing said there are a couple of other streams, but they didn't have time to check them out. We can still look there."

"What about the river?" Katie asked, looking to Alex and her azumarill, who were waiting in the water for the group to make a decision. "Did they see anything like that place those butterfree were talking about?"

"They haven't found a lake yet," Damian responded. "It must be pretty far up ahead. Further than that yanmega could have flown, most likely."

"Stupid storm," Justin muttered under his breath, his feet squelching in mud as he walked toward the pokémon. "Of course it had to rain right now, in the middle of the search."

"It's only around noon," Katie replied. "The storm should pass well before nightfall and the flying types will be able to see things more clearly. Damian, does Fernwing still remember where she saw those streams?"

While the trainers conversed, Wildflame looked up toward the treetops, wrinkling her nose when several drops of water landed in her face. "It's going to be impossible to find a scent in this," she sighed. "We're better off waiting for the rain to let up."

"Katie doesn't want to wait too long in case it gets dark before we find him," Spark replied. "I guess I can kinda understand, with this pokémon having a Forbidden Attack and all..."

"Yeah, well Stormblade, Fernwing, and the others can hardly see anything down below in this storm. I'm not sure we'll have much more luck on foot."

The jolteon was about to reply when he saw Katie and Damian walking toward them. His ears pricked up, looking to Justin confidently before turning to the other two trainers and awaiting instruction.

"A few of us are going to wait here," Katie explained, "and the rest will go in groups. Fernwing's going to lead several of you to the first stream." She waved her hand in front of the group of waiting pokémon. "Damian and his pokémon are going to the other with me. When we get there, he'll head upstream and I'll head downstream. Justin, you're staying with the pokémon here."

"That's fine with me. _Believe me,_ " Justin muttered.

"We'll meet up back here in an hour. You two!" Katie pointed at Azumarill and Alex. "Take a break. We'll search the river again later if we have to." She unclipped a poké ball from her belt and returned Azumarill before pointing at Alex. "Stay here with Justin and anyone who wants to stay behind." She then pointed to the group of waiting pokémon. "Those of you who aren't staying are going with Fernwing. You can decide for yourselves when you get there who will search what side of the stream."

As the pokémon conversed with one another and split off into their respective groups, Katie and Damian set off. "You sure you know where this stream is?" she asked warily.

Damian nodded. "Yes," he said. "And I mean it this time. Finding my way through the wilderness is one thing I can do right."

Katie cast a brief glance back at the pokémon. The search party was being led off into the trees by Fernwing already. Justin was watching her as he sat with the remaining pokémon. "All right," she told Damian. "Let's go."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn awoke to find that he was drenched with rain and shivering from the cold. The stream he was lying next to looked deeper than he remembered, and he realized that it was swollen with rainwater. He immediately crawled to its edge to take another drink, ignoring the thunder that boomed overhead. It didn't occur to him to question how he'd slept through the storm.

He was certainly no longer being followed, that was much was certain. He had lasted what had to have been a day in the forest. With that came the first thought he'd had in what seemed like ages that didn't revolve around mere survival.

He was filthy. Sure, the rain had washed away much of the dust from the desert, but the stream bank he was lying on had turned to mud. As he looked at what he could see of his reflection in the rain-battered stream, the sight filled him with sadness. He decided that he would fly to a tree branch so he could try to groom himself. Even if it didn't help much with his present situation, it might make him feel a little better.

Taking to the air seemed to take more effort than it had before. Every time he forced his wings to move, it felt like his body was a little closer to giving out. He focused on a branch jutting from the nearest tree, the closest one to the ground, and slowly but steadily made his way to it.

Once on the branch, he rested for a few minutes, watching the rain fall all around him. He noticed pain in one of his wings that wasn't coming from exhaustion. Remembering the encounter with the cacturne, he carefully looked over each wing, seeing a few small holes in one. He suddenly thought back to the healers in Cyclone's camp, realizing that he would get no such assistance from anyone out in the wild alone.

The thought bothered him more than he thought it should have; the tears in his wing membrane were small and would heal on their own. He had been lucky; he wasn't even sure if a healer could do anything for a large tear. Surprisingly, the thought didn't make him feel any better.

Feeling some of his strength return, Yenn began brushing his front legs over his head and eyes, trying to clear them of any mud and dirt. As he did so, he realized that he needed to start thinking about his next course of action. Finding food, that was obvious. Food was his most pressing need now that he'd found water. Then he needed a place to stay that had access to water and prey, which wouldn't be hard to find in the forest. After that...well, he'd think about it later.

He knew he would miss Ashend and Itora, especially once he became strong again and no longer needed to focus so much on mere survival. A far more pressing concern was what could be happening to them back at the army. What would Ashend and Itora do without him? Would they eventually be forced by Cyclone to use their Forbidden Attacks or be killed?

He tried to remind himself that Ashend knew what she was doing. She had figured practically everything out on her own. She could protect herself and Itora. He had to trust in her abilities. There was nothing else he could do.

Yenn was sure his weak attempts at grooming weren't doing much good, but the sensation was calming to him, so he kept doing it. However, he found his thoughts wandering to the humans, wondering if what he'd fought for in Cyclone's army was even possible now that the vaporeon had turned on wild pokémon.

Yenn was just one pokémon. He couldn't hope to stand against the humans on his own. And the only pokémon with enough power and numbers on his side was doing far more harm than good. As much as he hated to admit it, it was over. There was nothing left he could do, no way he could help the pokémon still suffering in human buildings. Out here, he was useless to them.

All of a sudden, the thought of the humans and what they could do sent fear coursing through him. He knew he was far from Cyclone, but was he still far enough from the humans?

He had to know. Although he was weak, he wanted, before he did anything else, to get a good look at where he was. The only way to do that was to fly above the treetops.

Launching himself into the air with some difficulty, he forced himself to fly up toward the tops of the trees. They were so tall that he worried he would spend all his energy flying into the canopy, but he hardly cared. He needed to know.

The further he got, the more he had to swerve to avoid branches. It was something he'd done so effortlessly – and without thinking – many times before, but it took every ounce of his strength and concentration now.

Finally, he broke through the covering of leaves and into the raging storm above the forest. The wind and rain pounded at him, threatening to throw his frail body off balance. He was sure that if he were still a yanma, he would have been sent hurtling back through the branches. Yet through the dark haze that covered the sky, lit by jagged flashes of lightning, what he saw filled him with relief.

There was forest as far as his eyes could see in every direction. There were no signs of human dwellings, no sections of trees being cut down. No vehicles, no aircraft, no sign that humans had done any damage. The place seemed to be a vast sanctuary, an untouched refuge of the wild.

The fierce winds threatened to overcome him; he simply did not have the energy to keep fighting against them. He ducked back down beneath the shelter of the trees, heading back to his perch near the ground and the stream. Feeling too weak to do anything else, he landed on the branch and rested there.

It didn't seem long before the rain let up, and the forest seemed still and quiet as the thunder faded away. Feeling a bit less tired, Yenn flew back to the stream, hardly caring that he'd landed in mud as he drank the cool water. He was then reminded of something else he desperately needed. Food.

Though the rain had stopped, the forest was soon alive with sounds again. Yenn could tell there would be plenty of prey to hunt. He just wasn't sure if he was strong enough to catch anything. However, he wasn't going to keep lying there in the mud.

He took flight, still unsteady but with a clearer mind, and headed downstream, hoping to detect the nearby movement of a bird pokémon or a winged bug type. He could hear the sounds of pokémon all around him, but none of them were particularly close, and he was afraid of running out of energy if he strayed too far.

Unfortunately, he soon realized that his energy was going to run out whether he left the stream or not. His wings faltered and he felt himself starting to pass out, forcing him to land on a low hanging branch. There was no way he could catch prey in his state.

Yet for the first time in the past several days, luck was on his side. Yenn heard a distressed squawking coming from further downstream. The pokémon who'd made the noise quieted almost immediately after, likely realizing that the panicked cries would attract predators, but the sound had been close. Yenn forced his wings to move again, following the flowing water until he passed the base of one of the large trees and saw a swellow hobbling on the forest floor.

From the bird pokémon's awkward movements, Yenn could tell that its wing had been broken, and recently too. The swellow hadn't seen him at all; it was too distressed to notice him.

He waited a moment to gather his strength, then zipped toward the bird pokémon, biting down on its head and tearing out a chunk of flesh and bone before it could blink. Yenn felt a rush of energy flood through him and he landed, ecstatic that he'd managed to catch something despite being so weak.

He started eating his catch right on the ground, not wanting to waste energy even taking it up to a tree branch. He stayed there, devouring it until there was little meat left. He then looked over at the remainder of the carcass, deciding that he should take it and put it where a scavenger was likely to see it. He leaned down and picked up the swellow's remains in his mouth, hooking his legs around it as he took to the air.

Yenn flew downstream for a short time before spotting an opening in one of the trees about a third of the way up its trunk. A branch jutted out right beneath it, and on it he could see dark feathers. Murkrow.

Upon reaching the branch, Yenn could see that although the murkrow were gone, it looked as if they had been there recently. He set the swellow carcass down near the opening and rested on the branch, trying to catch his breath.

Despite feeling more energized, he found his wings going limp as he rested his body against the tree branch. It was a few minutes before he felt like his legs might be strong enough to support him again.

As he shakily stood up, he noticed movement from a group of bushes growing next to another massive tree that stood near the stream bank. He tensed, immediately thinking of Solus's group, before remembering how extremely unlikely that would be. Then the creature emerged, and the sight of what had just walked out of the bushes made his blood run cold.

Stepping from behind the tree and through the branches was the distinctive form of a _human._ The human didn't wear white clothes, but the very sight of him made Yenn's body freeze. Immediately the yanmega felt his tiredness vanish, his senses suddenly on high alert.

An image of metal walls flashed through his mind, vivid enough to almost make him believe they were actually around him. Everything in Yenn's brain screamed at him to flee. This was not simply one of the humans he had pictured in his imagination many times at the army; this one was real and breathing, and it was standing right below him.

Then the rational part of his mind reminded him that this human wasn't standing in a lab. He was in a forest, a world that belonged to pokémon. That disgusting creature was the one out of his element, not Yenn. However, that thought was met with further alarm and confusion.

A human? Here? How? This was a safe place. He'd seen no sign of humans. How could it have come _here?_

Yenn couldn't seem to will his body to move, even as he felt the worst of his fear subsiding. He hadn't expected to have such a strong reaction to seeing the human. He hadn't seen one, even from afar, in the months he'd been at the army, but he had imagined encountering them again more times than he could count. He wasn't supposed to simply freeze up at the sight of one. What was wrong with him?

The human had stopped, almost right below Yenn's branch, but he hadn't noticed the yanmega through the thick foliage and the gloom. Yenn was worried that his red eyes and spots would stand out like beacons amongst all the green, but the human's attention was fixed on a small device he held in his hands.

As Yenn watched, he felt his fear fade to be replaced with anger. Standing right below him was one of the beings responsible for the death and torment of thousands of pokémon. The pain that Yenn so vividly recalled at that moment had been caused by creatures just like the one standing so out of place on the forest floor. The memory of that agony was now enough to drive the last traces of fear from his mind. He hated that human. Hated that he dared to set foot in such a pristine place. Hated his very existence. And he was ready to wipe that existence from the face of the forest.

Lifting his wings, he willed the strength to come back to his body. He had pictured this moment many times during his stay in Cyclone's army, the killing of his first human. He hadn't anticipated the fear that had come before it, but that was over now. The human was hardly moving; as soon as Yenn gathered his strength, he would fly down and tear the human to pieces. It would be easy. One bite and the human's skull would be ripped apart in his jaws. He could practically feel the blood flowing down his fangs. In spite of his anger, he managed to form a smile. This was what he'd been waiting for.

Adrenaline was lending his body strength, and he poised himself for the attack. He would do it quickly. The human's brains would litter the forest floor before he could blink. It wasn't going to be like the one he'd encountered during his escape from the lab. Not this time.

Then, right as his muscles tensed, ready to lift him into the air, an image appeared in his mind's eye. He saw the smeargle lying in a pool of blood on the cave floor, part of his head crushed from Yenn's bite. The thought made him freeze up again, and he suddenly remembered the way he'd felt, even when believing he'd done the right thing. He had hated the feeling of killing when he was not hungry. His attention was briefly drawn to the remains of the swellow lying beside him on the branch. Some part of his mind was still screaming at him that killing when not hunting for food was wrong.

That human wasn't one of the ones whose faces he'd seen at the lab. This one wasn't even doing anything...he was just wandering, and seemed to be alone. Yenn realized he wasn't sure if he could justify murdering him. He'd thought he wanted to do it. Really, truly believed that he wanted to do it. There had been so many times where the thought of killing humans felt like the only thing keeping him going. And now, here he was. And he wasn't sure.

Below him, the human looked up from his device and scanned the area, but his attention was mostly focused on the branches above the stream, not the one where Yenn rested. The human seemed frustrated, like he couldn't make much out in the gloom the storm clouds had left over the forest.

Yenn watched him, willing his wings to move but finding that they were locked into place. He could do this, he told himself. This was what he had waited so long for. He had imagined himself killing humans every day, imagined being able to finally feel a bit of peace after what the humans had done to him.

Yet as he thought about this, he felt his wing muscles relaxing. Anger wasn't enough to set him on a deadly course toward that human. Even after focusing on every bit of anger he had, he didn't have it in him to end the human's life.

Turning away from the stream, he launched himself into the air and flew out of sight.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Damian paused, glancing back into the depths of the forest. For a moment, he'd thought he'd heard something, but he couldn't see any movement through the branches. If there had been anything, it was gone now. He sighed and turned back to the pokégear.

Katie had sent him a message saying she'd found a yanmega, and, at her request, he'd waited for further instruction before she'd sent him another message telling him that the yanmega was scar-less. Discouraged, he placed the pokégear back in his pocket.

The sound of a pokémon crossing the stream alerted him to Arien's presence, and the alakazam walked up to him.

"What did she say?" Arien asked through the psychic link the two shared.

"It was a normal forest yanmega," Damian replied. "Did you find anything on the other side of the stream?"

"Actually, yes. Follow me."

The two headed over to the stream, leaping across rocks to reach the muddy bank on the other side. Arien knelt beside of a patch of mud, and Damian came to crouch beside him. There he could see, clearly imprinted in the damp earth, the imprint of a thin, spiked leg. Another similar one was right next to it, and as Damian's gaze traveled along the mud, he could see the partial imprint of a bug type's wing.

Looking at the size of it, quite bigger than a scyther or scizor's wing, Damian nodded. "That's definitely a yanmega." He glanced to Arien. "They don't usually lie on the ground like that. This one was obviously sick or weak. And wanted to stay near the water." He nodded to the stream.

"You think this is it, then?" Arien asked.

"I think it could be. The rain just stopped, which means these marks are fresh." Damian stood up. "Before we do anything, let's go get the others."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn hadn't gone far when he had to stop for water. He had stuck close to the stream, and as he lowered himself to the water's edge, he focused intently on his surroundings, suddenly afraid that humans could start appearing from any direction.

' _It was just one human,'_ he tried to tell himself. _'There were no buildings. There can't be a lot of them here.'_

He thought he saw something coming from behind another tree, but it was just a small pokémon rummaging in the undergrowth. He willed himself to relax.

He knew he had to get far away from the human, yet he also couldn't afford to stray from the stream. On top of that, his energy was nearly spent. He needed to rest. But he couldn't. Not yet. He felt like crying in frustration. How were there humans here? He had wanted to get away from them. He didn't want anything to do with this anymore.

He had been so stupid. He'd had a chance to rid the world of a human, and instead he'd been a coward. It had not been the first time he had stared down a human and fled. His final day at the lab, he'd had a chance...one chance to kill one of the humans in charge of it all...and he'd panicked. He had vowed never to let such a thing happen again. He had failed.

With an enraged cry, he lifted himself into the air and sent a shockwave from his wings at a nearby tree. It hit the tree with a loud crack, and large strips of bark fell to the ground. Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, Yenn was forced to land. He had made the same mistake all over again.

No, he thought, trying to shake the thoughts away. That human hadn't been one of the ones from the lab. It wasn't the same thing. It didn't matter as much. The human would probably die out in the forest alone anyway...wouldn't he? And maybe the human had a gun, or a tranquilizer. Maybe he had powerful pokémon who could have brought him down. Yes, that was it. It was smart of him to flee.

However, Yenn knew immediately as he thought it that it was a lie. He hadn't been afraid in those final moments. Something else had stopped him that time. Something that, unlike the time back at the lab, wasn't fear. The realization filled him with shame.

He couldn't kill a human. What sort of pokémon was he?

Yenn realized there was nothing left to do but to keep moving. Maybe he could find other yanmega, and they could tell him where humans did and didn't roam the forest. He could belong to a swarm again. He could have companions.

Taking to the air again, he continued flying along the stream, scanning the area for any human threats. He saw none, and was soon forced to stop, as he simply had no strength left. Resting on a branch near the stream, he settled down, facing the direction he'd come from, where he'd seen the human. He would watch in case any appeared again.

 

  
**-ooo-**

When Damian met up with the rest of the group, including Katie and the pokémon who had returned from their searches, it was easy to tell that he and Arien were the only ones who had found any clear signs.

"I didn't think it was a good idea for us to go after him alone," Damian explained once Katie had asked him why he and Arien had turned back. "I think we should choose some of the pokémon and have them find him."

A few of the waiting pokémon glanced at each other and then at Damian, confused as to why he didn't think the entire group should go.

"Why just the pokémon?" Katie asked.

"Well," Damian began, scraping the soil with one foot as his eyes looked downward and away from Katie's, "Arien gave me Nightshade's description of the yanmega's scar. It was obviously some sort of surgical scar and it didn't sound like the sort of thing a pokémon would need to have done at a pokémon center. That, combined the fact that he was with Cyclone..."

"Means that it's probably not fond of humans, right?" Justin asked, crossing his arms. "I told you this was stupid."

"Okay," Katie said with a sigh, glancing around at the waiting pokémon, "so I guess what we're dealing with here has got to be some sort of escaped lab experiment with a very likely grudge against humans and a Forbidden Attack. Point taken. So what pokémon are we going to send?"

"Send?" Wildflame repeated with a growl, knowing that Katie couldn't understand her. "Arien, tell Damian she's not our trainer." To her annoyance, the alakazam ignored her.

"Wait a minute..." Justin muttered. "You still want to go after this thing? Didn't you hear what Damian-"

"Look, even if he doesn't like humans," Damian interjected, "the pokémon can explain everything to him."

"He was running away from Cyclone," Katie added. "He's probably not out to murder us. But just in case, we won't be the ones going near him until the pokémon have talked to him. But if he has a Forbidden Attack, we need him to come with us to find this legendary."

Spark gave Justin a reassuring glance, rubbing his head against the boy's hand.

"Okay, fine," Justin sighed. "I want to stop the Forbidden Attacks as much as you do. I'm just not fond of the fact that we keep collecting all these monster carnivorous bug types."

From where she sat, Katie's scolipede narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Well, that's just rude."

"I stared down a wild yanmega today, Justin," Katie responded. "And you know what? It hardly even cared that I was there. And grudge against humans or not, the one we're looking for is going to be weak. But if it makes you feel better, we won't send Spark."

"I think...I want to go," Blazefang spoke up, surprising the other pokémon. He limped toward the front of the group, looking from Arien to Damian. "If this pokémon has a Forbidden Attack, I can be the one to convince him not to use it."

"But...you're injured," Wildflame said worriedly.

"After what we just went through, this shouldn't be so hard. Just show me the way to the stream."

"Are...are you sure?" Damian asked, obviously having gotten the message from Arien.

The houndoom nodded. "I'm not changing my mind, Arien. You can tell Damian that. I fled from Cyclone's army too. He would listen to me."

"Okay..." Damian replied, clearly worried for the houndoom. "But you'll need a healthy pokémon to go with you. Someone who can fight."

Snowcrystal was about to suggest Stormblade, when Wildflame stepped forward.

"What about Scytheclaw?" Wildflame asked. "He has a...Forbidden Attack...or something like it, as well. Maybe he should go."

To the surprise of everyone watching, Scytheclaw turned toward his trainer and nodded. "I want answers," the scizor said. "Maybe this pokémon knows something we don't."

"I want to go too!" Snowcrystal called, coming up to stand beside Blazefang.

"You?" Scytheclaw questioned. "You'd barely be a snack for a yanmega."

"I'm not afraid," Snowcrystal protested.

"Forget it," Scytheclaw said with a smirk. "You'd just be in the way."

"Hey, who says?" Spark growled from where he stood by Justin's side, and several pokémon voiced their agreement.

Snowcrystal gave a small smile, happy to see that her friends had immediately jumped at the chance to support her.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Scytheclaw," Wildflame said, walking to Snowcrystal's side, "I'll go with her. Besides, yanmega don't normally hunt prey off the ground. And he's weak and exhausted. He wouldn't try to attack a group of fire types and a scizor."

"I'll come too," Redclaw offered, standing up.

"Actually," Snowcrystal replied, "maybe it should just be the four of us. It's not that I don't want you to come, I just think...we might look like a threat if there's too many of us."

"She's right," Wildflame agreed. "We don't need a miniature army of fire types walking up to him. Just enough to keep us safe in an emergency. We can handle this on our own."

After a bit more discussion, both the pokémon and the trainers agreed with the arrangement, and the four who were chosen to find the yanmega were given a quick meal. At Blazefang's insistence, Damian removed the bandages from the houndoom's shoulder, back, and leg. The wounds had closed, and Blazefang felt that it would be best if he didn't have any signs that he'd interacted with humans. He also told the others that it would be better to save the remaining supplies for Nightshade, as wounds in bug pokémon didn't close as easily, and the heracross needed them more.

After that was done, Damian gave the four pokémon detailed directions to the stream, and wished them luck in quickly locating their target. Many of the other pokémon cheered them on as they set off, assuring them that they'd be waiting there by the river. Snowcrystal bid them farewell before she followed the three larger pokémon into the trees.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The journey to the stream took less time than Snowcrystal had anticipated. Even Blazefang was moving at a fairly swift pace, determination clear in his eyes. Wildflame stuck next to Snowcrystal, keeping an eye out for dangerous wild pokémon, and Scytheclaw took the lead. Though the scizor still bore injuries from the machamp's attack in the underground, he was by far the strongest of the four of them.

They traveled upstream, stopping when Snowcrystal and the other canine pokémon caught the scent of the yanmega near the bank. "I think it's the same scent," Snowcrystal told Scytheclaw. "Though I'm not sure where he went. We can't track something that flies."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Scytheclaw muttered. His gaze scanned the surrounding trees. "He shouldn't have moved far in his state. Let's keep going."

As they continued to walk, Snowcrystal cast a concerned glance at Blazefang. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Let's just find this pokémon," the houndoom replied, panting but no less determined.

For a while, they carried on in silence. It was nearing late afternoon, and the forest seemed darker apart from the patches where sunlight broke through; at least the clouds were starting to clear up.

When they rounded a bend in the stream, the four of them suddenly stopped, Scytheclaw reaching out with his claw to halt them, though he needn't have bothered. For resting on a branch far above their heads, they could clearly see a large bug type pokémon. He might have blended in with the foliage were it not for his red eyes and the spots that lined his body, which prevented any sort of camouflage. The yanmega was facing the stream, not turned toward them, but there was no doubt in any of their minds that he could see them.

Snowcrystal realized that her group probably didn't seem of any importance to the yanmega until they halted and looked up at him. Then he responded by slowly and painfully lifting himself to his feet. From the angle she stood at, she couldn't see if he had the scar, but even from a distance she could tell that he was weak and exhausted. There was little doubt in her mind that they had found the right one.

"Ex...excuse me?" the growlithe called up to him, her voice faltering. Truthfully, she hadn't expected to come upon him so quickly after finding the stream, and the thought of him being dangerous flashed through her mind. She reminded herself that he had tried to warn her and her friends about Solus, but from the look of him, something told her that he didn't recognize her. "We don't mean any harm. We want to talk to you."

"We'll make it worth your while," Scytheclaw added, making sure his voice was loud enough for the yanmega to hear.

Blazefang backed up. He was suddenly nervous, knowing that this yanmega also had a Forbidden Attack. The dragonfly creature had the bug type one and he had the fire one. If it came to a battle where they were forced to use them, Blazefang thought, they both would lose. He tried to steady himself, telling himself that the thought was irrational, but the fear remained.

"Hey, you know you're safe here, right?" Wildflame shouted to the yanmega. "No one's coming after you. We think we can help. Your name is Yenn, right? You warned us about Solus in the desert."

Snowcrystal and the others couldn't read any expression in the yanmega's eyes, but his body language suggested surprise, or confusion. To their surprise, the winged bug type took off from the branch. His movements were listless, not the agile and speedy flight she knew the species was normally capable of, but he landed on an enormous root that arched high above their heads and faced them. There, they could see him clearly, for a patch of sunlight filtered down onto the root from above. He still stood quite a bit higher off the ground than they did, but it would be far easier for his words to reach them. From there, Snowcrystal could clearly see his scar. It made her cringe, and she hoped the yanmega didn't notice.

From his perch on the tree root, Yenn watched the newcomers cautiously. "Who are you?" he asked. His voice was so raspy and hoarse that he didn't recognize it as his own voice. But at least he could talk. "How do you know my name?"

Snowcrystal walked closer, Wildflame hurriedly coming to her side. The yanmega didn't seem afraid of them, but it was clear that he couldn't recognize her or the two houndoom, couldn't remember what had happened between them out in the desert. "One of Solus's pokémon mentioned it," the growlithe explained, coming to a stop once she was directly in front of the massive root. "They can't follow us, though. We're safe here."

The bug type stood still, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell what he was thinking; his enormous eyes were unreadable. "Not safe," the yanmega replied, sounding as if it pained him to speak.

Blazefang and Scytheclaw edged closer to their companions, Blazefang watching the yanmega but remaining silent.

"Look, you're...probably confused," Scytheclaw said, his voice sounding kinder than Snowcrystal was used to. "Solus and his pokémon couldn't get through the portal. Do you...remember any of that?"

"Not what I meant," Yenn replied.

Scytheclaw stood up straighter, and for a moment Snowcrystal was reminded of the confident, collected leader he used to be, only without the cruelty. "We'd like you to come back to where our group has set up camp. We can get you food. Help. We have healers-"

"What do you want from me?" The yanmega's voice had a wary edge to it that time.

Snowcrystal was surprised by his sudden change of mood. His wings moved, like he wanted to fly away or attack, but he remained standing on the tree root above them.

Beside her, Wildflame tensed, but Scytheclaw walked up next to them, completely calm. "He wouldn't attack us in that state," the scizor said, quietly enough that the yanmega couldn't hear.

Snowcrystal wanted to remind him that having a Forbidden Attack put him at an advantage, at least over herself, Wildflame, and Scytheclaw, but kept her mouth shut. Up above, the yanmega continued to watch him, but it was clear that his unease was growing. At least, Snowcrystal thought, he didn't seem to have any interest in trying to eat any of them, despite looking emaciated.

"We just…want you to listen to us," Snowcrystal began, calling up to the yanmega again. "We think we know something that-"

"I'll do the talking," Scytheclaw hissed at her, pushing her aside with his claw. The growlithe narrowed her eyes at him as he took his place at the front of the small group. "As I said," the scizor addressed the larger bug type, "we can get you help. Plenty of food, water…"

"Scytheclaw, we can _all_ do the talking," Snowcrystal protested, bracing herself in case he tried to push her away again. She turned her attention to Yenn. "You were running from Cyclone's pokémon, weren't you?" she asked. "Well, so were we back there. If you need help, our group can give it to you. And…what we want to know is, why were they chasing you? Do you have something Cyclone wants? A…"

"Forbidden Attack?" Yenn answered.

"I...yes...we're looking for a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks. Get rid of them, and we think there might be something here that can help us. And you."

Seeming to lose his strength, Yenn slumped against the tree root, his wings falling limp. At least most of the wariness he'd felt seemed to have faded away. "I know you're not with them," the yanmega said, still sounding like he had to force the words out. "They never called it a Forbidden Attack in the army."

"The army?" Blazefang spoke up for the first time, limping forward to join the others. "You were-"

"I joined Cyclone," Yenn said bitterly. "But he did some terrible things. I didn't want to be a part of it, so I left. That's all you need to know."

"He tried to force me into joining." Blazefang's voice was stronger, more confident, and he stood taller as he looked up at the yanmega. "My name is Blazefang, and I have the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare. I'm looking for a way to get rid of it, and there's a legendary in these woods that might be able to help us both, or at least put us on the right path."

"Blazefang…" Yenn repeated, turning his head to face the houndoom. He sounded unsure, as if he didn't believe them, but then he turned to look at Snowcrystal. "Someone back at the army said a group of pokémon helped him escape…a white growlithe?" He sounded more like he was talking to himself, but as he stood up, Snowcrystal could imagine that his exhausted mind was finally starting to make the right connections.

"I…I remember you," Yenn stammered, his voice still faltering with weakness as he addressed Snowcrystal. "You were out in the desert. The houndoom too. There were others with you, weren't there? There was a ninetales…and someone else…and you were all huddled in the rocks and you didn't even know…" He trailed off, trying to search his mind for more memories, but seemed unable to conjure up more as he looked at the small group before him, baffled.

"Yes, the rest of our group is waiting elsewhere," Scytheclaw told him, the niceness returning to his voice. Snowcrystal realized that he must desperately want answers, and thought that if the yanmega came along with him, the legendary might be more willing to help them. That is, if the legendary knew what could help at all.

The edges of the yanmega's mouth curled downwards, and he turned his head toward Scytheclaw. "Wait a minute…what is a scizor doing out in the wild? And why is Blazefang injured? Did you…escape from something?"

Snowcrystal's fur bristled; she suddenly had a feeling things were about to go south. Before she could say anything, however, Scytheclaw spoke up.

"Just from Solus's army," the scizor explained. "And a crazed trainer back in Stonedust City. But that's hardly-"

"The city?" There was a dangerous edge to Yenn's tone now.

"Look, we both want answers," Scytheclaw responded, sounding a little less friendly. "I'm sure you don't want your Forbidden Attack going out of control, and if you come with us and back to our group, we can find this legendary."

"And who makes up your group?" Yenn asked.

"Several other wild pokémon," Scytheclaw answered. His voice gained a hardened edge as noticed the yanmega's sudden change of demeanor. "Three trainers. Their pokémon. And I assure you that my trainer has everything that-"

All at once, Yenn seemed to snap. His wings flared out and he drew back, baring his fangs. "Traitor!" he shouted, and in spite of his weakness, the sound of his voice sent shivers down Snowcrystal's spine. "You come here, standing by doing nothing while humans roam this place, threatening all the pokémon here? And you consider them part of your group? What else have you stood by and watched them do?"

Wildflame let out a low growl, crouching beside Snowcrystal. Blazefang stepped back, glancing to Scytheclaw as if expecting the scizor to do something.

"Don't talk that way about my trainer," Scytheclaw said coldly, his eyes locked on the yanmega's. "He's done nothing but try to help pokémon."

"You're _lying!_ " Yenn shouted, the fierce sound of his voice echoing through the trees.

"Oh boy," Scytheclaw muttered under his breath to the others, clenching his pincers. "Cyclone did a good job brainwashing this guy."

Snowcrystal looked from the scizor to the two houndoom, both of whom looked like they were expecting an attack. If Scytheclaw kept arguing with the yanmega, she thought, there might be one. Weak or not, she remembered what Justin had said about Katie's pokédex and what a yanmega could do. Even without the Forbidden Attack, Yenn was dangerous.

And yet, as she watched him, she began to wonder why he was acting in such a way. Even Thunder hadn't reacted so badly toward pokémon who were friendly with humans; she hadn't ever had any major problem with Spark for caring about Justin. There was something wrong. She began to wonder if, under all the anger, what Yenn truly felt was fear.

As she thought of what Scytheclaw had said, something clicked. Perhaps Cyclone _had_ influenced some of Yenn's hatred, or at least contributed to it. She didn't blame the yanmega for being wary of humans – his scar alone was proof that he had had some sort of terrible experience – but he genuinely seemed to believe all humans were evil.

"Look, Yenn," the growlithe began, having to raise her voice over the sound of the yanmega's shouts and Scytheclaw's responses, "if Cyclone told you that all humans were cruel, he was lying." She waited for Yenn's response, suddenly aware of how small she was compared to him.

Yenn's demeanor seemed to suddenly change. The yanmega didn't turn his head toward her, but she knew he had to be watching. She didn't imagine his eyes missed much. His voice was lower when he spoke, not a shout, but cold and menacing. "And you would know all about these humans and their intentions?" he asked, his words filled with barely concealed anger. "Do you _honestly_ believe there isn't cruelty in them?"

"Cyclone lied to you…and I'm sure of it," Snowcrystal continued. "The trainers with us…they've been trying to help us. Help Blazefang. Cyclone just wants his pokémon to believe whatever he wants. If you don't believe me…"

"I believe you," Yenn replied, this time turning his head toward the growlithe. He suddenly seemed exhausted again. "At first I thought you were well informed about what you were doing, but you really do sound just naive. You may think your humans are fine, but you're gambling with your lives. You should take this opportunity and run away now, before anything happens."

"We're not running away," Snowcrystal stated firmly.

"Then I can't help you. Find this legendary _yourself,_ if it even exists."

"Wait!" Snowcrystal cried as he lifted his wings. "We can help you! To find out what can stop the Forbidden-"

"I'm not going to use my Forbidden Attack," Yenn hissed back at her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

Each of the pokémon turned to Blazefang, who had spoken up. The houndoom seemed more confident as he looked up to the yanmega. "Look, you can't fight it forever," Blazefang called up to the weakened pokémon. "If we don't find a way to put a stop to it, we'll lose our minds. Go insane."

At this, a strange, uncharacteristic sense of fear seemed to come over the yanmega, who stiffened at Blazefang's words. "Not if we resist using it," he said, though his voice sounded shaky and uncertain.

"You _can't_ resist it forever," Blazefang growled.

"Maybe not," Snowcrystal interrupted, "but I'm sure he could resist it for longer. You weren't really sure how to resist it when your Shadowflare attack set that forest on fire, were you?"

"No," the houndoom muttered, turning his head away, "but even now that I know, it's…harder. Much harder."

"How many times have you used your Forbidden Attack?" Wildflame called up to the resting yanmega.

"Once," came Yenn's shaky reply.

"Good. Let's keep it that way," Wildflame replied. "Come with us, and we'll try to help you."

The yanmega looked uncertain, so Blazefang stepped in again. "If you use the attack again, you'll lose control. You've lost some control already, just by touching that stone and using it the first time." The houndoom paused, glancing at Yenn's scar. "Look, you've been under the control of humans, under the control of Cyclone, and now you're under the control of this thing. But we're going to try to help get rid of the Forbidden Attack. Then _you_ will truly be in control again."

The yanmega was silent, and the four pokémon waited for his response. Scytheclaw tensed, his eyes narrowing, while Wildflame continued to regard Yenn with wariness. Blazefang looked worried. Snowcrystal watched the three of them, and when no one spoke, she looked back at Yenn. "Please…we can help you. We don't want you or any other pokémon hurt by these attacks any longer."

To her surprise, the yanmega gave a sigh, lying back down on the branch. "All right. I'll go with you. To this legendary. Not to your humans."

"Fair enough," Scytheclaw replied before Snowcrystal could speak.

"Wait," Wildflame interjected. "What about the others?"

"We'll work it out later," the scizor replied, already walking off into the trees. "There's a pokémon who can take us to the legendary," he announced to Yenn. "We're going to find him."

Snowcrystal watched them go, letting Blazefang pass ahead of her. The yanmega up above hesitated as well, and she looked up to give him a reassuring smile before she set off after Scytheclaw through the trees.

_To be continued…_


	73. The Forbidden Attacks

Snowcrystal sat in a clearing, Blazefang and Wildflame by her side as they rested at the base of a tree. Though the storm had passed, the air remained cool, and Snowcrystal was reminded that it would be evening soon. They needed to get going if they wanted to find the pokémon who would lead them to the legendary before nightfall.

Scytheclaw had gone back to the rest of their group in order to tell them about the change in plans. Snowcrystal hoped the others weren't going to argue with him; Yenn might refuse to come if the trainers insisted on going with them. She knew Damian would listen, but she wasn't sure about Justin or Katie.

Yenn was resting on a tree branch, appearing exhausted even after the short distance they'd traveled. Snowcrystal felt bad for making him travel in that state, though she did see Scytheclaw's point in that waiting another day might not be wise.

As she thought this, the yanmega stirred, lifting his head as he asked the group of fire types, "That scizor…is he your leader when the…humans…are not around?"

Wildflame threw back her head and laughed. "Our leader? In his dreams!"

"We don't have a leader," Snowcrystal explained. "We try to work things out together. I guess some of us take turns being in charge, but it depends…" She paused, realizing that something was still troubling her. "I guess Cyclone was always in charge of that army of his. How many pokémon do you think are on his side?"

"Hundreds," Yenn replied, flying down from the branch to land on the forest floor. He didn't land too close to the fire types, and Snowcrystal wondered if he was still wary of them. It seemed almost silly, considering Yenn had a Forbidden Attack.

Snowcrystal walked up to the yanmega, Wildflame watching her carefully. "And…he is after pokémon with Forbidden Attacks…has he found any?" the growlithe asked.

Yenn gave a sad sigh. "There are two others who have one, apart from Cyclone himself," he answered.

"Wait… _what?_ " Wildflame sputtered in disbelief, leaping to her feet.

"You're…you're kidding, right?" Blazefang cried, aghast.

Snowcrystal froze, the immensity of what Yenn had just said feeling like a weight dropped on her. "Cyclone…has a Forbidden Attack?"

"Yes…you didn't know?" Yenn replied. "I…I assumed you knew about Cyclone, based on what you said to me earlier."

"We didn't know he had a _Forbidden Attack!_ " Wildflame cried. "When was this? When did he get it?"

"I don't know," Yenn answered. "He already had it by the time I joined the army. It's called Acidstorm. But…I really don't want to talk about this right now. At least now you know."

As Blazefang and Wildflame began worriedly whispering to each other, Snowcrystal stepped toward the yanmega, lost in thought. Her group hadn't heard anything about Cyclone's army in the time that had passed since they almost ran into them at the canyon; she assumed it was partly because they had stayed so close to a human city. Now she knew that the threat of the Forbidden Attacks was bigger than she had imagined. They needed to find the legendary of the forest, find help as soon as possible. "This…this is bad," she whispered. "And he has two others with him? Yenn, what do you think he's going to-"

"I really don't know," the yanmega sighed, exhausted. "He…wasn't exactly honest with me about what he was planning to do. I'd rather…not think about it right now."

Snowcrystal realized that this wasn't a good time to drill Yenn with questions, and she figured that if there was anything they really needed to know, he could tell them later, when he had rested, or he could tell the legendary. "Just one more thing," she said, aware that she was probably only going to irritate him, but wanting to try anyway. "Cyclone was lying to you about the humans. I promise you he was."

To her surprise, Yenn didn't get angry. He paused, lowering himself to the ground as if his legs were already having trouble supporting him. "I'm sure Cyclone lied about a lot of things," he said, sounding defeated. "That's one thing I notice when I look back. He never lied by telling the opposite of the truth. He would lie by leaving out details, twisting his messages so that the meaning was very different. He was clever in the way he lied. I'm sure he tried to convince everyone that he wasn't actually lying." He stopped for a moment, seeming lost in thought. "But I believed him. Like an idiot."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what had prompted him to say those things, but she was glad he had. She briefly wondered what had finally caused him to see the error in Cyclone's ways, what had made him turn his back on the vaporeon and his army. However, she didn't think it was her place to ask. She barely knew him, and whatever he had gone through, it certainly wasn't anything pleasant. "One of the trainers – Damian – knows some things about healing," she began. "The human medicines help a lot more than the ones wild pokémon use. If you need help, I'm sure they'll be willing to…I mean, they wouldn't hurt you-"

"I said Cyclone lied," Yenn responded, the harsh edge to his voice returning. "I never said I trusted humans."

The bushes rustled and Scytheclaw's bright red body came into view. The scizor looked over the group with a weary expression, but Snowcrystal knew he would snap at her if she suggested they rest longer. "I told them," he explained. "We'll come to the river further upstream from the group, so we don't run into those big, bad, scary humans." He shot Yenn a glare, but the yanmega did not respond. "Then," Scytheclaw continued, "we'll head to the lake and find this legendary's 'messenger.'"

"All right, Scytheclaw," Wildflame sighed, standing up and walking toward him. "But first…boy, is there something we need to tell you."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal listened to the roaring of the river as they reached the top of a small hill overlooking the rushing water. The river was wider here than back where the rest of the group was resting, so more light shone down from the gaps in the trees, catching on leaves and ferns and painting the whole area a shimmering green. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"We should rest here for a bit," Snowcrystal said, no longer caring if Scytheclaw got angry at her for it or not. She could tell that the whole way there, Yenn had had trouble keeping up. From what she had seen of yanma during a few of her excursions to Stonedust City, she knew that Yenn's lethargic behavior was extremely abnormal for his species. They needed to stop for a while.

Scytheclaw, luckily, didn't object. Nor did Wildflame, who flopped down on her side. Yenn landed on the bank of the river, lowering his head to drink. Blazefang glanced at the others, then looked worriedly at the sky. "It's getting really close to evening. And we still have a fair bit of ground to cover."

"We won't stop for too long," Scytheclaw replied. The scizor didn't even look at him as he spoke; he seemed deep in thought, likely pondering over the news he had been given about Cyclone's Forbidden Attack.

Yenn backed away from the river, lying down on the bank. Wildflame glanced at him and then turned back toward the trees. "I'll be back," she told the others before bounding off.

Scytheclaw just shrugged, sitting down on the top of the hill overlooking the river. His eyes weren't focused on any one thing.

They couldn't have been resting for long when Wildflame returned, a dead bunnelby in her mouth. She set it down, calling to Scytheclaw, "Go tell Yenn I brought him something."

When the scizor didn't respond, Snowcrystal got up instead and padded to the edge of the river. Yenn made no movement at all as she approached him. Instead he was lying still, his breathing calm and steady. She thought he was asleep, but it was hard to tell, as his enormous eyes lacked eyelids. She reached out with her paw and nudged him a few times, and the yanmega suddenly jolted awake, looking alarmed. He relaxed once he realized it was only her, and she pointed with her muzzle toward Wildflame, who had picked up the prey again and was walking toward them.

Yenn watched warily as the houndoom set her catch down in front of him. He hesitated, as if waiting for Wildflame to do something else, but she merely smiled at him.

"I caught this for you," she said. "I thought you might be hungry."

"Oh…" Yenn replied, sounding surprised. "Thank you." He paused. "This isn't part of some bargain…?"

Wildflame shook her head.

"Oh…sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just thought that…" Yenn trailed off. "Never mind."

"Well, I wasn't sure you were strong enough to hunt on your own," Wildflame explained. "And we have a ways to go until we get to the lake."

"Well, that's very kind of you," Yenn replied.

Snowcrystal looked to him curiously as he began eating the bunnelby. His actions had surprised her. She supposed that she had expected a tough-looking pokémon like him to be annoyed by another pokémon pointing out his weakness, or maybe embarrassed at needing to be brought food. But Yenn was neither of those things. He only seemed grateful. The growlithe suddenly found the whole situation incredibly odd; this yanmega didn't seem like the type of pokémon who would work for Cyclone. Not only was he polite about Wildflame's gift, but he had been straightforward and honest with them about having joined Cyclone and even about some details of the army itself. She couldn't help but wonder what on earth he had been doing there.

Yenn looked up from his meal, watching the other pokémon up on the hill. "Those three are all injured," he began, addressing Snowcrystal. "Not just Blazefang. What happened to them?"

He had obviously noticed the scratches on Wildflame's face in addition to Scytheclaw's wounds. Snowcrystal knew that if her own injuries had been more severe, and her fur less thick, he would have noticed them too. "Wildflame – that's the female houndoom – got hurt when we ran into some trouble with Solus's group. The others were attacked by pokémon controlled by some bad…" She stopped herself before she said 'humans,' but she was sure Yenn had already guessed what she was going to say. "We were in a bad situation," she continued, "and some pokémon attacked us." To her relief, he said nothing in reply.

Once Yenn had finished eating, Scytheclaw announced that they were heading out again. No one objected, and they headed upriver, staying close to the edge of the water. A few hours passed as they trekked onward. Snowcrystal and the two houndoom occasionally exchanged words with each other, but Scytheclaw and Yenn were mostly silent. When they finally stood on the edge of a slope leading down to the shore of a lake, the river flowing steadily beneath them, the sky was starting to grow dark.

Snowcrystal stared down at the dark expanse of water through the trees, feeling a strange sense of wonder as she looked at the lake, like something was drawing her to it. Or maybe not to it, specifically, but whatever lay beyond it. Some deep inner instinct was telling her that there was something there, something old and mysterious, and she longed to find out what it was.

"You think we should stop for the night?" Blazefang asked. "We could find this 'messenger' tomorrow."

"I can keep going," Snowcrystal said. "Maybe we should look for the messenger now, and see what he says. If he thinks we should wait for morning, we can wait."

"Okay, good idea," Blazefang said after a moment.

Scytheclaw gave Snowcrystal a look she couldn't read before turning to face Wildflame and Yenn. "What do you two think?"

"I agree with Snowcrystal," Wildflame said. "Let's at least see if we can find this messenger and make a plan from there."

"That sounds fair enough," Yenn added.

The small group headed down the slope toward the lake's edge. With the coming darkness, even the middle of the lake was shrouded in shadow, the remnants of storm clouds still drifting overhead. They paused at the foot of the slope, seeing that much of the ground around them was covered in ferns. They could hear pokémon nearby, rustling in the undergrowth.

"Anyone hungry?" Wildflame asked.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, the others all shook their heads, even Yenn, who had needed to be brought prey several times during their journey upriver.

"I guess we'll just keep going then-" the houndoom responded, then froze, for as she had stepped into the ferns, she noticed a large shape zip by and then swerve toward the edge of the water.

Snowcrystal bounded over toward Wildflame, having to sit up on her haunches to see over the tops of the ferns. She realized that the large shape was another yanmega. Comparing it to Yenn, it looked far healthier, stronger, and what she was sure yanmega were normally supposed to look like. It was flitting about along the edge of the lake as if looking for something.

"Yenn," Blazefang growled, "tell that one to steer clear of us."

"Why?" Yenn asked, as if he found the request incredibly odd.

"Because we don't want trouble, that's why. It would probably listen to you."

"Wildflame said that yanmega don't usually hunt prey off the ground," Snowcrystal told him.

"Well, I don't want to take our chances," Blazefang muttered, still watching the yanmega zip from one spot to another.

"It's a big forest, Blazefang," Scytheclaw muttered. "So there's gonna be yanmega in it. And don't tell me you're also afraid of the scyther, or the ursaring, or the…"

"Well, we didn't have any of those back at the mountain," Blazefang hissed.

"Right. You were used to houndour being the biggest predators around," Scytheclaw said with a roll of his eyes. "Things are different in forests."

"I don't think I'm being unreasonable by saying Yenn should talk to-"

"She won't bother you," Yenn interrupted. The others turned their heads toward him, wondering why he sounded so sure. "Don't you see the way she's acting?" he told them. "She's looking for a place to lay her eggs. That's probably her mate." He nodded toward something, and the others peered across the lake, spotting the distant form of another yanmega up on a branch overlooking the water.

Snowcrystal jumped a bit in surprise; she hadn't even noticed the second yanmega. It seemed that the longer she looked across the lake, the more pokémon she would see.

"You sure?" Blazefang asked Yenn skeptically.

"Yes," Yenn replied with an irritated edge to his voice. "They don't care about you. Trust me on this."

"So let's get looking for the messenger," Scytheclaw announced, striding forward through the ferns, his body standing out strikingly from all the green. Wildflame bounded after him, followed by a more hesitant Blazefang.

"That yanmega's going to lay her eggs by the water?" Snowcrystal asked curiously as Yenn hovered beside her.

"Yes," he replied. "When yanma are small, they eat insects, and this is the perfect place to find them." He flew after Scytheclaw, but not far enough that Snowcrystal felt she was being left behind. "Summer's started. There will be yanma hatching soon." He paused, watching the other two yanmega. "After we find this legendary, I'll come back and find them. Join their swarm."

An uneasy feeling settled over Snowcrystal at those words. If Yenn planned to do that, she could only hope that the legendary they were seeking could do something about the Forbidden Attacks, or at least tell them more.

"Hurry up!" Scytheclaw's voice called from up ahead, and Snowcrystal bounded after the others.

Navigating through the thick ferns was easier once they got closer to the lake shore, where the ferns thinned out. To Snowcrystal's left side, the water shimmered under a patch of moonlight, and she wondered if the lake itself was the legendary's home, and only the guardian could summon it from the depths.

"So which one of these pokémon is the messenger?" Scytheclaw muttered to himself as he peered around.

There were plenty of pokémon out and about, including a group of volbeat and illumise who were flying over the lake, their bright lights reflected in the water. The silhouettes of stantler lined the spaces between the trees across the lake before they vanished into the forest and were replaced by a large ursaring that bent down to drink from the water. The distant cries of bird pokémon and bug types filled the air.

"Maybe the messenger's already asleep," Wildflame responded. "I don't see anyone here who looks like they'd be in charge of leading pokémon to a legendary."

She turned around and trotted along the lake shore, Scytheclaw heaving a sigh and following. Blazefang yawned and shook his head before trailing after them. Snowcrystal was about to run to catch up with them when she noticed that Yenn had stopped, and was turned in the direction of the thick growth of ferns, facing away from the lake.

"Yenn, what-" Snowcrystal tried to follow his gaze and paused.

There was a pokémon watching them from the ferns. It sat on its haunches, still as a statue, its long body poised above the undergrowth as it stared back at them. Snowcrystal recognized the species. It was a furret, and one that seemed to be aging. It was so still that she hadn't even noticed it at first, and when she turned to look at the creature, it didn't move aside from a small nod of its head.

Scytheclaw and the houndoom had noticed too, because they stopped. "Who are you?" Scytheclaw demanded as he took a few steps toward the furret. "Can you take us to see the…Guardian?"

The furret ducked down and disappeared into the ferns, only to pop up again a shorter distance from the traveling group. He did this a few times before he emerged and stood in front of them, seeming completely unafraid of the newcomers.

"What is your business with the Guardian?" the furret asked, his voice sounding rough and worn.

Snowcrystal hadn't known what to expect from the messenger, but it certainly wasn't this. He was frail looking, and now that she could see him up close, he acted like he couldn't see well, squinting as he looked the ragtag group up and down.

"We need to find out something important," Snowcrystal began. "Are you the pokémon who can lead others to the Guardian?"

The furret nodded. "I am."

Scytheclaw glanced down at Snowcrystal, giving her a small nod which took her by surprise. "It's about the Forbidden Attacks," the growlithe said.

Immediately the furret became more alert, his ears standing on end and his eyes widening. "You came from outside the forest," he began, assessing each of the five travelers. "How did you get here?"

"We…" Snowcrystal paused, wondering how much of the story she should tell the old furret. She figured that most of it wasn't important, and decided to skip to the main details. "We went through the portal. We've been looking for a legendary who might be able to help us, because Articuno couldn't, and-"

"What?" Yenn interrupted, sounding shocked. " _Articuno?_ "

"We'll explain later," Scytheclaw muttered, cutting the yanmega off before he could say more.

"Three of these pokémon have Forbidden Attacks," Snowcrystal explained. She turned and pointed with her snout to Blazefang, then to Scytheclaw, then to Yenn. "And if this legendary knows anything… _anything_ that could help us, we-"

"Come with me," the furret said urgently, bounding ahead through the ferns. He stopped a few paces ahead, turning back to look at the group. They had paused, not expecting such a sudden reaction.

"You mean that this…Guardian…can really help us?" Blazefang asked, sounding suddenly skeptical.

"Maybe," was the furret's reply. Then he bounded off again.

The others followed, Blazefang struggling to keep up. "Maybe we should rest until morning!" he called. "Are you sure this isn't…I mean-"

"The Guardian must see you now," the furret cried over his shoulder. "He will not harm you, I swear it."

"That's not what I meant," Blazefang growled through his teeth as he hopped over the root of one of the smaller trees. "I just…" He stopped, and suddenly the look in his eyes was one of fear. "What if it's all for nothing? What then?"

Up ahead, the rest of the pokémon stopped, turning their heads toward the commotion. "We don't have time for this," Scytheclaw muttered. "Do you want answers or not?"

Wildflame ignored him as she approached Blazefang. "Then we'll find someone who can help us. We did it this once; we can find another-"

"If you have Forbidden Attacks," the furret interjected, "as I believe you do, seeing as your group was able to get through the portal, the Guardian will want to see you. It is incredibly important."

Wildflame and Blazefang quieted, and the others stared back at the furret.

"Does that reassure you?" Scytheclaw asked Blazefang. "Clearly this… 'Guardian' knows a thing or two about the Forbidden Attacks, so let's go."

Wordlessly the group followed the furret through the dense ferns and away from the lakeshore. Snowcrystal turned her head to see the water's sparkling surface swallowed up by the trees. She had assumed the legendary would be at the lake itself, but wherever they were going, it was further than she had imagined.

Without the opening in the canopy the lake provided, the forest was even darker, and night had not yet completely fallen. Snowcrystal wasn't used to being in such an enclosed, dark space, and a few times she nearly tripped over rocks or her own paws as she followed the moving forms of her friends. Even Blazefang was keeping up now, excitement glimmering in his eyes. Unlike the others, Blazefang and Wildflame felt right at home in the darkness.

As they carried on, the canopy seemed to get thicker, the trees even more massive than the ones they had seen earlier. Soon Snowcrystal was relying more on the scent of the pokémon running ahead of her and the sound of Yenn's wings than on her sight. She could barely see the furret's tail as he charged ahead, navigating the forest expertly as if he'd made the journey a thousand times.

After a while, they came to a place where the ground sloped downward, leading to a part of the forest that looked more ancient and wild than any of the places they had been to before. Snowcrystal paused at the top of the slope, realizing that even through the thick canopy, the moonlight illuminated enough to show her that down below, not only were the trees taller, but the plants that formed the undergrowth were massive in places too. She could see ferns that looked like they would tower over a pokémon several times the height of Katie's scolipede.

The others followed the furret down the slope, but Yenn paused, hovering near Snowcrystal. "Is something wrong?" the yanmega asked.

"No, I just…didn't expect to see something like this. Even here," Snowcrystal replied breathlessly.

"Come on!" Wildflame called up to them.

Snowcrystal charged down the slope after the others, Yenn flying overhead but keeping close to her until she caught up. Once with the rest of the group, she slowed down, not wanting to stumble while there was quite a steep slope in front of her.

"How far is it?" Wildflame asked the furret.

"Not far," the messenger replied.

The group followed the furret to the base of the slope. Snowcrystal immediately noticed that it was a bit colder, and it suddenly made sense why there was now enough light to see by. The spaces between the trees were wider, allowing smaller trees and other plants to flourish. Moonlight was already filtering down through the gaps between branches, turning the earth beneath her paws silver.

"This way," the messenger whispered almost reverently, leading them toward a hulking gray shape sitting in the middle of a moonlit area surrounded by massive ferns.

As they got closer, Snowcrystal could see that it was a huge slab of rock, worn by time and weather. She had a strange feeling as she looked at it, realizing that it was the first thing she'd seen in a long time that reminded her of her mountain home. There were carvings on it, crude carvings that looked as if they had been made by something with large claws. Even under the moonlight, it was hard for Snowcrystal to make out some of them. She could see one that looked like a flame, another that looked like a root or vine, and others she didn't fully understand. However, it was clear to her what the symbols were meant to mean.

"The Forbidden Attacks," she whispered.

"There is something you must know," the furret said, placing his paw on the stone as he turned to face them. "Our Guardian, the legendary of this forest, was one of the pokémon who created what became known as the Forbidden Attacks, long ago."

A stunned silence fell over the traveling group. Blazefang's mouth dropped open in disbelief, and Wildflame glanced to the furret with a shocked expression. Scytheclaw tensed as he watched the older pokémon, his eyes alight with excitement. Yenn, hovering at the back of the group, looked both surprised and confused.

Snowcrystal herself was unsure what to think. Even Articuno had not known who had created the Forbidden Attacks. And here they were, about to meet one of the very pokémon responsible, if what the furret said was true.

"Wait a minute…" Wildflame said. "Spark said that there weren't legendaries involved in the creation of the Forbidden Attacks. He said they just appeared and-"

"Don't you remember?" Blazefang asked her. "The stories are all mixed up on the subject of where the attacks came from. No one knew the right answer."

"I don't know what the stories say," the furret interjected. "But if you don't believe me, you can ask the Guardian yourself."

"Wait," Snowcrystal began, "if this legendary really helped create the Forbidden Attacks, he can take them away, can't he? Articuno said the ones who brought them into existence could do that."

To her dismay, the furret's expression was grim. "I think you should talk to him yourself," he said. He gave her a small smile when he noticed her downcast expression. "But I believe that he can help you, one way or another."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what to make of the comment. Something wasn't right if a supposed creator of the Forbidden Attacks could not destroy them. She tried to push the thought out of her mind, telling herself that they would hear what the Guardian had to say before they tried to figure anything out.

"Why hasn't anyone heard of this before?" Wildflame asked. "Why does no one know who the attacks' creators are?"

The furret turned to look at the stone, speaking without looking at the houndoom. "It is said that after they realized what they had done, they hid their faces from the rest of the world, taking up homes in remote places such as this forest. But in dire times such as this, some of them have decided to make themselves known to wandering pokémon. You won't be the last travelers to meet the Guardian."

Beside Snowcrystal, Scytheclaw snapped one of his pincers to get the furret's attention. "Well, take us to him then," he said impatiently.

"This is as far as I'll go tonight," the messenger responded with a wave of his tail. "Head in that direction." He pointed to the cluster of trees, moonlight making the path clear. "You will find him. I must return to my nest. If you need a guide to lead you back the way we came, you can wait at this rock until morning."

"Thanks," Scytheclaw replied, "but I don't think we'll be needing a guide."

"All right," the furret replied calmly, and he turned to leave.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal replied, and the brown and tan pokémon stopped. "Thank you. For helping us find this pokémon."

The furret turned around, giving her a small smile. "You're very welcome." Then he bounded off and was gone.

For a moment, no one moved. Then Blazefang quietly said, "What if…what if this is a trap?"

"What reason would that furret have to trap us?" Scytheclaw growled.

"Well, we're strangers to this forest, and-"

"I don't know," Snowcrystal told him. "I didn't get any sort of bad feeling from him. I think…I think he really wanted to help us."

Blazefang hesitated.

"We can't pass up this chance now. And if it is some sort of trick, how were those butterfree we met earlier in on it too? They mentioned the Guardian as well."

"Well, you two can keep talking about it," grumbled Scytheclaw. "I'm going to find this legendary. Anyone who wants to can follow me."

The other pokémon quieted as they watched the scizor stride into the darkness of the trees. Snowcrystal saw Yenn, who had remained quiet during the whole exchange, turn and follow him. Blazefang and Wildflame glanced at each other before Wildflame gestured after Scytheclaw and led Blazefang towards him. Snowcrystal gave the crude carvings on the stone one more glance before she ran to catch up with the others.

Scytheclaw strode at the head of the group, pushing aside any tall patch of undergrowth with his claws. He could hear the others following behind him, but he didn't turn to look at them. He found it a bit odd that even the yanmega stayed behind him, hovering near Snowcrystal and the two houndoom.

"Guardian?" the scizor called into the fading light. His voice bounced back at him from the trees, but there was no answer. Scytheclaw walked faster.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find. He ran through a list of legendaries in his head, thinking briefly about what he'd heard of each one as he did so. In the end, he was clueless as to what legendary had made its home in such a remote and wild place.

"Scytheclaw, wait," a voice whispered from behind him. It was Snowcrystal.

He paused, briefly giving thought to how quiet and still the forest was, silent enough that he could hear the growlithe's whispers. "What?" he asked, not quite sure why he was listening to her.

"Something feels different here," she responded.

As Scytheclaw turned around to look at the others, he realized that they were all acting strangely. Blazefang was shifting his weight from paw to paw, looking around at the darkening forest. Yenn and Wildflame seemed more alert, their eyes scanning the darkness. Snowcrystal was looking straight at him.

Scytheclaw turned away from them and looked around the area he had so frantically charged into. They were in what seemed like a clearing of sorts, a place that was brighter than the rest of the forest. Up ahead, immense ferns blocked the way from view, and the areas between the trees further on looked even darker by comparison.

Then, as if some instinct of his was kicking in, he began to feel as if there was something nearby, something he should listen to. He froze, not hearing anything.

Then again, maybe it was just the forest itself.

Then he heard footsteps.

The scizor tensed, but remained at the front of the group. Something was coming towards them through the ferns, and by the sound of it, something big. Scytheclaw narrowed his eyes. He'd assumed the legendary was going to be a grass type, and he quickly ran the list through his head again. _'Sounds like we're meeting Virizion,'_ he thought to himself.

Yet as the footsteps got closer, it sounded like something bigger. Scytheclaw watched the ferns directly in front of him, but none of them moved. Suddenly the footsteps stopped, leaving eerie silence once more.

"Well?" Scytheclaw cried out. "Are you this forest's 'Guardian' or not?" When there was no answer, he spun around, addressing another group of ferns. "Come into the light where we can see you!"

He wasn't sure whether he expected the source of the footsteps to shout back at him, or to simply ignore him. What he saw, however, was that the other members of his group had suddenly gone stock-still, their eyes widening in disbelief. Then Scytheclaw heard a deep voice behind him.

"I am what they call the Guardian, yes."

The tone of the voice sent shivers down his back, and suddenly he regretted yelling into the forest the way he had. Unsure what he would see, he slowly turned around.

The creature he saw looked to be around three times his height, even on all fours. Though most of its body was shrouded in shadow from the ferns surrounding it, he could make out a dark green, bony plate covering its head and upper jaw, leaving small spaces for its eyes. Wide, clawed feet lifted from the ground as it stepped forward. Scytheclaw stared in shock.

"What… _is that?_ "

Suddenly losing his nerve, he darted back beside Snowcrystal and the others, realizing that he was looking at a creature that matched no description of any legendary he knew of. Having spent a long time around humans, the thought was jarring, alien to him. Everything he had been told had taught him that humans were at least aware of each type of legendary that existed, even if most of them never saw one. To see one that humans had no depictions of, as far as he knew, didn't add up in his mind. He stared at the beast, unsure if what he was looking at was really real or not.

As the five stunned pokémon watched, the strange being stepped into the light. It resembled an ursaring walking on all fours in shape, but its fur was a dark green, looking nearly black in the moonlight. Around its neck was a ring of thick leaves, a vine in between each of them. And unlike an ursaring, it had two sets of forelimbs, each ending in thick claws. A row of leaf-like spines ran down its back.

What struck Scytheclaw the most was the plate making up part of the creature's head, which was marked with strange patterns. It looked to him like… _a mask._ Suddenly, the furret's words came back to him, reminding him that this was one of the pokémon responsible for the Forbidden Attacks. _'It is said that after they realized what they had done, they_ hid their faces…' The thought sent chills down his spine.

"Who are you?" It was Snowcrystal who spoke.

"I am called Sequoiarc," the beast replied, coming to a halt and standing sturdily on its six limbs. The light that flickered down from above outlined the creature's form, making it stand out from the foliage it had emerged from.

Scytheclaw stood still, watching his companions out of the corner of his eye. Blazefang and Wildflame were standing still, tensed as if ready to run. He could not read Yenn's expression.

"Se-Sequoiarc, three of these pokémon have Forbidden Attacks," the growlithe explained. She pointed her snout to Blazefang, Yenn, and Scytheclaw in turn. "We're looking to find a way to stop them. Can you help us?"

The great legendary leaned back, moving to a sitting position and crossing his front pair of forelegs. Sitting upright, he only looked more massive. If he was surprised at Snowcrystal's statement, he did not show it, nor did he seem to doubt her words. "I believe that I might," he said, his voice sounding surprisingly gentle. "First of all, how did you get to this forest?"

"We were in a desert, and we found a portal," Snowcrystal answered. "It…let us in here somehow."

"That would explain what the scizor was doing here," Sequoiarc replied, causing Scytheclaw to step back. "And you said he is one of the ones with a Forbidden Attack?"

"Yes…or, at least we think so," said Snowcrystal. "But…what _was_ that portal? Was it something you put there?"

"The portals were placed here, and in different parts of the region by another legendary long ago," Sequoiarc answered. "If certain species in the forest begin to dwindle in numbers, members of those species may be allowed in through a portal, should they happen to find one."

"The humans aren't unaware," Snowcrystal told him, worry in her voice. "They know pokémon have vanished, and-"

"So I am told," the legendary replied, but did not elaborate.

"Snowcrystal, this isn't what we came here for," Scytheclaw hissed in a whisper toward the growlithe. Beside him, the two houndoom glanced at each other, but neither of them spoke.

"I'm willing to answer your questions," Sequoiarc explained, not seeming bothered by Scytheclaw's comment at all. "The one who created the portals allowed me to alter them if needed, or close them off. They now open for pokémon with Forbidden Attacks, as long as they still regain a good measure of control."

Snowcrystal thought back to the incident in the desert. Yenn had gone through the portal seemingly without doing anything, yet every other time it had been inactive, until they all went to it at once…

With Blazefang. Damian had been holding Blazefang while he was on Fernwing's back. Suddenly, it all made sense. Solus and his pokémon couldn't have gotten through, because none of them had a Forbidden Attack. She suddenly wondered if it would have activated for Scytheclaw if the scizor hadn't been in his poké ball at the time.

"Well, I have the next question," Wildflame said, stepping forward boldly. "Did you really create the Forbidden Attacks? And if so, what happened? Why are they being found now?"

Sequoiarc looked, if anything, sad as he comprehended the houndoom's words, though it was hard to read his expression behind the mask-like armor on his face. "If three of your group have Forbidden Attacks, then you of all pokémon deserve to know the truth," he began, and instead of intimidating, his voice sounded almost old and weak. "I was one of the legendaries responsible for creating what you now call the Forbidden Attacks. There was one of us for every type, set to guard over this region. Perhaps there were so many of us because this land was so massive, but we were lesser legendaries, not given the sort of power others like Dialga were. But in the end, we still had more power than we should have."

"There's a legendary…like you…for every type?" Snowcrystal said, astonished. "And humans _don't even know?_ How long ago were you sent here to guard the region? Why are you hiding?"

The other pokémon stood in silence, trying to take in what the legendary was saying. They looked to Sequoiarc expectantly.

"Because the Forbidden Attacks all but _destroyed_ this region," Sequoiarc growled, but his anger was not directed at the five pokémon below. "Many other regions have specific pokémon that are native to them. Ever wonder why a region this large has no species that are exclusively native to here? Well, there used to be many, but they perished in the destruction the Forbidden Attacks caused."

"…What?" Snowcrystal gasped.

"That was long before humans ever settled here. Surely they've found signs of past disasters, but none of them have known for sure what caused it. Other pokémon had come to the land and settled in it long before the humans ever did, and in time they and their environments had flourished again. And it was only because we were able to stop the madness." Sequoiarc suddenly slammed one of his six paws into the ground, causing a tremor to run beneath the feet of the watching pokémon.

Snowcrystal and the others stared in silence.

"You see," the mighty grass type continued, "something went very wrong when we created the Forbidden Attacks. I believe it was partly because it was something we were never meant to do. When we gave them to other pokémon, it warped their minds, twisted the attacks into something far worse than they were meant to be. Though we did not know it at first, creating the attacks drained us of our powers, and as they grew stronger within the pokémon that used them, that effect only seemed to grow worse. Even after we managed to remove the attacks from the pokémon using them, the strength of our power did not return. Even still, though it is at a much slower pace, our power continues to wane, and years and years of it have unfortunately taken a toll."

The legendary straightened up, pointing his muzzle to the sky. "However, regardless of our waning abilities, we were still able to seal them away long ago, and keep them safe from other pokémon. This forest was created not long after that, by a legendary that wanted to help this region grow. It was one of the safe spaces made for pokémon after the disaster our attacks had caused. There are still a few of these safe havens kept hidden in Inari…that is what you call this land, isn't it?"

None of the pokémon spoke; Snowcrystal only nodded slowly.

"Pokémon could come to the safe haven through portals. One was guarded by a harsh desert, put there to further protect the entrance. From what I have been told, it was much bigger in the past, until other lands gradually took over, leaving only the area it originally occupied. That is the desert you must have crossed. The other portals were put in places not easily accessed, though those weren't quite as guarded and served other purposes."

"And what about the other legendaries?" Yenn asked. "Where are they?"

The sad look returned to Sequoiarc's eyes. "We were once tasked with protecting this region, but after we nearly destroyed it, we hid, even from each other, and let other legendaries settle here in our place. We no longer felt that we had the right to guide this land. We have been separated a long time, having only messengers to carry news between us from across different lands. This was mostly out of choice, but now, things are different."

Snowcrystal felt a chill run up her spine. She was beginning to feel the enormity of the situation weighing down her chest.

"Most of the others do not want their presence to be known to the outside world," Sequoiarc continued. "But I think that is wrong. So I let pokémon into my domain, even pokémon with Forbidden Attacks, providing they still have a good degree of control over it. I let pokémon speak with me. I tell them the truth, rather than have other pokémon muddle up part of the story as some of the others do."

Snowcrystal suspected that there was more than just intentional meddling of the story; a story would change a lot when passed from pokémon to pokémon to human stories, though somehow, accurate details and the names of some of the attacks had gotten through. Perhaps in some way, these legendaries had a hand in preserving those details for future generations of pokémon.

"If all this happened so long ago," Wildflame asked, "why are Forbidden Attacks just being found now? Some of them haven't even been released from their stones. They're still being guarded."

The leaves along Sequoiarc's spine seemed to wilt as he lowered his head. "They were…found, and scattered recently. By whom I do not know. We learned about it too late. I am not even sure where the remaining stones are now. By the time we realized what had happened, at least one pokémon had already found one and lost control."

"The ice type…" Snowcrystal whispered.

"Other legendaries such as Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno learned of what had happened, and decided to guard the Forbidden Attack stones. When we learned of this, we let them. They are stronger than we are now. And in some cases, more willing to help."

Snowcrystal remembered Articuno telling her that many legendaries had been called upon. As she pondered over that, she then remembered something else. "But…I met with Articuno. He said that the ones who created the Forbidden Attacks could destroy them. If you had to seal them away, does that mean…"

"We cannot destroy them, no," Sequoiarc replied, reaching a claw to his mask. "Maybe we once would have had that power, when we were at our strongest, but if we did, by the time we realized what we had done, our strength had already begun to leave us. We took the Forbidden Attacks away from pokémon and sealed them inside stones, but after all this time, we lack even the power to do that again. That is why it is important that legendaries guard the other ones."

"You can't…you can't take them away?" Blazefang gasped, looking horrified. "Does that mean…"

"I never said it was hopeless," Sequoiarc told the houndoom. "Just that we lack the power to do what we did before."

Blazefang didn't reply, and it seemed like Sequoiarc had more to say on the subject, but first, Snowcrystal needed to know something else. "Articuno also said that he didn't know who created the Forbidden Attacks, and that it wasn't his place to know. Why hide it from him? Why are you letting other legendaries guard the attacks, without even helping them, when they don't know who you are?"

"It was not my choice," Sequoiarc sighed. "Because of the humans, it was too dangerous for me to leave this forest. I don't know why most of the others haven't contacted the other legendaries, but some of them were adamant that we do not."

"Surely you don't have to listen to them," Snowcrystal called, feeling incredibly bold to be standing up to the huge legendary. "You have messengers of your own; why didn't you send them to Articuno and the others?"

Beside Snowcrystal, Yenn stiffened.

Sequoiarc spoke again. His words were hollow, full of shame, but the five pokémon could tell he spoke the truth. "Because I knew they believed we could destroy the Forbidden Attacks, and we cannot."

Snowcrystal paused, not having expected that sort of response. She wasn't sure what she _had_ expected, perhaps excuses, or attempts at justifications, but there was none of that in Sequoiarc's words. At least, she thought, it was honest. "But that's not right," she said. "They're defending the Forbidden Attacks for you. They should know what's going on!"

"Snowcrystal," Scytheclaw hissed quietly, "drop it."

"What good would it do to know these legendaries can't help them?" Blazefang growled.

"No, Snowcrystal's right," Wildflame said. "They should know the truth."

Sequoiarc looked down at the small growlithe, his demeanor softening. "Some of us wanted to," he began. "Some of us still want to. But we aren't just leaving them to deal with it on their own. We are trying to come up with a solution."

Snowcrystal and the others were stunned.

"You think we want our land to be destroyed again? And not even just our land, but others as well. The place you call Inari is a land separate from other regions; the Forbidden Attacks were contained the first time they went out of control. Now, with human means of travel, it might not be so simple. Even if a pokémon with a Forbidden Attack is killed, it will merely get transferred to another of the same type." Sequoiarc turned his head to Yenn. "Which do you have, yanmega? The bug or the flying type?"

"The…the bug type," Yenn stammered.

"Your attack isn't just harmful to pokémon," Sequoiarc told him. "In its stronger stages, it will drain the life from any living thing. Plant, pokémon, human, it doesn't matter. It would ravage the lands just as Shadowflare would. You must do all you can to avoid using it. All three of you." He swept his gaze over the group, pausing briefly when his eyes met Scytheclaw's and Blazefang's.

"Wait a minute," Scytheclaw said, stepping forward. "My Forbidden Attack…doesn't even seem like one. It doesn't work like the others and I have no problem controlling it. And what sort of 'Forbidden Attack' heals?"

Though it was hard to tell, the watching pokémon thought they saw Sequoiarc's eyes widen in surprise. The grass type was still for a moment, but when he spoke, his voice sounded calm and collected. "Then yours is _not_ one of the Forbidden Attacks."

"Is that why it has no name?" Scytheclaw asked. "Why I can control it? What is it, then? Did you create it too?"

"No," said Sequoiarc. "Not me, specifically. It was created by some of the others, with what little strength they had left, in an effort to combat the effects of the Forbidden Attacks. I was against its creation; I knew by then that we were not meant to try to make other pokémon powerful. But they feared we would be too weak to use it ourselves in the future, so they created that power and gave it to a pokémon.

"The original intent was to make that power able to spread from pokémon to pokémon, so there would be many users. As you can see, it doesn't actually work that way. We believed it would take a toll on the user, one way or another, so I managed to convince the creators, at least, to ensure that only a very psychically strong pokémon could be its bearer."

Scytheclaw thought back to the moment when he'd touched the stone that had given him his power. It had been back at the canyon, before he'd lost his leadership. He'd seen something odd in the fangs of an arcanine statue at the bottom of a pool, and asked a zangoose to retrieve it. Nothing had happened to the normal type when _he'd_ grabbed it; it was only when Scytheclaw had touched it that the power was transferred. Scytheclaw realized that, as much as he hated to admit it, having had a trainer in the past – before Damian – had made him stronger, more skilled in using moves, than a good number of wild pokémon. Obviously, he had been a much better candidate than that zangoose. He wasn't sure how to feel about that information.

"It needed a very tough pokémon, who would be able to handle the strain," Sequoiarc continued. "But as I'm sure you've realized, it is not harmless."

"It almost killed me once," Scytheclaw growled, suddenly feeling bolder. "One of the trainers traveling with us said it would kill me the next time."

"And they are right," the legendary responded. "When this power was created, it was meant to get stronger, like the Forbidden Attacks but in a good way, gaining more power to heal as time went on, though it did not work out that way. Even the strong pokémon that could carry the power…it took too much from them. Their bodies couldn't handle it. To heal, it needed to take energy from the user, and we greatly underestimated just what it would take. Not only that, but it took more and more from them each time. They would die, and there would be a new user. Then the cycle repeated. We decided that the good this power did was not worth the loss of life. So it was sealed away when the Forbidden Attacks were."

"But I don't understand…I heard a weird voice, the last time I used it," Scytheclaw said. "It told me it was failing, that I needed to 'pass it on,' but the pokémon I was healing did heal; it hadn't failed at all. Why did that happen? What is that supposed to mean?"

Sequoiarc looked thoughtful as he answered the question. "Like it was meant to spread from pokémon to pokémon, it was also meant to be passed on completely from one pokémon to another easily if the first user could not handle it. It was created to give its user a warning if it posed any threat to them, so they could find another worthy pokémon and transfer the power to them. But it did not work; the healing power had as much of a grip on its user as the Forbidden Attacks did. The only saving grace was that it did not come with a loss of control, did not warp the user's mind."

"So I was supposed to be able to get rid of it?" Scytheclaw's voice was calm, but there was an edge of anger to his words. "Give it to a pokémon who could use it properly? But I can't?"

"Yes, it was meant to," Sequoiarc replied. "But like the Forbidden Attacks, it was unstable. It was not meant to do what it did, to bring pain and suffering to the pokémon wielding it, nor to be harder and harder to use each time."

Snowcrystal watched the scizor as he processed the information. She was beginning to get the idea that the Forbidden Attacks were like viruses that had mutated, becoming something completely different from what their original intent was to be. Sure, they didn't spread like a virus, but it was the only thing that Snowcrystal could think of to compare it to. Perhaps that meant that the Forbidden Attacks themselves…weren't originally meant to be forces of mass destruction.

"Sequoiarc," she asked, stepping closer to the huge grass type, "why did you create the Forbidden Attacks?"

She could not tell what the great legendary was thinking when he turned his head in her direction. "That is not something I choose to share with you," he said. From his words, Snowcrystal knew that the matter was closed.

"Well, you've told us about the Forbidden Attacks," Blazefang began, "but what do we do now? How do we get rid of them?"

"We're not the only ones who have Forbidden Attacks either," Yenn interjected. "A vaporeon named Cyclone has one. He's building an army and is looking for more. There are…two others that have Forbidden Attacks. But they, at least, know better than to use them. Cyclone is a different story."

"He's right," said Wildflame. "We need answers on how to stop this madness."

"I do not know the answer," Sequoiarc replied, "but I do believe something can be done, if you seek out some of the other legendaries of the Inari region."

"The others?" Wildflame repeated, sounding unsure.

"Most of the others do not live in as remote a place as this," Sequoiarc said. "A few roam, keeping out of sight – though only the ghost and psychic type are able to do this while still keeping their identities hidden – and others have less elaborate hiding places but still keep away from humans. Those close to human settlements have hidden themselves in deep places like caves. Others live in isolated areas. Not all of them will be willing to listen to you, but I can get you close to one who would. He is a rock type, living deep within a cave."

"How are we supposed to get there?" Wildflame asked. "We've traveled so far already and we have injured pokémon…"

"There is…a shortcut," Sequoiarc answered. "Within this forest is a portal that will take you near his cave. Though be warned, there is a city very close to it now, and he will not be easy to get to. His cave won't be made up of large or magnificent caverns, but a series of dark, narrow passages."

"So these other portals here…" Wildflame began, "they could take us anywhere?"

"No, there are only three of them in this forest. Only one leads to one of my former companions."

"Are there more of these portals elsewhere? More secret lands?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Not many," Sequoiarc told her. "But I believe finding Tanzenarc can help you. I have been told that he, as well as some of the others, are coming up with a plan. They have not yet decided enough to have their messengers tell me the details, but Tanzenarc may tell you. His followers are trying to search the region, so you won't find them so easily. I have no idea when they'll next visit this forest. You're better off going to the source. Then you can be of help to him."

"I don't understand," Blazefang said. "If legendaries have a plan, then…why would they need our help?"

"You have Forbidden Attacks," Sequoiarc answered. "You are invaluable to them."

Snowcrystal turned to look at the others, who were all reacting differently. Scytheclaw was resolute and determined, Wildflame was filled with wonder, and Blazefang was hopeful. Yenn looked completely uncomfortable with the idea.

"What about the other legendaries?" Scytheclaw asked. "Why can't they do something?"

"Any legendary that has the power to stop the Forbidden Attacks is one that cannot interfere or leave their position. Enlisting their help would only cause even more terrible problems, were they to stop working to keep the balance of our world in check," Sequoiarc replied. "But when the plan is in place, I can only hope the lesser legendaries will help. Regardless, we must do all that we can."

Sequoiarc began to turn back toward the ferns, and Snowcrystal realized that he had told them all he was willing to. As he lumbered back through the leaves, he turned his head briefly and said, "I will have the messenger who brought you here bring you to the portal tomorrow. You mentioned trainers traveling with you; you may discuss with the rest of the group what you want to do." Then he was gone.

The pokémon stood in silence for at least a few minutes, each with their own thoughts.

"I don't think there's any question," Wildflame said. "We got more answers than we hoped we would. More than Articuno knew. I say we find out what this other legendary knows."

"Good idea," said Blazefang. "If they're coming up with a plan…they must know some way to fight this. Damian will have a lot of explaining to do, but the humans should listen to us. I don't think we'll have a problem convincing the other pokémon."

"I've got my answers," said Scytheclaw, "but I also don't want to be killed by a Forbidden Attack once Cyclone makes things worse. I'm with them."

"I am too," Snowcrystal said. She turned to the yanmega. "Yenn, will you come with us?"

"No," Yenn said, prompting the others to look at him. "I'd sooner take my chances with the Forbidden Attack than go near a city. And I'm not going to travel with your party."

"What? You can't stay here," Blazefang growled. "Who knows how long it will take Sequoiarc to get more answers? In that time, you could have lost your mind!"

Yenn looked visibly taken aback by the comment, but he did not relent. "I won't travel with humans."

"You're not going to get to another legendary by yourself," Wildflame told him. "We stand a much better chance together and you can't risk letting your Forbidden Attack go unchecked for too long. The humans won't hurt you, I promise."

Yenn gritted his teeth. "You don't understand-"

"They're not all evil!" Scytheclaw cried, exasperated. "Look, I went through a time when I hated humans too. So I know what you're talking about, but just trust me on this. If legendaries think we can be a valuable help to them, we need you to come along."

Yenn was reacting to Scytheclaw as if the scizor had lost his mind. "You don't understand what they can _do,_ " he growled. "You can't just say they're harmless when-"

"Listen, I wouldn't be a scizor if a human didn't force me into evolution," Scytheclaw interrupted.

Yenn was taken aback again, and he remained silent as the scizor continued.

"I know humans can be cruel. But so can pokémon, like those nutjobs out in the desert that tried to kill you, right?"

"No…no, you don't understand," Yenn said again, taking flight and backing away, but when he tried to elaborate, his words faltered. He shook his head and tucked his legs close to his body, suddenly appearing quite scared.

Scytheclaw was fast losing patience, and Snowcrystal was afraid he would say something that would make Yenn give up on them. "What are you afraid of?" she asked him, keeping her voice much calmer than Scytheclaw's agitated one.

Yenn, however, didn't seem to want to answer directly. "Humans have ways that pokémon don't."

"These humans won't try to trap you, or make you do anything you don't want to," Snowcrystal explained. "Even with their poké ball technology, a pokémon can learn to come out of a poké ball when they want to." She didn't want to mention that some humans, like Mausk, had to have some sort of modification that prevented that. Yenn didn't need to worry about something that Damian and the others didn't even have access to. "They won't catch you, though. I'm just saying that even if they did, you wouldn't really be trapped. You could leave if you wanted to."

"I'm not afraid of _poké balls,_ " the yanmega spat back.

"Honestly, I think they'd be more afraid of you than you are of them," Wildflame stated. "One of them is terrified of large bug types."

For some reason, that information only made Yenn grow more agitated. He gritted his teeth. "The answer is no."

"Oh come on, you've got a Forbidden Attack and they know it!" Blazefang cried. "They wouldn't do a thing to you even if they wanted to, for that reason alone."

Yenn was silent.

"Yenn, what we're doing is going to help a lot of pokémon," Wildflame said calmly. "With the Forbidden Attacks being found, there are a lot of pokémon that could be in danger, from Cyclone, and from others…from the Forbidden Attacks still out there. Was there…was there anyone back at the army you cared about? Someone who you'd want to help?"

Yenn gave a sigh. "Fine. I'll go with you."

Wildflame smiled at him and Snowcrystal beamed, giving a wag of her tail. Blazefang and Scytheclaw looked relieved.

"But remember this," Yenn warned. "You may think these humans are 'friends,' but if there's any trouble, I won't be helping them. Even if they're about to die and I'm the only one between them and death."

Scytheclaw's eyes narrowed at the yanmega, but he said nothing.

"Very well," said Wildflame. "Welcome to the group."

_To be continued…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sequoiarc is "Sequoia" + "Arc"
> 
> Story time!
> 
> Years ago, way back in 2010 or so, I told a few people that I wanted to put fakemon in Path of Destiny. The thought was always in the back of my mind, for years, but I didn't get any ideas that really inspired me. Until I got this one. I've been waiting to write this chapter for over a year now (mainly because writing was slow...but I think that will get better!), and now I finally have. I want to say that I am very excited about the direction this is taking the story. I have had so much PoD inspiration lately and it's still going. I have a few things planned for the next several chapters that I am very excited to show you.


	74. New Companion

In the early morning light, the five pokémon who had visited the legendary made their way back to the rest of the group. They were silent as they trekked through the forest, each with their own thoughts about where the journey would take them. Knowing that the Forbidden Attacks could not just be taken away, even by one of the legendaries that created them, weighed heavily on their hearts, but at the same time, they felt hope now that they had a clearer path to follow.

Snowcrystal's ears pricked up as she heard voices. They had nearly arrived back at the group; the others were sheltered behind one of the massive nearby trees, from which she could hear conversation between Redclaw and a few of the others.

"Well, we'd better go tell them everything," Wildflame said with a smile, knowing how daunting a task that probably seemed to the four who were with her. "And introduce you, of course," she added with a nod to Yenn.

The yanmega didn't reply. His body was tense, his mouth nearly forming a snarl as he stared ahead.

"Let's make one thing clear first," Scytheclaw said, stepping in front of the other bug type. "You're not going to hurt any member of our group, for any reason. Especially my trainer. If you do, I will-"

"He _knows,_ Scytheclaw," Snowcrystal interrupted, giving his leg a small shove. She gave the scizor a look, hoping he would drop it. If he started flinging threats around, tension between Yenn and the others was just going to rise.

Luckily, Scytheclaw didn't continue the conversation, and merely gave the yanmega a warning glare, which Yenn didn't even seem to be paying attention to.

"Just…come with us," Wildflame said, noticing his unease. "And remember, they'd have to have a death wish to do anything to you."

"Let's hope you're right," Yenn mumbled in response.

They walked around the tree's gigantic trunk, coming into view of the tents and resting pokémon. Immediately, a yellow shape slammed into Snowcrystal, sending her tumbling over onto her back.

"You're back!" Spark cried joyously, making a few small jumps as Snowcrystal clambered back onto her feet. "Did you meet the legendary? What was it like? Did it tell you-"

"We've got a lot to tell all of you," Wildflame interrupted. "Let us rest a bit first and we'll explain everything."

Spark reluctantly agreed, and the other pokémon in camp began to gather around them. They cast curious looks at Yenn, and some even greeted him, but the yanmega did not respond. He was watching as the three trainers emerged from the tents, welcoming the little group of pokémon back.

Yenn felt his whole body tense, his senses on high alert. But this time, he was able to suppress the thoughts that seeing the trainers brought up. Looking at them clearly, he recognized one of them as the one he had seen out in the forest, the one he had come close to killing. Now that he was able to properly focus on him, and with a clearer mind, he could see that he didn't look nearly as intimidating as the humans he had been used to.

For one thing, his clothes were different. He had noticed this before, but now he could tell that there was nothing to indicate this human had any authority, any power. The other two humans wore similar clothes, and he could tell that those two were younger. Adolescents. The one he had seen in the forest was a young adult, but he was scrawny and didn't seem particularly threatening, now that Yenn thought about it. However, he knew what they were capable of, what they had at their disposal. The only thing keeping him relatively calm was the fact that the pokémon around him were not acting afraid.

"So…he's coming with us?" the ninetales asked, clearly nervous about the idea as she eyed the yanmega.

"Yes," said Snowcrystal. "He wants to stop the Forbidden Attacks too." She turned to Yenn cheerfully. "I guess I should introduce you to everyone."

Before she had a chance to begin, Damian approached them, Arien at his side. "No one's hurt, right?" he asked, looking at Snowcrystal in concern. The growlithe shook her head in response. The boy lifted his head to look at the yanmega, and immediately Yenn backed up in midair, his wings beating faster and louder than before. Damian hesitated, obviously sensing the hostility, but nonetheless reached around to his backpack and pulled it off his shoulders. "Calm down, we just want to-"

He was cut off as Yenn shouted at him, the yanmega's wings beating so hard that Damian was pushed backwards. He glanced to Arien, who replied to him through their psychic link that he probably didn't want a translation of that.

Several of the other pokémon were giving Yenn odd looks, though most weren't particularly surprised at the reaction. Katie had warned the group that the yanmega likely wasn't fond of humans.

Arien told Damian to back away, and stepped forward on behalf of his trainer. "I believe there is a misunderstanding here," he told the angry bug type. "My trainer was trying to assist you, and what you just did-"

"You know what?" Snowcrystal interrupted, not wanting an argument to break out. "This is probably really overwhelming. Why don't Yenn and a few of us – I mean those of us who came with him," she added when she saw Arien about to speak, "– go find another place to rest for the moment." She bounded away from the group, looking over her shoulder to see if Yenn was following.

To her surprise, he seemed to jump at the chance to get away from the humans rather than argue with Arien, and he didn't seem annoyed at her quickly made excuse. Wildflame walked forward as well, coming close to Snowcrystal's side. The growlithe looked back at the rest of the group, who watched them with uncertain expressions. She was suddenly glad that Thunder didn't seem to be around at the moment; her hostility toward strangers would have only escalated the situation.

They turned and left, and Snowcrystal cast one last glance back at the group, hoping they'd trust her to try and make things a little more peaceful. Pausing in his walk toward Damian's tent, Scytheclaw rolled his eyes.

"Nice first impression," he muttered.

Snowcrystal and Wildflame ignored him, instead walking out into the trees until they were a fair distance away from the others, but still close to the riverside. Once they stopped, Yenn landed on the ground, suddenly returning to his weak and exhausted state.

"Look, you can't just go yelling at them," Snowcrystal told him, trying not to sound at all angry or annoyed. "We need to work together if we're going to stop this-"

"Look, I didn't plan on working with humans," Yenn spat bitterly after he'd caught his breath. "I was pretty much forced into it because I don't have a better plan. All I can say is that they'd better stay the hell away from me unless they want their arms ripped off."

"You can't hurt the trainers," Wildflame told him. "They're part of our group whether you like it or not. And we won't allow you to harm them."

"If they try to harm me, I _will_ defend myself," he replied.

"Oh, for goodness sake, they are not going to harm you!"

"Damian wasn't doing anything," Snowcrystal added, confused. "What about him seemed threatening?"

"He was reaching for something!" Yenn hissed. "He was…never mind."

"Look, whatever it was, he didn't want to harm you," Wildflame explained. "And trust me, you can move a lot faster than he can, so he wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. He was probably just concerned. Helping injured and sick pokémon is what Damian does."

Yenn just stood in skeptical silence, and Snowcrystal reminded herself that all this was probably foreign to him after living under Cyclone's rule. From what she could gather, it seemed like Cyclone and his higher ups were practically brainwashing the army.

"They're not like any humans you've seen, or heard of," Snowcrystal continued. "Just…trust us on this."

Yenn looked like there was anything he'd rather do, but for whatever reason, he seemed to calm down. "I guess they are a little young," he replied. "They never let any young humans into the…" He shook his head. "Well, I'm guessing they don't have the access to the same things other humans do. I'm hoping I'm right about that."

"They don't have _guns,_ if that's what you mean," Wildflame answered.

"What _do_ they have then?"

"Just food, water, traveling supplies, and things to help sick trainers and pokémon," Snowcrystal answered. "That's it."

"Remember what we said?" Wildflame asked. "You have a Forbidden Attack. They aren't going to mess with you."

"The humans are here to help us, Yenn," Snowcrystal added. "That's all they want to do."

Yenn snarled, "Then where were these 'good humans' back when… Okay, you know what? Forget it. Maybe these humans will try something, maybe they won't, but at least you're right in that they don't seem very threatening either way. I'll fight back if they try to harm me, but if not, I'll try my best to pretend they're not there."

"Believe me, there's nothing to be worried about," Snowcrystal told him.

"Not to me, at least," Yenn continued. "But what about pokémon that don't have Forbidden Attacks?"

"Look," said Snowcrystal, "if you don't believe us, just wait and see for yourself. But for now, why don't you rest? We'll go back and tell Arien – he's the alakazam – to tell his trainer that you don't want the humans around you. I'm sure they'll understand."

Yenn still seemed doubtful, but in the end he chose to trust her. "Okay, make sure that's clear to them, and I'll leave them alone."

Snowcrystal managed to give him a small smile. "Okay, we'll do that."

With that, Yenn left to find a place to rest, and Wildflame and Snowcrystal headed back to the group.

When they arrived, they found that the others were gathered around Blazefang and Scytheclaw. Though Thunder was still missing, and Nightshade was probably in one of the tents, everyone else was eagerly awaiting what the pokémon who had met the legendary had to say.

"Oh, there they are," Justin said, watching Wildflame and Snowcrystal walk back into camp. "Damian, don't leave anything out when you tell us what they say."

Damian and Arien glanced at each other, Arien sharing a few psychic words with his trainer, and Damian nodded.

Blazefang and Scytheclaw stepped aside to make room for Wildflame and Snowcrystal, then the four of them sat down in the center of the group. "Well," Scytheclaw said, "I might as well start."

For the next hour, the four pokémon told the waiting group all that they had learned, including what Yenn had told them about Cyclone's Forbidden Attack, and that there were two other pokémon in addition to him that also had one in the army. A few of the pokémon wondered why Yenn wasn't there to give his side of the story, and Snowcrystal decided to briefly explain his unease around humans.

As they described the meeting with Sequoiarc, a few of the pokémon expressed disbelief, to which Scytheclaw replied that they could probably go to meet him again if they really needed proof. Luckily, it didn't take long for them to trust the words of the four pokémon, as they clearly were not making anything up. They described every last detail of the conversation, down to what the legendary had suggested they do next.

After that, the group as a whole discussed it over for quite a while. Justin and Katie were mostly kept out of the loop, getting only the important bits from Damian whenever Arien felt something was particularly noteworthy. Because of this, the two mostly just listened, still trying to piece everything together in their minds.

In the end, everyone was firmly convinced that following Sequoiarc's instructions was the best course of action to take. Though many were eager to head out to the second portal that very day, it was agreed that they would wait a few days to gather their strength, make a plan for what to do when they came close to the city near the cave they were looking for, and give Yenn time to recover.

"We're not really sure what city it's going to be," Katie was telling Justin as the pokémon conversed excitedly with each other. "Lots of them have caves around. I guess we're just going to have to see where we end up."

"As long as we don't get caught," Justin sighed shakily. "Me and Damian probably can't get close."

"You think they'd be looking for us even if we're far away from Stonedust?" Damian asked.

Justin nodded. "They could think we're working with Team Rocket for all we know. That's who everyone thought set fire to the library-"

"That was a rumor," Katie interrupted. "I think anyone sensible would realize Team Rocket would have no reason to…" She trailed off, her eyes widening in sudden realization. "Wait…I just remembered something. Justin, when I went back to the city to get supplies – you know, the time I saw that program about the arch's portal on TV – I didn't see _anything_ about the library. No news, nothing. It was like everyone forgot about it. I can't believe I didn't remember until now…"

"That doesn't mean we're off the hook," Justin replied nervously.

"No, but maybe they realized it was an accident. Maybe they connected the fire to something else. I don't know. But I can ask around when we get to the other city." Katie switched on her pokégear and began looking at maps of Inari cities and their surrounding lands.

"Sure," Justin sighed, not sounding very hopeful.

Spark, having heard the whole thing, rubbed his head on Justin's leg, wishing he could reassure his trainer with words.

"At least we know what we're doing now," Katie sighed. "A lot more than we did before, that is."

"So these Forbidden Attacks…" Justin began. "…It's like they sort of took a life of their own. Well, maybe not that. Maybe it's more like a computer program that went haywire. And we don't actually know whether or not they were created with good intentions."

"Regardless, the legendaries are working against them now," Katie replied. "And they're our best bet."

They looked up as Thunder strode into view, looking frustrated with something. Immediately, one of the pokémon began trying to explain everything to her, and Thunder just looked on with irritation. It wasn't clear how much she cared about the new information.

Damian walked over to the tent where Nightshade was currently resting, both he and Arien tired of acting as translators. The heracross had been able to hear the whole thing from where he was, so Damian wasn't worried about having to explain anything. He looked at the heracross worriedly. Though Nightshade had been able to calmly rest during the journey, his injuries were still very serious, and Damian had no idea how long they'd take to heal.

Nightshade looked up from the blanket he was resting on as Damian walked in. He could see the trainer's worry, so he said a few reassuring words to him. Damian didn't need Arien's translation to understand.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Yenn returned to the camp of the group he had joined up with in a state of unease. As he appeared around the trunk of one of the massive trees, several of the resting pokémon cast him uncertain glances. Yenn tensed; he didn't like being stared at.

As he was pondering whether to leave and come back later when most of them were asleep, a pokémon appeared from around another tree. This one had not been there when he'd first been introduced to the white growlithe's companions. She was a scyther, but unlike the male scyther, she was covered in scars.

The sight shocked Yenn. Something terrible had happened to this scyther.

As he thought this, the scyther suddenly turned her head towards him. Her eyes narrowed. "So…this is the pokémon that's tagging along?" she said, her voice full of disdain. "Let me know if you're going to drag any more random bystanders into this little adventure of ours. I sure do love it."

Yenn watched the scyther turn away from him and walk toward one of the human's tents. The yanmega froze as she did so, but the scyther seemed relatively calm as she stopped near the entrance. A moment later, a human appeared from the tent's opening.

It was the one called Damian. The yanmega gritted his teeth as the boy leaned down toward the tent opening and called to someone else inside.

"Come into the light where I can see better," the human calmly instructed whoever was in the tent.

Noticing his unease, the white growlithe, Snowcrystal, came over him. "Don't worry. He's trying to help. Just watch."

However, Yenn wasn't paying attention, for a pokémon had slowly emerged from the tent entrance. It was a heracross, and one that was severely injured. Though most of those injuries were covered with human-made bandages, he could tell from the bug type's movements and the fact that one of his arms seemed to be completely useless that he was badly wounded. The sight startled him, as it had with the scyther, and he wondered what had happened to the heracross. He only hoped that the humans weren't involved.

"Spark, can you go get my bag?" Damian asked.

The jolteon sprang to his feet, dashing across the camp to where the trainers' packs lay. He grabbed the one that must have been Damian's and ran back with it. The trainer then reached inside and pulled out a new roll of bandages.

"What is he doing?" Yenn growled.

Snowcrystal looked to the yanmega in confusion. "Like I said, he's just trying to help. You see, Nightshade got injured when we…when we ran into a dangerous pokémon."

Though Yenn was obviously suspicious, he remained still and watched as Damian treated Nightshade's wounds. The heracross did not struggle, and remained calm while the scarred scyther watched carefully. It was then that Yenn noticed something odd. Despite injuries that were obviously serious, the heracross did not seem to be in a great deal of pain. With the sort of injuries he seemed to have, Yenn thought he would be in agony. He didn't look drugged either; his expression was calm, not vacant.

Yet Yenn was worried. What he was seeing didn't really add up, and he could not understand what was making the heracross so calm. "Something's not right here," he whispered to Snowcrystal, hovering down closer to the growlithe.

"What do you mean?" she whispered back, confused.

Damian reached into the bag and took out some sort of bottle, offering a small object from it to the heracross.

"What is that?" Yenn asked.

"It's medicine," Snowcrystal answered. "Pain medicine."

"I don't think so," Yenn replied, flying past Snowcrystal and toward the tent where the human and the two bug types were. He zipped toward the human, causing Damian to stumble back. "Get away from him!" he yelled, and though the trainer couldn't understand his words, the meaning was clear.

"It's okay," Damian stammered, getting to his feet. "I'm just trying to help."

By now, the attention of every pokémon and human in the camp was drawn toward the small commotion. Most of them looked tense, or simply confused, and Thunder watched with an unreadable expression. They could tell that the yanmega was too caught up in his emotions for logic to work on him.

"You're not helping," Yenn growled. "He doesn't need that. _They_ said I could trust you."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Spark asked, tilting his head as he looked at the yanmega.

Redclaw shifted uneasily. "Yenn…that's your name, right? Relax. He's just trying to treat Nightshade's wounds."

"They're right," said the heracross behind him. "It's okay."

Yenn didn't move, still hovering between Nightshade and Damian, who had gone completely still as he watched the yanmega. "What are you trying to drug him for, then? That's what I want to know," he asked, his voice dripping with hatred as he hovered with his head mere inches from Damian's.

"Get…away…from my trainer," Scytheclaw suddenly growled, stepping toward Damian and Yenn. He looked ready to take a swipe at the yanmega, but before either of them could do anything, Nightshade spoke up.

"There is nothing to worry about," the heracross said, his voice as strong as he could manage it. "I trust Damian and he has been nothing but helpful. The medicine is only going to help me. I've had it plenty of times before. You don't have to worry."

Yenn backed away from Damian, but was still confused as he looked at the heracross. "Why can't you find a pokémon healer then? Why would you trust human medicine?"

"A pokémon healer can only do so much," Snowcrystal explained. "It's not only for pain. If Nightshade doesn't get the medicine, his wounds could get infected. The humans have better ways to fight that than any pokémon does."

"And you're kind of getting in the way of that," Thunder told Yenn. "So can you leave us alone? We don't have time for this."

"They're right," Nightshade said. "It's fine."

Though Yenn remained facing the human, he could see the sincerity in the heracross's eyes. He wasn't lying, and though Yenn still distrusted the human, something about the heracross made the yanmega want to trust him. "You're sure?" he asked, turning to face Nightshade.

"They have been helping me and I trust them," the heracross continued. "The medicine is not going to do whatever you think it will."

Slowly, Yenn started to back away from Damian. "Trust them if you want," he said quietly. "But if they do anything-"

"Look, you can think whatever you want," Scytheclaw began, "but you can't harm any of us, human or not. We're working together, don't forget that. Nightshade can make his own decisions and you can stay out of it."

Yenn realized that all the pokémon were staring at him, confused at his reaction. He didn't understand it, but he was tired of trying to reason with them. He could hear the growlithe and a few of the others trying to reassure him, but he wasn't paying much attention. Turning away from Damian, he headed out of the camp, realizing that they weren't going to listen to him. Still, he thought, he would stay nearby, just in case the humans tried anything.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The group rested until nightfall, no one but Thunder straying very far from the camp. As darkness fell, most of the pokémon gathered together in a wide circle with the trainers, to once again discuss their plans.

"So, we all still agree we should rest here for a few days?" Redclaw asked the others. "Some of us are still recovering." He glanced at Blazefang and Scytheclaw. When the rest of the pokémon gave words of agreement, he nodded to Arien, who sent a quick translation to Damian.

"That sounds good," Wildflame began. "And I definitely think it would be better to let the new pokémon get to know us a bit more before we go near the human city." There was worry in her voice, and the others noticed it. At the moment, Yenn was nowhere to be found.

Thunder, who was looking at the group from a short distance away, turned to Nightshade, who was lying near the tents on some blankets the trainers had provided him. "Are you sure you still want to go with them? This sounds…dangerous."

"I'm sure," Nightshade replied. "And I'm sure the city itself will be safe, as long as we're careful."

Thunder turned her head back to the group, speaking lowly so that they could not hear. "You really consider these pokémon…family?"

"Yes."

Thunder gave Nightshade a sad look. "I won't try to persuade you to leave, then. Just…be careful. I can't watch over you all the time, and if we're going to where there's more humans…"

"You don't need to watch over me," Nightshade told her. "I'm safe with them. Don't worry about it. Just come talk to me when you want."

Thunder gave a stiff nod in response and again focused on the rest of the group.

"We'll probably have to set up a new camp outside the city," Redclaw was saying. "And there might be trouble if Damian and Justin are found, if the humans in this other city have heard about the library."

"Well, we shouldn't even have to go into the city, right?" Rosie asked.

"We're gonna need more supplies soon," Spark told her. "But I guess if nothing else, Katie can just get them for us."

Redclaw was about to reply when he noticed the sound of faintly beating wings. He turned to see Yenn hovering at the edge of camp, looking uncertain.

Alex waved a paw to him. "Come on over! We were just talking about what we're going to do next, when we go through the portal in a few days."

Yenn jumped at the sound of her voice, startled. "No thanks," he said as he backed away, unsettled by the sight of the humans sitting so freely among the pokémon.

"Yenn, wait a moment," Redclaw said before the yanmega could leave. "Could a few of us have a word with you? I think we'd like to know a bit more about Cyclone, and maybe you could help us."

Yenn turned his head toward the arcanine. "If you want, I'll tell you what I know. But not here. Somewhere safe."

"What do you mean? Of course it's-" Spark began.

"That's fine," Redclaw interrupted. "I'll go with you. Snowcrystal? Wildflame? Blazefang? Yenn traveled with you. Why don't you come?"

"I'd…rather not," Blazefang admitted. "I don't even want to think about Cyclone right now."

"I'll come," Snowcrystal said, and Wildflame nodded.

The three of them followed the yanmega into the dark forest. Even in the dim lighting, they could see that Yenn still looked weak and emaciated, but at least he was a lot stronger than he was before.

"I think this is far enough," Redclaw said after they'd passed several of the enormous trees.

"We should go farther," Yenn replied, not turning toward the arcanine.

Redclaw sighed, following the yanmega as he flew ahead, occasionally zipping in a different direction as if he was worried something would follow them. After they'd walked in silence for several more minutes, the yanmega finally stopped, landing on one of the smaller tree roots. "Okay, ask away."

"You said there were two other pokémon with Forbidden Attacks in Cyclone's army," Wildflame began. "Besides Cyclone himself, I mean. What…what sort of pokémon were they? What type of attacks did they have?"

Yenn suddenly looked as if someone had struck him. He obviously hadn't expected that question. Wildflame paused, wondering if whatever she'd asked had reminded him of anything unpleasant. She was almost ready to tell him he didn't need to answer and they could move on to another question when Yenn spoke.

"A manectric and a misdreavus," he said. "Electric and ghost. And…to be honest, they're the reason I agreed to join you. Why I'm forcing myself to work with humans. I don't want them to lose their minds either. So I hope you're right about being able to help them."

"Oh…" said Snowcrystal. "Well, if these legendaries have a plan, there's definitely a good chance. It's not just us trying to figure it out anymore."

"Well, I have another question," Redclaw began, sitting down and brushing the ground with his tail. "You were being chased by Solus and those army pokémon. How did you manage to escape?"

"I don't want to talk about that," Yenn answered sharply.

"Okay, well, do you know if Cyclone's planning anything? Is he…going to attack a human settlement soon?" the arcanine asked.

"I don't know," Yenn sighed. "He was never truthful with me. But…I don't think he was lying when he said he wanted more Forbidden Attacks first. Not long before I left, I…tried to convince him that we had enough to fight the humans, and he didn't think so. I think if Cyclone was ready to attack, it would have happened already."

"Um…about your friends with the Forbidden Attacks," Snowcrystal asked Yenn, trying to tread lightly on the subject. "They're not…they know not to use them anymore, right?"

"Yes," Yenn replied. "They want to work against Cyclone but that's dangerous. They won't use their Forbidden Attacks though. Ashend will make sure of that."

"Let's hope so," Redclaw said worriedly.

"Ashend said that we could control it," Yenn continued, "that it was at a weak stage and we just had to never use it again. But apparently that isn't true. We already have some loss of control just by using it once." The yanmega shifted his legs on the tree root, looking worried. "I resisted against using it a second time, but…"

"I think you probably have more control than Blazefang did," Snowcrystal told him. "Blazefang didn't know how to resist it after he used it the first time. Just…be careful."

"You know, if this…Ashend and your other friend have Forbidden Attacks," began Wildflame, "isn't Cyclone not much of a threat to them?"

"They wouldn't be able to kill him, if that's what you mean," Yenn replied. "Cyclone's Forbidden Attack is stronger, and Ashend said that pokémon with Forbidden Attacks can't easily kill each other with them. She also said that Cyclone's already corrupted, he just doesn't act like it. He-"

"Cyclone didn't seem insane?" Wildflame asked.

"No, not really," Yenn replied. "But Ashend said that it affects him differently, because he never tried to fight it. He seems…well, perfectly normal. But I guess he-" Yenn paused, lowering his head. "Never mind."

"I have to ask," Wildflame said. "How did a pokémon like you get mixed up with Cyclone?"

"It's a long story," Yenn answered. "One that I'd rather not talk about. But the short version is…I had just got back to the wild, I had nowhere to go, Cyclone took me in, and after everything, it seemed like…" He sighed. "Let's just say I made some really bad mistakes."

"Believe me, I know all about making bad mistakes," Wildflame said. "If you don't mind me asking, what was it like in the army? The more we know about Cyclone, the better."

Yenn seemed reluctant to answer. "Look, I'm really tired," he sighed. "Maybe we can talk more about this later. But…I'll say that my experience in the army wasn't the norm for pokémon there. Cyclone was real nice to me. Gave me pretty much anything I wanted. I just didn't know what sort of things he was really doing, didn't start to realize it until he killed Articuno."

" _What?_ "

The other pokémon turned to Snowcrystal, who had frozen as she stared at Yenn in horror. The growlithe's eyes were wide as she shook her head slowly.

"What do you mean? Articuno…Articuno can't be dead…I…"

Yenn looked taken aback, realizing he had so casually said something the growlithe clearly found horrifying. "What's wrong?" he asked. "I…I know you said you met Articuno, but…I didn't know you…"

Snowcrystal didn't answer. She backed away, her breathing coming more rapidly. She could hear Redclaw and Wildflame trying to talk to her, but she wasn't sure what they were saying. A large part of her wanted to believe that Yenn was lying, though the rational part of her knew he had no reason to. Articuno, the guardian of her mountain home, was dead. Killed by Cyclone.

"Snowcrystal?" Redclaw asked, his voice coming through to the growlithe.

"Cyclone…really killed him?"

The arcanine looked to Yenn, who nodded grimly. "Snowcrystal," Redclaw began, "the other legendaries had to have heard about this. They'll be on their guard. No one else will have to-"

"A legendary is _dead!_ " Snowcrystal cried. "And my tribe…what will they do now? They can't stay on their mountain."

Wildflame came up beside the growlithe, giving her head a few small licks. "As soon as this is over," she said, "I'll help you and the tribe find a new home. I'm sure some of the others would be willing to help as well. We won't leave them on their own, I promise."

Snowcrystal looked up at her. "I've been gone so long already. How many more months do they have on that mountain?"

Wildflame and Redclaw looked to each other.

"The mountain?" Yenn questioned with some hesitation, as if he wasn't sure he should be interrupting. "You had a tribe on the mountain where Articuno was guarding the…Forbidden Attack?"

"No," Wildflame answered for the growlithe. "It was another mountain. Articuno left the tribe's home to guard the Forbidden Attack. Like Sequoiarc said."

"He was the only one who could save my tribe's home," Snowcrystal said shakily. "And he didn't deserve to die like that. If Cyclone can kill legendaries…" She broke off, unable to continue.

"There's nothing we can do for Articuno now," Redclaw told her. "But Wildflame is right. When we've found a way to put an end to the Forbidden Attacks, we can find a way to move your tribe to a safer place."

Snowcrystal nodded in response, beginning to feel numb from the shock. She didn't want to believe it, but it was plausible and it didn't seem like Yenn was lying.

She swallowed. "Okay," she said. "Thanks…you two."

Though the growlithe's voice still sounded hollow, at least some of her hope had returned, even if it was too late for Articuno himself.

"I'm sorry," Yenn said after a moment. "I didn't know."

"It's not your fault," Snowcrystal replied. "I'm glad you told me."

Without another word, the growlithe got up and headed into the darkness of the forest. At the moment, she wanted to be alone.

 

  
**-ooo-**

For the next few days, the group rested and planned ahead as well as they could. The trainers speculated about which city they would be arriving at; Katie had narrowed it down to the ones that had known caves nearby. The first thing they planned to do upon arriving was to have Katie go into the city and stock up on supplies.

Yenn had not grown any more comfortable around the humans, and spent the majority of his time away from the main group or high up in the trees. However, even in just the few days that had passed, he already looked healthier, thanks to the abundance of prey in the forest.

The other pokémon enjoyed their time to relax, happy to rest after the exhausting journey through the desert. Blazefang's wounds were looking much better, as were the more minor injuries the group had sustained.

On the morning they were to continue their journey, Wildflame and Stormblade were sent to find the furret guardian and bring him back to the camp so that he could show them the place where the portal would take them to their new destination. The rest of the group gathered their supplies and then waited, talking amongst each other, pacing around the camp, or simply getting some last bit of rest.

"Snowcrystal, are you ready?" Redclaw asked the growlithe, who was sitting off by herself, looking lost in thought.

"Oh. Yeah, I am," she said, trying to shake off any hints of sadness that may have been visible on her expression.

"They should be back any minute now," the arcanine replied. "Let's go wait with the others." He turned and walked toward the main group, with Snowcrystal trailing slowly behind.

Despite the fact that most of the pokémon, and even the humans, had agreed to help Snowcrystal's tribe after their main objective was complete, she was worried. If the tribe was forced to leave before help could arrive, they could run into all kinds of dangers. Maybe even Cyclone. As well as that, she still found it hard to come to terms with the fact that Articuno was dead.

She didn't want the others to see her worry, however. They had more important things to think about, and many of them had also been saddened by the news of Articuno's death. She didn't want them to worry about her.

Yenn had also joined the group in waiting. He stayed at the edge of the camp, looking nervous and wary. To Snowcrystal's surprise, Thunder was standing near the main group, seeming relatively calm with Nightshade beside her.

"I think everything's ready," Damian told the others as he finished fitting Redclaw with a traveling pack. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of pokémon treats, tossing a few to the excitedly waiting pokémon.

Spark leapt to catch one in the air, turning to Snowcrystal. "Why don't you try it?" he asked. "There's plenty."

"No thanks," Snowcrystal replied.

"What about you, Thunder?"

Thunder turned to him, surprised that he had spoken to her. She gave the jolteon an annoyed glare before shrugging. "I'm not going to jump for one. Tell the trainer to set some on the ground." After relying on them for food in the desert, the idea of taking food from humans had started to seem less and less repulsive.

After a few minutes, most of the treats were gone, and Damian took the remaining ones in his hand, hesitantly approaching Yenn. As soon as he took the first step in the yanmega's direction, Yenn stiffened and flared his wings.

"It's okay," Damian said, though his voice betrayed the fact that Yenn's signs of hostility made him nervous. "Here, try some of these."

"Not going to work," Justin muttered at him. "Just like all the other times you tried it. Give it up."

Yenn could pick up on Damian's nervousness, and it only made him grow more agitated. He gave the human a hateful stare before flying off, landing on a branch far above the others' heads.

"You know, maybe you should just leave him alone," Katie said without looking up from her pokégear.

"I just thought that-" He paused as Wildflame and Stormblade charged around a tree, a furret bounding behind them.

Snowcrystal looked up as her friends returned with the messenger. She jumped up and ran toward them, the others gathering around her.

"I see you're ready to go," the furret said calmly, showing no fear of the large predators surrounding him.

"Yes," Snowcrystal began, "but the legendaries guarding the Forbidden Attacks…I think they're in more danger than we thought. I mean, they probably know by now, but Cyclone is-"

"We will send winged messengers to spread the word to those legendaries," the furret assured her. "Though I'm sure many are already aware of the threat. Our Guardian does not want more Forbidden Attacks to be found."

"Thank you," Snowcrystal said, feeling a bit better about the situation. At least the other legendaries wouldn't be unprepared.

The group followed the furret messenger through the forest, taking in the breathtaking sight of the towering trees one more time. Though the death of Articuno had shocked them, most of them were filled with hope now that they had a clear path in mind.

They arrived at a spot that looked no different from the rest of the forest. They stood looking up at a hill where two enormous trees grew closely together. The furret nodded toward them, telling the group that the portal would now open for them.

Several of the watching pokémon let out a gasp as the massive form of the forest's legendary appeared from the gloom, stopping at the top of the hill to look down on them. Both the pokémon and the humans froze at the sight, looking at Sequoiarc's form with awe. In the light from above, they could make out the leaves surrounding his neck as well as the patterns of his mask.

The legendary nodded to them, then turned and made his way back into the forest. Immediately, Arien sensed a powerful force coming from the portal between the two trees.

Together, the pokémon and trainers climbed up the hill, took one last look at the magnificent forest, then one by one they stepped through the portal.

 

  
**-ooo-**

At the head of the group of pokémon he'd led into the desert, Solus walked back into the army camp. Many pokémon stopped what they were doing to watch the espeon's return, noting from the looks of his and his followers' faces that they had returned empty pawed.

Solus didn't pay attention to any of them. It had taken his group longer to return to the army's camp due to injuries some of his pokémon had sustained in the battle with the white growlithe's group. Cyclone wouldn't be happy about that. And on top of it all, he would have to explain to his leader that the pokémon he'd been targeting had vanished into thin air.

At least he wouldn't have to mention Blazefang.

Whispers spread through the group of watching pokémon. The higher ranking ones looked disappointed or angry, while the lower ranking ones mostly looked worried. Soon, a familiar figure appeared through the crowd, pokémon parting to make way for him.

The vaporeon stopped in front of Solus, taking in the two scratches the espeon bore across his face. Solus knew that he didn't need to tell Cyclone how the search for Yenn had turned out, but he bowed his head and spoke anyway.

"Yenn is gone. He escaped through some sort of…portal in the desert. We tried everything, but couldn't follow him."

Cyclone didn't reply. He showed no anger, nor disappointment. Somehow, that only made Solus feel worse. The vaporeon closed his eyes and gave a small sigh. "Solus," he said, "this can wait for later. There is something I need you to do now. And I expect there to be no failure, not now that we've had yet another setback."

Solus wasn't sure he liked seeing the vaporeon leader so calm about losing Yenn, but he wasn't going to press the issue. "Yes, and that would be…?"

"Follow me," Cyclone told him. "We've discovered the location of another Forbidden Attack, and I need you to evaluate our new candidate."

 

  
**-ooo-**

"So Yenn made it…" Ashend whispered to Itora, watching the newly returned pokémon from their position near the entrance of Ashend's cave. "He's free." The ghost type smiled.

"Cyclone's still going to pay," Itora growled.

Ashend's smile vanished. "Itora, we still need to be careful," she warned. "Especially now that Solus is back. If you sense his presence in your mind, don't let him find-"

"I know, Ashend, I know," the manectric grumbled. She sighed. "So what are we going to do now? We can't escape, we've got no way to take down Cyclone yet, and-"

"We keep waiting, and learn what we can," Ashend replied.

After a short while, the two of them headed back into the cave, leaving the rest of the army to themselves. So far, Cyclone hadn't asked to see their Forbidden Attacks in person, so they had been able to do a good job of simply pretending to use them. Eventually, they knew, he would want an audience. Ashend was still thinking about what they would do when that time came.

Once in the cave, Ashend used her levitation powers to lift the glowing stone amulet off of her neck and set it on a stone ledge. She had grown to hate the thing more and more, but still treated it with respect, knowing that doing anything else would lead to suspicion. Beside her, Itora flopped down on the ground, scratching at a patch of her scruffy fur.

"So we still have no plan," the manectric sighed.

"Not yet," Ashend responded.

For a while they waited in silence, each with their own thoughts. Despite the daunting task of keeping their intentions a secret, the two had felt an immense burden lifted from them at the news that Solus had failed to kill Yenn. That gave them the peace they needed, and would make it easier to hide their feelings from Solus.

"Hello, Ashend. Itora," a calm voice stated, and the two turned to see Cyclone standing in the cave's entrance tunnel. Beside him was the sleek form of Solus.

"Yes, Cyclone," Ashend said stiffly. "What is it?"

"Though Yenn's capture was a failure, we have good news," he replied. "We have discovered the location of another Attack stone not guarded by a legendary. I have already sent some loyal pokémon to retrieve it."

"Good," Ashend replied. "But it won't be enough, will it? We've got to get more of these things before we actually use them on humans."

"Yes, and there have been major setbacks," Cyclone replied. "But with time, that shouldn't matter. With time, it won't matter that the legendaries are gathering stronger forces to guard these stones."

Itora gave Ashend a glance, but neither of them spoke what was on their minds. The misdreavus carried on as if everything was normal.

"The army only gets stronger. That won't be a problem in time," she said.

Cyclone nodded. "Now, I want you to meet our new partner. Sandra, come here." He turned his head back toward the tunnel, and another pokémon walked into the gloom.

The stranger was a ground type, covered in tan and white fur with a mass of brown spines lining her back. As she watched Ashend and Itora, she lifted a forepaw and scratched the side of her face with a massive claw.

Ashend tried not to show much surprise at the sight of the sandslash, instead giving a smile as if she was pleased with the newcomer. She noted that Sandra bore no scars of any sort, and briefly wondered what the sandslash's story was. As she pondered this, Itora gave the ground type a convincingly cheerful welcome.

"Hm," Sandra replied absentmindedly. "I already know who you are. Everyone treats you like royalty. Let's hope you're actually skilled enough to deserve it." She turned away from them, not bothering to watch their reactions. "So Cyclone," she began, running a claw through the fur along her jawline, "how many more do I have to kill before you really trust me?"

"I trust you already," Cyclone replied, with a nod to Solus.

"Good," the sandslash replied, grinning. "Now where is my stone?"

_To be continued…_


	75. Shellreef City

The group stepped through the portal into pouring rain. Despite it still being morning, the sky was dark and thick sheets of rain made it hard to make out much of what was around them. The trainers and pokémon took careful steps over dark, slick rock, becoming soaked within seconds.

"Ugh," Rosie muttered, trying in vain to shake some of the water out of her fur. "Where are we?"

"Katie's looking it up," Arien told her, nodding toward the trainer, who was hunched over and peering at the screen of her pokégear while her hand shielded it from the worst of the rain.

"We're very close to Shellreef City," Katie called to the others, having to raise her voice to be heard over the torrent. "We're near one of the routes leading in to it. Now we've just need to get off these rocks."

Snowcrystal stood beside Redclaw, peering at her strange surroundings. There were masses of dark gray stone on all sides, jutting up into steep cliffs or twisting into strange formations. The rocks around them, even many of the ones at their feet, were sharp and jagged, and the rain made them slippery. Careful of where she put her paws, Snowcrystal stepped forward. They were on some sort of hill or small mountain, because in the breaks between the rocks, she could see places where the ground sloped downward.

Stormblade shook himself, fluttering his wings and sending water flying in all directions. "We'll need to be careful finding a safe way down," he informed the others, "because there's a steep drop over here."

Snowcrystal walked closer to where Stormblade was standing, near one of the openings in the rock walls. Sure enough, it only sloped gently for a few paces before it plunged into a steep cliff, water flowing off the edge and into space.

"Yenn!" Blazefang called up into the air, where the yanmega was hovering above the group. "See if you can find us a way down."

Yenn brought himself lower, hovering just above the heads of the tallest pokémon. The rain didn't seem to bother him at all. "Okay," he said. He zipped off, leaving the others waiting.

"This feels so nice!" Alex cried, spreading her arms as she lifted her head to the sky.

"Glad someone's enjoying themselves," Scytheclaw replied, the raindrops striking his metal carapace making an odd sound.

Lightning flashed across the sky, followed immediately by the boom of thunder. For a second, everything was illuminated in white light. Spark, excited by the feeling of electricity in the air, bounded in a circle around the group, carefully leaping only onto patches of rock that weren't jagged.

Justin made his way toward where most of the pokémon had gathered, stepping carefully between the rocks at his feet. He passed an opening in the rock walls around them, trying to see what lay in the distance. He realized that he'd made a misstep a split second too late. Before he could register what had happened, he was on the ground, sliding toward the edge of the precipice. He felt something grab his sleeve and saw Spark holding on desperately, his paws scrabbling against the slick rock. Justin felt something slip out of his pocket – his phone – and slide over the edge. The storm was so loud that he didn't hear it strike any of the rocks below.

"Help!" he cried out, but Damian had already reached his side and began pulling him away from the edge and toward the startled group huddled behind him.

"Are you okay?" Katie asked, her voice barely audible over the pounding of the rain.

Justin just nodded, feeling nothing but numb shock over what had just happened.

Redclaw was the first to spot Yenn returning and called out to the others. "He's back!"

"I've found a safe way down," Yenn informed the arcanine. "Follow me."

"Lead the way," the arcanine replied as Yenn flew forward, leading them to a narrow gap between two towering rock formations. "Uh…" Redclaw began doubtfully. The space between them looked very tight, and Redclaw, being the largest of the pokémon, wasn't sure he'd be able to fit.

"You can squeeze through without all that human junk on your back," Yenn informed him. "Once you do, though, be careful. There's a big drop on the other side and it looks slippery. Just follow the ledge until it widens out."

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"After you get past the ledge, it's a much more gentle slope to the bottom," Yenn replied.

Redclaw sighed and informed Arien that the trainers would need to remove his traveling pack. As Damian and Katie struggled with it in the rain, the other pokémon walked one by one into the crevice.

"Careful!" Yenn warned as Rosie slipped, her leg hanging over the edge of the cliff before she quickly pulled it back up. "Walk along the ledge. I'll catch you if you fall."

"Hang on there, I'll help!" a voice cried, and Rosie looked up to see Fernwing the tropius hovering near the ledge, Ray the pidgeot by her side. "Damian thought it would be safer if we carried you. I'm afraid we can't carry Redclaw, but everyone else should be fine."

Rosie carefully climbed onto Fernwing's back from the cliff, and the tropius flew her over to where the ledge widened out. After a moment, Ray arrived with Snowcrystal. Stormblade and Thunder flew across themselves.

Soon everyone but Redclaw was past the narrow part of the ledge. The arcanine squeezed himself through the narrow gap, stepping precariously onto the makeshift pathway. Yenn watched worriedly, knowing the arcanine was too heavy for him to carry, but to his relief and the relief of the others, Redclaw made it across safely.

"We'll be flying overhead," Katie announced to the others. "I'll take Justin with me. Damian, you can take Blazefang since he's injured. The rest of you, be careful. There may not be any more steep cliffs on the way down, but you could still get hurt."

After Damian and Katie strapped the traveling pack around Redclaw again, the pokémon carried on, walking across the wide ledge toward where the rocky ground sloped downward. They could see the land waiting below them, but it was hard to make out much of anything through the heavy rain.

With the trainers on their pokémon and Yenn flying above them, the rest of the group carefully descended the slope. Yenn flew down low, guiding them to where there were less slippery or steep patches. After they were about halfway down to what looked like a grassy area below the rocks, the rain started to let up. To their surprise, it quickly dwindled from pouring to barely sprinkling, and most of the pokémon were quick to breathe a sigh of relief.

" _Look!_ " cried Alex, leaping up and down as she pointed at something on the horizon. The others made their way up toward where the floatzel was standing. From that vantage point, they were suddenly able to see their destination much clearer.

Below the rocks they were standing on was a well worn path, snaking toward an enormous city lying on the edge of the biggest body of water most of them had ever seen. Snowcrystal found herself gaping at the sight; the water went on seemingly forever, all the way to the horizon and beyond. She could see sailboats near the shoreline, sailboats just like the ones she'd seen in pictures at the Stonedust City library. She was sure that if weren't for the rain, they'd be floating out into that great expanse of water. This, she realized, was the ocean. She had heard about it many times, but she had never imagined it was that _big._

"It's the ocean!" Alex cried. "I'm finally here! All my life I've wanted to see…I can't believe we've found it!" In her excitement, she grabbed Spark and spun him around, laughing joyously.

Redclaw watched them and smiled. "The ocean…I've wanted to see it too."

"Really? But you're a fire type," Rosie pointed out with a cheeky grin.

"As long as I don't go in too deep, it won't harm me," Redclaw replied. "Besides, it looks beautiful, doesn't it?" The arcanine sat down as he gazed at it, seeming lost in thought.

Snowcrystal smiled to see the others so happy after their brief ordeal up on the rocks. Though the sight of the ocean had at first intimidated her, she could see so much beauty in it. She wondered what it would look like up close. After a few more moments, she turned her attention to the city. It was very large, with towering buildings like Stonedust, but it looked different. The buildings formed unique shapes, most of them glistening and white. Beyond the city she could see mountains. That was probably where Tanzenarc's cave was.

Yenn, however, had frozen. The moment the skies had cleared and he had seen the city, a flood of memories had washed over him. He had no idea why; the city looked nothing like the one he remembered. But the memories kept coming, and a small part of him still wanted to set his Forbidden Attack loose in the city's streets. He pushed the uncomfortable thought away.

"Uh, Yenn?" Rosie asked. "Is something wrong?"

Yenn looked down at the ninetales, suddenly forgetting what her name was. "I'll…I'll be back," he muttered, not sure if she could even hear him, and flew off.

Rosie gave a confused glance to the others who had noticed his odd behavior.

"Well, I'm not happy about having to go to another city either," Thunder muttered. "But I'm not afraid of it. If Nightshade trusts you…I think I can trust his judgment."

"You can trust all of us, Thunder," Snowcrystal told her, and though she wasn't sure, she thought she saw what might have been a hint of a smile before Thunder turned away.

They carried on down the rocky slope, avoiding steep drops and puddles of water. When they reached the grass at the bottom, the storm clouds were already starting to move on, and they could see patches of a bright blue sky.

Deciding to take a rest, the trainers and their mounts landed among the pokémon. Nightshade was sent out, and Thunder gave him a happy look before she lay down on the grass, resting in the cool air.

As the pokémon lounged in the shade of the rocks above them, Justin paced back and forth with an uneasy look. "Katie, I still don't think it's safe for me and Damian to go to the city. I-"

"We'll work something out," Katie tried to assure him. "I mean, maybe we can convince them it was an accident."

"I'm not sure that'll work," Justin replied glumly.

"Well…" Katie began, standing up and glancing to her pidgeot. "I can go ahead of you. See if everyone's still talking about the library or if they've found out anything more. Like I said, they might have realized it was an accident if everyone stopped talking about it."

Justin and Damian glanced at each other.

"I guess that makes sense," Damian said. "And if they are looking for us, well, we don't have to actually go too close to the city. Katie can just bring supplies back."

Justin looked uneasily at the female trainer. "Well…okay. I guess it wouldn't hurt if you tried to figure things out."

"I'll be back in an hour or two at most," Katie told them before mounting the flying type, who launched himself and his trainer into the sky.

Snowcrystal watched them go, hoping that Katie would encounter nothing but good news. However, her thoughts were on other things, and she found herself focusing once more on the death of Articuno, the pokémon who had once guarded her mountain home. The other pokémon hadn't talked about it much since the night that Yenn told them. She supposed she didn't blame them; she hadn't wanted to talk about it either.

"Is something wrong?"

Snowcrystal looked up to see Stormblade standing next to her, his eyes looking concerned. "Well, um…"

"Is it about Articuno? Your tribe?"

"I don't really want to talk about it right now," Snowcrystal answered with a sigh.

Before Stormblade could reply, Spark bounded over to them and said, "You know we're going to help your tribe after all this. Remember? Articuno may be gone, but that doesn't mean we have to-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it," Snowcrystal snapped, but immediately regretted it at the sight of Spark's taken aback expression. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it like that. I just…"

"It's all right," Spark said with a shrug, his optimistic attitude returning. "If you don't want to talk about that, well…there was something else that's been on my mind ever since we learned we'd be going near a city." He gave a small smile as Snowcrystal looked to him curiously. "Snowcrystal, have you ever thought about evolving?"

Snowcrystal hadn't expected the question. "Well…I haven't really thought about it much," she admitted. "I mean, I think that someday maybe I'd like to. But I'm not ready now."

"That's fine," Spark replied. "I was just thinking that…if you wanted to, one of the trainers could buy you a fire stone from one of the shops there. Just know that it's an option whenever you decide."

"Evolving isn't for everyone," Stormblade reminded Snowcrystal. "Don't think that you have to. If anything, you can always make the decision later."

Snowcrystal looked back at the two of them, two pokémon who had made very different choices about evolution. She turned to Spark. "I'm curious. What made you decide to become a jolteon?"

"Well," Spark began, tilting his head to the side as he smiled, absorbed in memories, "I admit I was pretty overwhelmed with all the choices when I was younger. But when I thought about it, I knew there were some evolutions I wasn't really too keen on. I didn't like swimming enough to become a vaporeon, I didn't really like the nighttime much, so umbreon was out, and I wasn't keen on the cold either, so I didn't want to be a glaceon. As for the rest, I wasn't sure. It took me a while, but Justin was patient with me. Then one day, I was watching a thunderstorm and I guess I just realized…I really, really wanted to become a jolteon."

"It happened just like that?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Well, no. I waited a while – Justin insisted that I did – just so that I knew I was sure. But I realized that out of all the elements, I was drawn to the lightning element the most. I evolved, and I've never regretted it since."

"It must have been hard to have so many choices," Snowcrystal said, "I admit I'm glad that growlithe don't have to choose between so many. It seems a bit silly that I don't know how to make the decision even with only _one_ evolution."

"It's difficult for a lot of pokémon," Stormblade told her. "Don't feel silly about it."

Before she could reply, the beating of wings announced Yenn's return. The yanmega landed on a nearby stone, keeping his distance from Damian and Justin. Snowcrystal noticed that he was tense, breathing hard, and had the look of someone who had flown for quite a long time, despite the fact that he hadn't been gone long. Snowcrystal wondered if she should try to reach out to him more; he obviously didn't feel comfortable in the group, when suddenly something in the yanmega seemed to snap, and he turned to the others, stating, "I'm not going into that city."

"You don't have to," Stormblade explained, stepping closer to the yanmega. "Some of us might have to stay here anyway."

Arien watched the agitated bug type, seeming displeased. "It's your choice to make," he told Yenn. "All that really matters is that you're with us when we search for the legendary."

"So assuming all goes well," Scytheclaw muttered, "when Katie comes back, I say that we head to the city, stock up on supplies, then start looking for this cave."

"But by that time, it'll be around midday," Alex sighed. "Can't we start the search tomorrow? I want to see the ocean for myself."

"It might take us a while to find this cave," Scytheclaw replied. "We should start looking as soon as possible. We probably won't find it on the first day. But," he added, seeing the floatzel's downcast expression, "I'm sure we can find some time to visit the beach. We might be here a while."

Alex gave him a smile in return.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Katie had wandered through the lively streets of Shellreef City until she came to the police station, a grand looking building near the city's center. It was away from the activity going on in other streets; Katie had quickly learned that it was the week of the Shellreef City water pokémon festival, and most of the streets were crowded. She walked through the police station's doors after recalling her pidgeot, then rushed up to the front desk, where she asked one of the waiting officers if there had been any news of the Stonedust City library incident.

The policeman looked at her curiously, not having expected what probably seemed like a very odd question to ask in a city so far from Stonedust. The arcanine lounging at the foot of his desk gave a yawn and sat up, watching Katie closely.

"I just want to know if…they're still looking for the two trainers that they think caused the fire," Katie explained.

"Every city has been alerted and we are looking for them now, yes," the officer told her, and Katie felt her heart sink.

"And the officials at Stonedust City…they don't still think it was Team Rocket, do they?"

The man at the desk gave her an odd look. "Didn't you hear?" he asked her. "They found out that a wild pokémon caused the fire."

Katie glanced up in surprise, and quickly tried to act as if she was shocked at the idea that a wild pokémon could have started it. "R-really?"

"A wild pokémon somehow broke in that night and started the fire," the officer told her. "They eventually questioned the pokémon tasked with guarding the library with the help of a psychic type, and the pokémon had only seen a growlithe, no trainers. Of course," he added in disdain, "they only thought to do this after they'd jumped to conclusions and scared those two boys half to death, which is obviously why they ran away. Without access to pokémon centers and hospitals, they could easily end up in trouble. There's already a few rangers searching the-"

"Wait a minute…" Katie interrupted. "The pokémon in the library…they didn't think to question them until _after_ they'd accused Justin and Damian?"

"Yes," he replied. "Justin owns no pokémon and Damian was said to have had a growlithe at one point, but quickly released it. There were no growlithe registered to him at the time of the incident."

Katie thought back to when Justin had briefly caught Snowcrystal and the others to bring them to Stonedust City. He had released Snowcrystal as soon as he'd arrived in the city, before the workers at the lab she was briefly sent to would have let her out and seen her odd coloring. They had never known Snowcrystal was a white growlithe; Damian's image on television the night the fire had occurred had shown a generic image of a growlithe. She only hoped the pokémon of the library had neglected to mention Snowcrystal's white fur.

That worry quickly left her and was replaced with anger. "So they just jumped to conclusions? Didn't even think to get any input from the pokémon?"

"Some of the pokémon had been injured in the fire and were in Stonedust's makeshift pokémon center," the officer replied. "Or at least, that was the excuse. After the Team Rocket attack a few months back, I suppose the city was on edge. Not that that's much of an excuse either. By the time they realized their mistake, there was no sign of either of the boys. Now we have rangers trying to bring them back when they obviously don't want to be found."

"Well, that's why I've come here," Katie said. "I know where they are…and they're nearby."

The man looked surprised, but was trying not to show it. Katie wasn't sure if he believed her. "If you can bring them here, that would be incredibly helpful," he replied. "Granted, they did sneak into a restricted area of the building, and possibly broke a window – although that could have been caused by the wild pokémon – so they will need to pay a fine. But if they can come here, we can get this sorted out."

"Okay," Katie replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "I'll tell them. I think they'll listen to me."

"And you for sure know how to find them?"

"Pretty sure," Katie replied, hoping she wouldn't be seen as the one who had helped them run away.

"Well, that will be a relief for a lot of people," the officer sighed. "Last I heard, Justin's parents were down in Stonedust demanding answers. This whole thing was a mess. Doesn't surprise me that Stonedust officials wouldn't even consider consulting pokémon until after they'd terrified the two boys."

Katie paused. It did bother her that the police had thought to ask the pokémon last, when doing so could have avoided the whole messy situation. She knew that pokémon weren't ranked on the same level as humans in Stonedust, or even in most of Inari, but the thought still really concerned her. However, she guessed it didn't surprise her. People in Stonedust wouldn't immediately think of involving the pokémon in matters like this. There, it was 'humans are in charge, humans make the decisions,' and pokémon that weren't even working for the police didn't have much of a chance for their voices to be heard. Now, however, she knew why the news surrounding the library had suddenly died down the day she went back to Stonedust and saw the video about the arch.

"The Stonedust City officials were wrong to do what they did," the officer continued, stroking his arcanine's mane. "But if you can help, we would all be very grateful to you. And oh, if you haven't heard," he added, seeing that Katie had started to turn away, "they found out something very interesting about that growlithe. Apparently, its fur was _white._ "

Katie froze.

"It's not the first time one's been sighted, either," he went on. "A few months ago, someone in that same library claimed to have seen a white growlithe. People have been searching around Stonedust for them, but to no avail. Some think the pokémon were lying about it."

_A human had seen Snowcrystal too…_ Katie had heard about Snowcrystal's own little library 'adventure' from before she had joined up with her and the other trainers. If people hadn't believed that one library worker before, they might now, after all that mess had been in the news.

"That…that sounds really interesting," she stammered, before hurrying out of the police station and releasing her pidgeot in a flash of light.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Once back at the place where the rest of the group was resting, Katie helped Damian get to work dyeing Snowcrystal's fur orange and cream so that she resembled a normal growlithe. Their plan was to take all the pokémon into the city, get Damian and Justin's situation cleared up with the police, and then they could head to the beach while Katie got supplies.

"I'll keep Spark's poké ball safe for you," she told Justin, and the boy gratefully handed it over. Katie put it, along with Nightshade's, into her pocket.

As the pokémon gathered together, Arien turned toward Yenn, who was perched on one of the rocks, refusing to join the others. "You don't have to go into the city," the alakazam told him, "but I want you to meet us at the beach in a short while. There will be humans there, but you won't be close to the buildings. Do not attack any humans."

Yenn just muttered something disdainfully under his breath and turned away.

Despite her dislike of humans and cities, Thunder insisted she come with them. They were bringing Nightshade, and were going to take him to the pokémon center as soon as they were sure Damian's name was cleared and he'd no longer be associated with the library incident. Though Thunder didn't like the idea of Nightshade being kept in a building, the heracross had convinced her it was for the best. Yenn, on the other hand, didn't know of that part of the plan, and they weren't sure it was best to tell him yet.

As they walked into the city, without Yenn, Snowcrystal stared in awe at the buildings around her. They were like those at Stonedust, tall and massive, yet they were different. They formed more interesting shapes, and looked somehow brighter and grander. There were people everywhere in the streets, so many that sometimes she nearly got lost in the crowd as she followed the others. All along the streets, small stands had been set up, selling food and other items. The smell was enticing to her; some of the scents were new to her, and she wondered what sort of food was being sold. In addition to the stands, the streets were decorated with ribbons and balloons of bright colors. On one corner, several stands displaying games were set up, people and pokémon laughing as they attempted whatever challenge the games presented.

"What's going on here?" Snowcrystal whispered to Spark, trying to keep close to him to avoid getting separated again.

"Oh, Katie says it's the water pokémon festival this week," Spark explained. "I've seen it on TV before, back when Justin had his license. In a couple days, there's going to be a huge parade, and a big celebration at the beach."

"Oh…" Snowcrystal mused, looking up at the brightly colored decorations. They did seem to be themed after water pokémon. "I've never heard about anything like that before."

"I hope we'll be here for the parade," Spark said happily. "It's a lot of fun for humans and pokémon alike."

They said no more as they focused their attention on weaving through the crowds of trainers and pokémon to catch up with the others. Most of the group's pokémon were curious but calm as they walked through the streets. Only Thunder seemed really nervous, but she kept silent as she walked ahead. At one point, one of the passing trainers expressed concern over Thunder's scars. Katie had replied by telling them that Thunder was a rescue pokémon.

Before long, they reached a less crowded section of the city, where they came upon the police station. Katie told the pokémon to wait outside, and went in with Justin and Damian.

As Katie watched the police talk everything over with Damian and Justin, she neglected to say anything about the white growlithe. She found herself glancing toward the building's front windows, watching the pokémon that sat waiting for them outside. Snowcrystal was among them, looking quite unremarkable with her orange fur die. Katie let out a sigh. She was safe.

"We'll pay the fee for trespassing," Justin was saying, "but the window…well we don't-"

"One of my pokémon broke the window," Damian interrupted, and Justin shot him a look. Damian didn't notice. "I'm…really sorry. I'll pay for it."

Katie turned to the two trainers briefly, hardly paying attention as they conversed in low tones with the officer about what to do next. Luckily, she thought, it seemed like they could pay the fine and move on, hopefully without having to resort to anything like the library plan ever again. And with luck, she thought, the news about the pokémon seeing a white growlithe would die down.

 

  
**-ooo-**

A while later, once things had been sorted out with the police, the group headed toward their next stop, the Shellreef pokémon center.

"Well, at least that's over," Justin said, tossing Spark's poké ball up in the air and catching it again as he walked down the street.

"Those pokémon told the Stonedust City officials there was a white growlithe in the library…doesn't that bother you?" Katie asked. "It's not like that guy who apparently saw Snowcrystal in the library a while before we met her…this is linked to an event that was on the news and…I don't like it."

"Well, they're not going to find her unless the dye somehow comes off," Justin replied. "I guess in that case one of us can just catch her."

"I guess," Katie sighed.

"I need to call my parents," Justin said as he looked at the poké ball in his hand. "I'm sure they're worried about me after what happened."

"Good idea," Katie replied. "We're almost to the pokémon center."

Snowcrystal's eyes widened as the Shellreef City Pokémon Center loomed into view ahead of them. It was an absolutely massive dome shaped building surrounded by a large lawn that looked very well taken care of. Snowcrystal was awed by the sheer size of the building; even though other buildings were much taller, this was the widest one she'd seen.

They crossed a street and then walked up the pathway leading to the center's main doors. Snowcrystal leaned her head back to look up at the wide windows overlooking the doors, the sunlight reflecting off of them brightly. As they walked inside, Snowcrystal realized that the windows were there to let sunlight into a large lobby room. There were a few trainers waiting with pokémon, and a couple of them looked up curiously at the sight of so many pokémon walking freely beside the humans together.

"We need to deactivate Nightshade's poké ball," Katie whispered to the others. "It'll look weird if he's in an unregistered one."

"Yeah, you're right…" Damian replied.

"Damian," Katie told him, "you can transfer one of your pokémon and catch him instead. We'll let Justin capture him again when this is all done so you can have all six of your pokémon back."

Snowcrystal sat with the other pokémon in the middle of the lobby floor as the trainers walked over to where some strange machines were positioned. She recognized the one Damian was now using to transfer one of his six pokémon to the lab, but the other she wasn't sure about. She supposed it must be used to deactivate poké balls.

"Anyone can deactivate unregistered poké balls," she heard Katie explaining to Justin in low whispers. "It's ones that are registered to trainers with licenses that need to be deactivated by the owners. Otherwise it'd be much easier to steal pokémon."

"There," Damian said as Nightshade was released, and he picked up the empty poké ball from the machine. "Okay," he told the heracross. "This is just temporary. It'll look less weird if you're registered to me."

Nightshade merely nodded, and allowed one of Damian's own poké balls to capture him in a burst of light. Damian glanced nervously toward the counter where the nurse was meant to be, but no one was there at the moment. A few of the waiting trainers were looking at him and his friends oddly, though no one questioned them.

"I guess we might have to wait a bit," said Justin, looking at the empty counter. "I think I should call my parents now."

He walked off toward a set of video screens, and Damian hesitated a moment before following. "And I should call my brother."

While the humans went to call their relatives or, in Katie's case, wait around by the machines, the wild pokémon remained clustered together, trying not to draw too much more attention to themselves.

"Nightshade better be right about these places," Thunder said with a sigh. She didn't sound especially worried, just uneasy about the idea.

"It's not the first time he's been in one," Redclaw reminded her, and Thunder didn't reply.

"Maybe you ought to go with him," Wildflame told Blazefang.

The houndoom shook his head. "I'll be fine," he said. "Besides, you might need me if we find Tanzenarc."

Snowcrystal found herself looking around the room to pass the time as she waited. She noticed that two hallways branched off from the lobby, one to the left and one to the right. At the entrance to the left hallway, a large glass display case was set up against the wall. Curious, she left the others and walked over to it. In the display case were framed photographs and newspaper clippings, showing pokémon going from sickly and weak to healthy and happy. There were also pictures of the humans and pokémon that worked there, lined up together.

As she looked at it, she thought of Yenn, left behind while the others went into the city. She wished he could have come and been able to see this. Maybe then his opinion on humans could be swayed, even a little.

Suddenly the nurse was back at the counter, and Katie beckoned to Damian, who walked up holding the poké ball with Arien at his side. He released the heracross, and as Katie explained what she knew of Nightshade's injuries and the nurse called a chansey and blissey over, Nightshade beckoned to Thunder.

Slowly, the scarred scyther walked over to him, still looking nervous about the humans and the building itself.

"Don't worry, Thunder," Nightshade told her, resting his claws on her blade. "I'll be okay." He turned to the alakazam. "Make sure Damian knows that as soon as I can, I want to be back with the group. I'm sure they can let me recover outside the center. There isn't as much chance of infection this time."

Arien nodded, and as he informed Damian, Thunder gave a sigh. "I wish you didn't have to do this at all."

"This is the best way I can be helped," he told her. "I promise I'll be okay."

"I know," Thunder replied.

"Your heracross will need to stay for at least a few days while we assess and treat his injuries," the nurse explained to Damian. "Preferably longer. But afterwards, he may recover in the care of his trainer if you wish."

Thunder stepped back as the blissey helped Nightshade onto some sort of moving bed. Though she knew this was not anything new to him, she still felt worried. No, not just worried. Sad, too. She would miss him.

As she watched Nightshade being wheeled into another room, the scyther heard footsteps as Alex walked up to her side.

"He'll be okay, don't worry," the floatzel told her.

"I'm not worried," Thunder muttered, and there wasn't much irritation to her words.

Thunder and Alex watched as Nightshade disappeared into a back room, and Katie suggested that Blazefang's wounds be looked at before they left. The rest of the pokémon remained waiting until Blazefang's cuts were treated and he was given the okay to go back with the group.

Once that was done, the trainers and pokémon left the building and headed back through the city.

Though a few of the pokémon voiced their irritation about having to go back to retrieve Yenn, Damian solved the problem by having Fernwing fly back for the yanmega, giving her instructions to meet them on the beach.

With that, they headed toward the beach themselves.

As they walked through more crowded streets, Snowcrystal was again awed by the decorations that filled the lively city. Both the people and pokémon seemed happy and excited, and the whole atmosphere of the place was much different from Stonedust. She craned her neck up at some large umbrella-like structures overshadowing the front of a building, seeing several wingull perched peacefully on them. Turning her attention to a shop across the street, she saw several pokémon walking out its front door with colorful looking treats she had never seen before. If it wasn't so crowded at the moment, Snowcrystal thought that she would have liked to explore the city more.

Luckily, the beach itself didn't seem very crowded at all. By now, most of the clouds had cleared; perhaps the earlier storm had kept most humans away. The moment they came in view of the ocean, Alex and a few others shouted with excitement.

"I think Damian should help me get the supplies," Katie said. "Justin, you can stay here with the pokémon." She tossed Spark's poké ball to him.

"Won't it look weird if I'm around this many?" Justin asked uncertainly.

"You can say you're watching them for us," Katie replied. "Wouldn't even be a lie, anyway."

"I…guess…" Justin muttered.

"Well…if it makes you feel better, you can take some of my pokémon while we're gone, just in case there's any trouble," Damian said, handing two of his poké balls to Justin. "Fernwing will meet up with you too."

"And don't worry. We won't be gone long," Katie said. "There shouldn't be any trouble anyway."

"All right," Justin said with a sigh. "But Katie…can I borrow your pokégear while you're gone?"

"Why?" she asked, before remembering that he'd lost his phone on the rocks during the storm. "Oh, right." She handed it over to him. "Call Damian if there are any problems." She and Damian turned and walked back the way they'd come, leaving Justin and the pokémon standing at the edge of the city, where the buildings gave way to sand.

"All right, everyone, let's go to the beach!" Spark cried, charging forward.

Several of the pokémon ran after him, leaving Justin and the others in the dust. "W-wait!" Justin cried in alarm, stumbling forward and breaking into a run.

Snowcrystal followed, keeping pace with him as he bolted after the running group of pokémon, who were nearing the water. Thunder and Blazefang trailed behind, looking as if they didn't know what to make of the situation. Stormblade hung back with them. Justin and Snowcrystal rushed past dozens of umbrellas and chairs, some of them occupied by pokémon or people, until they reached the tideline.

The two of them stopped at the edge of a gentle slope leading down the water, where the other pokémon were currently frolicking. Redclaw made great leaping splashes in the shallows as Spark and Rosie chased each other through the sand. Wildflame was taking in the view and Alex was already among the waves, floating on her back with a blissful expression on her face. A few of the trainers and pokémon who had been playing near the water shot the newly arriving group amused looks.

Snowcrystal and Justin glanced at each other before Justin took the two poké balls Damian had lent him. After enlarging them, he tossed them in the air, and Arien and Scytheclaw formed in front of him.

"Of course," Justin muttered. "I got the scizor."

Wildflame, Thunder, and Stormblade caught up, looking with awe at the sight that lay before them.

"All right, I guess you can all have fun," Justin said, fiddling with Katie's pokégear. "Just don't go too far from each other, and don't drown. Oh and Snowcrystal, you better not get in the water. The dye might come off."

Snowcrystal nodded in response, a little disappointed, but she tried not to let it show. She smiled as she followed Wildflame and Stormblade down to the water, telling herself to be careful not to get her fur wet. She found that she liked the feeling of walking on the damp sand, watching paw prints form as she followed the others.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Alex was in her element. The ocean was nothing at all like the lake she had called home after being released by her trainer. It was vast, limitless, and she felt like she could swim forever. If it hadn't been for the group, she would have tried to swim toward one of the distant islands she could see on the horizon.

Floating on her back, she could see a wave coming toward her, and, closing her eyes, she let it carry her up and over its surface, leaving her back on calm water. Opening her eyes again, she could see that the others were still on shore; it was mainly water pokémon that had gone as far into the waves as she had.

Turning over, she deflated the floatation sac around her body and sank. Underwater, it was like being in an entirely different world. Sand shifted beneath her, a few small pokémon scuttling on the bottom. Rays of sunlight filtered down, the light painting everything a stunning blue. She could only imagine what the deeper ocean might look like.

Excited, she propelled herself forward, the movement of the water immediately feeling natural to her. It was nothing like the lake. It was so much more.

Up ahead, she could see the rolling of the water where another wave was forming. She shot toward it, letting the water flow over her body as the wave moved past her. She continued on, watching the sand slope further and further downward. She did not yet feel the need to take a breath. She watched as the loose sand gave way to a rockier area, where strange plants grew and small pokémon darted out of her way. As she went further, she even saw an alomomola drifting by.

After a while of swimming, she felt the urge to breathe and swam to the surface. As soon as her head emerged into open air, she realized with shock that she had swam quite a distance from the shore and from the others. The pokémon and their trainers looked like tiny specks from her distance.

Suddenly realizing that they'd worry about her before long, the floatzel dived back under again, heading closer to the shore. _'This is just a quick stop,'_ she told herself. _'There will be time to explore the ocean another day.'_

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal was sitting on the dry sand when Fernwing and Yenn arrived. The yanmega looked uneasy to be around so many humans, but at least most of the trainers around were further off down the beach.

"Well, here we are," said Fernwing, plonking herself down in the sand.

"Justin's over there," Snowcrystal told her, angling her head to where the boy was seated on one of the beach chairs, excitedly messing with the pokégear.

"So I see," Fernwing said simply, lying down to soak in the sun's rays.

Snowcrystal got up and headed toward where Rosie was excitedly digging patterns in the sand. She watched Redclaw and Spark go tearing past, sending up large splashes of water in their wake. "What are you doing?" she asked the ninetales as she came to stand beside her.

"Oh, I'm just trying to make patterns," she explained. "Some of the other pokémon around here were doing it. Think we could build a sand-den?"

"I guess there's one way to find out," Snowcrystal replied, starting to dig.

Nearby, Blazefang and Wildflame stuck to the shallows, trying not to get much more than their paws wet. Both houndoom had quickly discovered that the salty water stung their wounds, and Wildflame, who only bore scratches on her face, had decided to stay with Blazefang rather than follow Redclaw and Spark. They enjoyed letting the waves chase them, running up the shore as the water followed.

Near where Justin was, Arien sat by himself as he watched the waves crashing against the shore. The ocean breeze was calming to him, and he was glad that the group had a chance for a bit of peace before they would begin trekking the mountain to find Tanzenarc.

However, not all the pokémon were peaceful. Thunder still stood away from the rest of the group, uncertain, and Yenn flew overhead, likely watching everything that was happening down below. Arien was uncertain about the yanmega. A hatred of humans was going to do nothing good for the group.

On the shoreline, Scytheclaw was standing near the water with hesitation. He could see Stormblade off to his left, standing up to his waist in water. Scytheclaw wasn't so sure about it. Ever since he had evolved, water hadn't held the same pleasant, calming sensation it had for him as a scyther.

As he stared at it, he noticed an orange shape burst from the water and bound onto shore.

"Hey, Scytheclaw!" Alex stopped beside him, panting. "Come on in!" she gasped. "It feels great. It's not cold at all, I promise."

"No thanks," Scytheclaw replied.

"Why not? I mean, at least try it! Or do you not like water?"

"It's not…" Scytheclaw sighed. "It's not the water that's the problem. It's more the steel typing, if you know what I mean."

"You won't drown, silly," Alex replied. "Let's just go where Stormblade is. Come on!" She grabbed onto his pincer but didn't pull him, simply waiting for him to follow her.

Scytheclaw hesitated, but didn't pull away. Admittedly, he did want to remember how the water had felt to him before, or at least get as close to that feeling as possible. As awkward as it was having Alex to lead him in, he certainly didn't feel like yelling at her. He gave another sigh. "All right."

"Yes!" Alex cried with glee, bounding into the water with the scizor following.

Stormblade watched them, immediately thinking back to one pokémon who hadn't joined in the fun. Thunder. He shook water from his wings before taking to the air, landing on the beach near where Thunder stood. She just watched him, a confused look in her eyes.

"What do you want?" Thunder asked.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to come down to the water with us," he replied.

"That seems like a weird thing for a scyther to do," she remarked, noting the water dripping from his wings and body.

"Wild scyther enjoy water," Stormblade told her. "As long as it's not too deep. We won't go far. You might like it."

Thunder looked uncertain, as if she wasn't sure she trusted Stormblade's words. Eventually she pushed past him, heading down toward the water. "I'll go by myself," she told him.

Not bothering to look back at his reaction, she made her way to where the waves lapped at the shore. Letting the water wash over her feet, she did find the sensation somewhat pleasant, though she wasn't sure she liked the idea of standing in the deeper areas.

However, she didn't mind. Standing where she was, that was enough. Lifting her head, she stared out into the distance, at the water that seemed to go on forever. She had never seen such sights when she was under Master's control, though other pokémon had sometimes spoken of the ocean. It felt surreal to be seeing it for herself.

From a little way away, Snowcrystal came dashing up the sandy slope, narrowly avoiding the wave that wiped out the sand-den she and Rosie had made. The ninetales followed more slowly, her fur soaking wet.

Snowcrystal paused to catch her breath, glad that the dye still perfectly coated her fur. "Well, that was close," she sighed.

Rosie jumped as Yenn landed nearby, the remains of a wingull in his mouth. "Weren't we going to look for the legendary?" he asked, setting the carcass down. "How long are we supposed to stay here?"

"The trainers are just getting supplies. Didn't Fernwing tell you?" Rosie asked.

The yanmega shook his head.

"Well, they'll be back soon," the ninetales said, turning her attention to the waves.

Snowcrystal followed her gaze as well, watching the waves form and crash beyond the playing pokémon. "I wish I could see the waves up close," the growlithe mused.

Yenn turned to her. "Do you want to?" he asked.

She looked back at him in surprise. "I can't get my fur wet," she explained. "If the humans know what my real fur color is, then-"

"I won't let you touch the water," Yenn replied. "Do you want me to take you closer?"

"Well, okay," Snowcrystal replied, and Rosie narrowed her eyes.

"Better not drop her," she said.

"I won't," Yenn replied, and he hovered above Snowcrystal, locking his legs around the growlithe and lifting her into the air.

Snowcrystal immediately felt a gust of the sea breeze as Yenn shot out over the water, over the heads of her friends and other frolicking pokémon and toward where the largest waves were building up. Up close, they looked even more powerful than they had from the shore. Snowcrystal found herself feeling a bit afraid, not sure she wanted to know what waves that strong could do to a small fire pokémon. But the basket formed by Yenn's legs felt sturdy, and at no point did she feel like she would fall.

Yenn zipped toward a large wave that was cresting, about to crash. He was so close that for a moment, Snowcrystal was afraid the water would crash into the both of them. Yet as the top of the wave started to fall, Yenn darted forward, keeping Snowcrystal close to the wall of water while the wave crashed just behind them, never quite reaching them.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened. She was so close to the water, she could have reached out and touched it with her paw. It looked so clear and blue beneath her that she really wished she could.

After a moment Yenn flew away from the wave, lifting higher into the air so that Snowcrystal had a good view of the ocean from above. She stared at it in wonder before turning her head to the mountain that rested beside the city. Somewhere in that mountain was Tanzenarc, and today they were going to find his cave.

A few minutes later, Yenn set Snowcrystal back down on the beach. To her surprise, Justin had stood up and was calling to her.

"Hey, Snowcrystal! Want to come with me to get some snacks?"

Snowcrystal glanced to Yenn, who looked disgusted, but walked over to Justin anyway. He probably just wanted some company. Spark, at the moment, was distracted. She looked over at the jolteon, who was digging in the sand and shouting "Everybody bury me!"

The growlithe walked over to stand at Justin's feet, noting that Arien was staying in place.

"You can help pick out the snacks for the pokémon," Justin told her. "Arien, watch everyone while I'm gone."

They started walking off toward a small stand near a group of clustered umbrellas. Snowcrystal heard buzzing wings behind her and turned to see that Yenn had taken to the air again, warily following.

Once they reached the stand, Justin gave a cry of frustration. "Closed," he muttered. "Must be because of that stupid storm. Seriously, of all the days to-AARGH!" He jumped back as Yenn landed on top of the stand.

"Yenn, what are you doing?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Making sure this human is doing what he said," Yenn answered.

Snowcrystal watched as Justin stepped away and pulled out Katie's pokégear, as if he wanted to call the others over Yenn's odd behavior.

"He's not doing any harm," Snowcrystal argued, hoping Justin would understand her meaning even if he couldn't understand her words. "He-"

She broke off, because another trainer had suddenly come running from behind the stand and crashed straight into Justin.

Both trainers fell to the ground, the pokégear flying out of Justin's hand. A small pokémon came tumbling off the other trainer's shoulder and hit the sand near Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal stared as the pokémon shook her head and got to her feet. The pokémon was a purple imp-like creature even smaller than she was, with large gemstone-like eyes. As she noticed Snowcrystal, the sableye gave her a grin showing pointed teeth. "Nice running into you…haha," the stranger said.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what to reply with, but was interrupted when Justin and the other trainer got to their feet and started speaking. "Sorry!" the newcomer blurted out. The growlithe could now see her clearly; she was a female human with brown skin and black hair that looked to be about Damian's age. "I didn't see you. I was just in a hurry; I might be late for a contest and I don't have a pokémon that can fly me there, and I lost track of time." She leaned down to hurriedly pick up her spilled belongings.

"Uh…it's not a big deal, I guess," Justin replied.

"Is this your growlithe?" the other trainer asked, suddenly distracted as her eyes lit up with excitement. "She's adorable!" She reached out her hand toward Snowcrystal, and the growlithe stepped forward to let the human pet the tuft of fur on her head.

"She…she belongs to a friend," Justin said, but he wasn't sure the trainer had even heard him, because she quickly fixed her attention on something else…the yanmega perched on the top of the snack stand.

"You have a yanmega too?" she asked, excited, and Justin tensed as she approached Yenn, who looked momentarily frozen in disbelief. "Male or female?"

"Uh…male," Justin replied with a nervous glance at the bug type.

"He's _beautiful,_ " the trainer said in admiration, reaching out with her hand toward the dragonfly-like creature on the roof of the stand.

For a moment, Justin was sure she was about to get her hand bitten off. But before he could shout at her to back away, she drew her hand back, obviously having recognized the hostility that was radiating from the yanmega.

"You're such a lucky trainer," the girl continued, obviously mistaking Yenn's reaction for mere nervousness around strangers. "They're magnificent creatures. What is that scar from though? It doesn't look like anything…" Suddenly a look of alarm crossed her face and she scooped up the sableye on the ground and took off running. "Oh, sorry, gotta go! I'll see you around!"

Justin stared at her in bewilderment before he sighed and picked the pokégear off the ground, wiping the sand off of it. He glanced at Snowcrystal, who gave him an odd look, and then at Yenn, who was still crouched on the snack stand. Luckily, the yanmega didn't look ready to do anything hostile, but he certainly didn't look pleased either. "Well that was weird," Justin sighed. "Let's get back to the others."

He and Snowcrystal walked back down to the beach, Justin stopping in surprise when he came upon his jolteon, buried up to his neck in sand.

"Well, I see you guys are having fun," he muttered.

 

  
**-ooo-**

It wasn't long before Damian and Katie both returned with supplies. They gathered all the pokémon together, and Katie explained that they were only going to look for the cave's entrance that day, not actually going inside if they found it, and they would be splitting into groups.

"We might not have time to search much of the place," Katie told them. "But I still think we should get a head start."

"Can I be in Scytheclaw's group?" Alex asked.

"We'll decide groups when we get there," Arien told her.

"I think that covers everything," Katie continued. "Let's head out now, everyone." She turned to Justin. "Oh, and I'd like my pokégear back."

"Here," Justin replied, handing it to her.

Katie took it from him, but after looking at it up close, she suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked, afraid that he'd damaged it somehow.

"This…isn't mine," she replied, showing him the screen, which showed a trainer's name registered: Teresa Jones.

Justin stared at it in shock. "Oh…that other trainer…we must have gotten them mixed up when…never mind. I'm sure we can get it back. She was headed to a contest."

"A contest which isn't going to be over anytime soon," Katie retorted. "Only the big contests are held here. There will be a lot of competitors and…" She paused, then sighed. "Look, it's not your fault. We'll head up to the mountain, and once we're done we'll go to the contest hall and try to find that trainer."

"Okay…good idea," Justin responded, glad that she hadn't blamed him. He turned his attention to the mountains ahead of them, lying just beyond the city. "In the meantime, let's start looking for that cave."

_To be continued…_


	76. Toil on the Mountaintop

Ashend waited alone in her cave, pondering. Itora was down in the bigger caves, hopefully doing a convincing job of making it look like she'd used her Forbidden Attack. Ashend had instructed her to continuously use thunderbolt on both the prey and the ground around it until it convincingly looked like damage from Voltgale. Ashend herself had killed hers with ghost type attacks that didn't leave any physical mark, and had Itora consume it before it could be examined. So far, Cyclone hadn't asked to be witness to the Attacks himself, and Ashend hoped it would stay that way.

The misdreavus glanced to the amulet that was resting on a small ledge nearby. Using her ghostly energy, she lifted it and held it front of her face, gazing into the deep blue stone. The thought of what she had given up for that stone made her simmer with rage, but only for a moment. She was reminded of another stone that was just like it, only red instead of blue. Yenn's. Where Yenn was now, she had no way of knowing. She only knew that he was alive and he'd escaped.

She missed him. Apart from Itora, he was the only real friend she'd had in the army, the only friend she'd had in a long, long time. And if it weren't for sheer willpower and a whole lot of luck, he'd be dead. Her gaze hardened. Cyclone was going to pay for it in blood.

"Ashend," a voice said.

The ghost type whirled around, the amulet dropping to the ground in her momentary distraction. The speaker wasn't Itora. Instead, the tall figure of a scyther stood in the entrance to the cave.

"What is it?" Ashend snapped.

"Something urgent," the bug type replied.

Ashend narrowed her eyes. Silverbreeze's sudden presence was an unpleasant surprise; she didn't want to deal with one of Cyclone's high-ranking lackeys at the moment. "Is it so important that you really felt the need to barge in here?" she spat, not caring how the scyther took her rudeness. "I've done my duties for the day, and I already told the others that I did not want to be disturbed."

Silverbreeze ignored her obvious displeasure, walking further into the cave until she was face to face with the misdreavus. "We need to talk, Ashend."

"Can't it wait?"

"Not really," Silverbreeze replied. "I know that you were talking to different pokémon about the Forbidden Attacks. You and that smeargle."

Ashend froze. Silverbreeze's voice was deadly serious, and the accusation had taken the misdreavus by surprise enough that she couldn't think up an immediate response. Her mind raced with thoughts of having to kill the scyther before she could leave, before she could spread the secret, and then somehow convincing Cyclone that she had reason to do it. However, something Silverbreeze had said stuck out to her. The scyther had used the term 'Forbidden Attacks,' which was something Cyclone never did.

"I think I can trust you," Silverbreeze stated. "I want your help."

For a moment, Ashend just stared, unsure what to make of Silverbreeze's sudden confession. Once she knew the danger had passed, she was left with confusion. Didn't Silverbreeze know what could happen to her if she made the wrong choice, said such a thing to the wrong pokémon? Did she not understand the risk she was taking?

If this was some kind of trick, Ashend didn't want to fall for it. Yet as she watched the scyther, she found herself convinced that Silverbreeze was being honest. The near-panic in her eyes looked real, and she hadn't even bothered with formalities. This wasn't the Silverbreeze she was used to.

"I shouldn't stay here long," the scyther said, walking past Ashend to pace in the open space of the cavern. "So we don't have much time."

"What exactly do you want?" Ashend asked.

"I'm sure you've realized that Cyclone's…well, that the Forbidden Attack is doing something to him. Most of the pokémon deny it, but…" The scyther paused, suddenly glancing fearfully toward the cave entrance, but whatever she had thought she'd sensed was a false alarm, and she relaxed.

"How do I know I can trust you?" the misdreavus responded.

"Because I covered for you and Itora," Silverbreeze answered. "I know you haven't been using your Forbidden Attacks but I let it go. I don't want you two using those attacks anymore than-"

"Okay, I understand," Ashend said with a fierceness she hadn't intended. The thought of Itora in danger made her seethe with fury, and Silverbreeze had brought the fear fresh to her mind.

"The point is," Silverbreeze continued. "I want out. So do a lot of the pokémon in the lower ranks. Look, I know this is hard to believe. But I know you helped the yanmega-"

"Yenn nearly died escaping," Ashend replied. "Solus and his followers nearly killed him. I can't get you out of the army if that's what you want."

"Maybe not," Silverbreeze said. "But maybe we could do something about Cyclone."

A small smile appeared on Ashend's face. "That's what I plan to do. But there's nothing we can do now; we don't have a proper plan. If you act before-"

"I won't," Silverbreeze said hurriedly. "I want to help you."

Ashend wasn't sure just what had led the scyther to want to go to such lengths; Silverbreeze had seemed loyal from what Ashend had always seen of her. Yet for whatever reason, she had become disillusioned with Cyclone and his ways and wanted a way out. Silverbreeze was also close, in some ways, to Cyclone. She could be valuable.

"All right," Ashend replied. "Let's work together."

"Thank you."

"We'll have to be careful and lie low for a while," Ashend said. "Even Itora and I couldn't hope to stop Cyclone now, so don't think our…Forbidden Attacks…are going to be the answer to this." She paused. "Have you spoken with the new recruit…Sandra? They'll be bringing back her Forbidden Attack any day now."

"I wouldn't take the risk with Sandra just yet," Silverbreeze said grimly.

Ashend's eyes drifted to the entrance to the cave. At almost the same moment, so did Silverbreeze's. "We should talk later," Ashend told her. "Somewhere safer."

"Yes, of course," the scyther replied, backing toward the entrance. "I know all the commanders' schedules. I could find us a safe place."

Ashend thought there was no need; she could find places well enough on her own, but she nodded. "All right."

The scyther nodded in reply, and then she was gone.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Snowcrystal waited, looking up at the mountain as Damian and Arien began sorting everyone into groups. Blazefang was to ride on Fernwing's back during the search, and Katie and Damian's remaining pokémon were going to help look with their trainers.

As Damian and Arien discussed it, Yenn glanced to Blazefang, who was sitting beside Fernwing while the tropius waited for orders. "You know…" the yanmega began hesitantly. "There were stories about you in the army. They said that when you refused to join, you threatened to attack them with Shadowflare. That wasn't true, was it?"

"Of course not!" Blazefang cried back. The fact that the yanmega had brought it up made him uncomfortable, and he could see that Yenn regretted saying anything.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," Yenn replied.

"Stormblade," Damian said after a bit of silent conversation with Arien. "I want you to lead a group. Take Snowcrystal, Yenn, and Rosie."

Stormblade called his team over, Yenn following somewhat reluctantly. Stormblade figured he didn't like taking orders from a human, but luckily he didn't argue.

"Redclaw, you lead another group," Damian instructed. "You take Thunder, Wildflame, and Alex. Me, Katie and Justin will go together with our own pokémon."

"Fernwing and Ray will be searching from the sky," Katie told the two winged pokémon, and the pidgeot and tropius nodded.

"All right, are we ready?" Spark cried. Several of the pokémon gave a cheer in response.

"We shouldn't run into any hostile pokémon, but just in case, stick with your group," Katie advised. "We'll meet back down here in a few hours."

With that, each of the groups split off in different directions, Fernwing and Ray taking to the sky. Redclaw led his group with confidence, Wildflame and Alex by his side. Thunder kept behind them, but surprisingly she didn't object to the task.

As they climbed a rocky slope, Redclaw let the fresh sea air waft through his mane. He cast another glance at the ocean before looking ahead to their path up the mountain. The slopes were gentle up toward a certain point, where the rocks became steeper. Though the ground was still moist from the rain, there didn't seem to be any danger of rocks coming loose and falling.

Wildflame trotted behind him with Alex right beside her. The two were in a good mood, eagerly following behind Redclaw. Thunder, however, was clearly displeased as she trailed after the others, not paying much attention to her surroundings. Redclaw wasn't sure she'd be willing to lend much help finding a cave, but he didn't worry. He, Alex, and Wildflame could handle the search on their own if Thunder didn't want to participate. Still, he figured, it was worth a try to see if Thunder would be willing to help them out.

"Thunder," he called down to the bug type, "maybe you should scout the way ahead. Your wings will surely give you an advantage when-"

"No," Thunder replied, not looking at him.

Redclaw had expected that answer, but he still lowered himself from the rock he'd just climbed and walked back toward the scyther. "Is something wrong?"

Thunder just shrugged, still without looking at him. The action seemed odd, coming from her.

"Well, I guess you could stay behind if you wanted to," Redclaw told her. "You don't have to come with us."

Thunder looked him in the eye, then nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'll do that," she mumbled in a distracted voice, then turned and headed back down the slope without another word.

Wildflame watched her go, her eyes narrowing. "Redclaw, are you sure that's-"

"Let her go," the arcanine interrupted, sweeping a paw in front of Wildflame as she made a move to follow the scyther. "It's all right. The three of us can do this."

They watched Thunder stop at the base of the slope and start to pace around. Redclaw couldn't really blame her for wanting to stay behind. After all, this was their quest. Thunder didn't seem like she really wanted to be a part of it. She was mainly with them because of Nightshade and a need for food. Perhaps, Redclaw thought distractedly, he could try teaching her to hunt one day, if she'd let him, perhaps with Stormblade's help. After a few moments of contemplation, he turned and headed back up the mountain.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Damian walked at the head of the group, running his hand through the long swaying grasses that marked a trail used by rangers. They were only following the trail until they got higher up; if there was a hidden cave on the mountain, it was going to be outside of the rangers' usual routes.

"So how big do you think this cave actually is?" Justin asked from somewhere behind. "You told us that the pokémon said the cave's just a bunch of narrow passages. Tanzenarc must be small compared to Sequoiarc."

"Maybe," Katie replied, "or maybe there's a bigger cavern far underneath and he's just sealed off the other entrances. I don't know how much we can assume about the legendary himself."

Damian kept walking ahead of the others, not paying much attention to their conversation. He had Arien and Inferno by his side, and at the moment the three of them were simply enjoying their surroundings. There was a pleasant breeze in the air, and the whole mountainside smelled fresh and clean after the rain. "It's been a while since we've been here," Damian mumbled to his pokémon. "I forgot how beautiful it all was."

A call from his pokégear interrupted him, and he reached for the device, confused. Answering the call, he looked at the screen uncertainly. "Hello?"

"Hi!" the other trainer said pleasantly. "Sorry to bother you, but do you by any chance know someone named Katie?"

"Oh…uh, yes," he stammered. "She's…right here."

"Okay, good! My name's Teresa, and you see, there was a mistake and somehow I ended up with her pokégear. You were the first contact who knew where she was. Are you still nearby? The contests are still going so I can't return Katie's pokégear now, but I want to as soon as possible. Where should we meet up?"

"Um…well, anywhere is fine."

Katie and Justin caught up, peering at the screen of Justin's pokégear. "My name's Katie," she interrupted, "and I have your pokégear right here." She held up the device. "We could just meet up at the beach."

"Okay, that's great! I'll call as soon as the contest is over. Thanks a lot, you two."

"Well, at least this will be resolved soon," Katie sighed. "So, let's get a move on. Tanzenarc could be anywhere on this mountain."

Damian took the lead once again, but he hadn't taken more than a step before he stopped.

There was a pokémon standing in their way, and it had approached so silently that none of them had heard it. The pokémon stood on four legs, and had ice blue eyes and a fluffy mane of fur from which four sharp rocks protruded. It was a lycanroc.

Damian noticed Inferno's fur stiffen as the flareon looked to the larger pokémon. Arien tensed too, and Damian braced himself. Something about the wolf-like creature was off.

Inferno shouted something at the stranger, something that Arien didn't bother to translate, and the lycanroc shifted its paws, but did not reply. Damian's hand moved toward one of his other poké balls.

" _Damian…"_ came Arien's voice in his head. _"Something's not right."_

Before he could reply, the lycanroc suddenly darted forward, its lips drawn back in a snarl. Damian reached for Scytheclaw's poké ball and threw, not before the rock type slammed into Arien's protect barrier, mere inches from Damian himself. The lycanroc jumped back onto its feet and tried to move around the barrier, but was sent flying backward after Arien lifted it with psychic. As soon as it was standing again, it lunged once again toward Damian.

But like the first few times, it never made it. Scytheclaw gave the wolf-like pokémon a few quick blows to the head with bullet punch and it collapsed.

"What on earth was _that?_ " Katie cried, peering at the unconscious form of the lycanroc. "There aren't supposed to be hostile pokémon here. Especially not ones that attack _trainers!_ "

"I don't know," Damian replied. "It doesn't make any sense…"

He and Katie conversed tensely amongst themselves for a few minutes, unnerved that a hostile pokémon had been lurking so close to a city.

"Look, I don't know why it was there, but we should really get moving," Justin interrupted.

They paused as the lycanroc roused, shakily getting to its feet. No one made a move as it hobbled off, letting out a few small whimpers. They watched as it broke into a faster stride and vanished amongst the boulders further ahead. After it disappeared, they could hear it howling. Damian suddenly felt more at unease than before.

" _Damian, you should know…"_ Arien's voice echoed through his mind again. _"That lycanroc was warning others that we knew about the cave. About Tanzenarc."_

"He heard us?" Damian asked, and Katie and Justin gave him confused looks. He quickly explained what his alakazam had said.

"So now these pokémon are going to fight us the whole way?" Justin asked.

"Guess it's not like the forest where they were all friendly," Katie said warily. "Maybe we should go after that lycanroc and try to talk to it. Explain what we're doing."

"Yeah, good idea," Justin responded. "I'm sure it'll just _love_ to talk to the ones who just gave it a beating."

"Well it did try to attack Damian; what else could we have done?" Katie replied. "Look, okay, maybe we should leave that lycanroc alone. But there's bound to be other pokémon. We'll talk to one of them and see what the problem is."

"Okay," Damian replied. "Let's do that." He sent out the remainder of his pokémon, and Katie did the same.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Stormblade's group had made good time. They were already far up the mountainside, in an area filled with large boulders near some small but deep ravines. Snowcrystal was in her element among the rocks, and Yenn and Stormblade both possessed wings. It was only Rosie who struggled a little.

Stormblade stood on the edge of a ravine, peering down in it. "I'll give this place a quick look," he informed the others. "It doesn't look like there's anything down there, but it would be best to make sure."

Yenn, who had been growing increasingly agitated throughout their short journey, suddenly flew in front of the scyther. "Wait. Before you do that, I have a question for you. Why were you letting the humans run everything?"

Rosie gave a loud sigh and rolled her eyes while Snowcrystal cringed, hoping an argument wasn't about to break out.

Stormblade, however, remained calm and collected as he replied, "We're all working at this together. The trainers just happened to be the ones to organize us into groups, that's all. No one's really 'in charge,' and if it makes you feel better, Snowcrystal here's the reason we started on this journey in the first place. The trainers joined later."

Yenn didn't seem impressed with the answer. "And you're all okay with this? As a bug type?"

"I don't see why that should matter," Stormblade replied, a bit confused.

"You've heard that Justin brat," Yenn growled. "He hates us. And as a whole, humans value our lives less than even those of other pokémon. They exterminate us, use us in their sick little tests-"

"What are you _talking_ about?" Rosie replied. "I mean, sure, I get it. I hated humans too. But the ones with us are helping us out, and helping _you._ Shouldn't you be grateful?"

"I don't _need_ the humans," Yenn spat. "I'm here to work with you pokémon, not-"

"All right, Yenn, look," Stormblade sighed. "I know our group wasn't your first choice of companions. But we should focus on finding Tanzenarc for now."

"I just thought that as a bug type, you would understand."

"I think I do," Stormblade replied. "Yes, there are trainers that don't like us, but there are also plenty who do. But if you want me to understand more, I can try to. You can come to me and explain whatever you want once we camp for the night."

Yenn looked surprised by the response, and just lowered his head, quietly answering, "All right."

Snowcrystal watched the two bug pokémon, aware that Yenn wasn't entirely wrong, if Nightshade's history was anything to go by. Stormblade had no way of knowing about that, however, and she wasn't going to break Nightshade's trust by bringing it up. It made her a little sad to think about it, wondering if Yenn's hatred of humans was in some way justified.

Stormblade flew down to the bottom of the ravine, leaving the others among the boulders at the top. Snowcrystal peered down at him as he examined the rock walls.

"We should hunt soon," Yenn muttered to them, not seeming interested in what Stormblade was doing. "I'm starving…"

Snowcrystal looked up as Yenn flew overhead, and before she could reply, she noticed that Yenn's attention had snapped to something further up the mountainside. Something that was moving.

The growlithe froze, immediately aware that something was amiss. There wasn't just one shape moving, but many. They were weaving between the boulders higher up the mountainside and coming straight for them.

Rosie glanced in their direction, immediately noticing what was wrong. "Uh, Stormblade? You better get up here…"

The scyther reappeared, looking puzzled, before he too noticed the oncoming pokémon. Pokémon that were now racing toward them at full speed. There were several lycanroc – both day and night forms, which puzzled Stormblade, as the sun was blazing brightly – as well as a good number of graveler and golem, and even one tyranitar. Every pokémon was hurtling towards them with bared fangs and furious cries that grew louder as more came out into the open.

"Follow me," Stormblade said urgently, whirling around and racing back down the slope, the other three following him. "We'll head toward the ranger trails and follow them down to the beach."

Snowcrystal nodded to him, though she was sure they wouldn't be able to outrun the group of rock types for long. Some of the graveler and golem had tightened themselves into balls and were rolling down the slope toward them, and the lycanroc had much longer legs than she did. Her frantic mind tried to piece together why they were being attacked; Katie had said that there weren't meant to be any hostile pokémon on the mountain.

Though Stormblade could outrun the enemies, he kept his pace matched with Snowcrystal and Rosie. Yenn flew overhead, sometimes darting behind to send a shockwave at a golem or graveler that came too close.

By the time a ranger trail came in sight, the pack was almost upon them. Stopping at the edge of the dirt road, Stormblade turned around, crossing his blades. "We don't mean you any harm," he called to a golem who had stopped mere yards from them. "We'll leave if that's what you want-"

"You're not from here," the golem roared. "You with those trainers?"

Stormblade didn't reply, but the surprised look in his eyes gave his answer away. The golem's scowl deepened. Suddenly he heard a shriek, and turned to see that a few of the other rock types had cut off Rosie and Snowcrystal's escape.

The remainder of the mismatched pack reached them, looking at them with a certain hatred Stormblade didn't understand. The golem gestured for some of the other rock types to leave. "Keep looking," he told them. "We'll take care of these ones."

As most of the rock types ran off, Stormblade glanced behind him at Rosie and Snowcrystal. They were each being pinned down by a graveler. Yenn was hovering overhead, out of reach of the mountain dwellers.

Stormblade watched nervously as the tyranitar approached him. This one seemed to be the leader of the group. "What are you doing here?" the rock type demanded. "Who told you?"

"Told me…what?" Stormblade asked.

"What your humans are looking for," the tyranitar snarled, slamming his fist down on a rock and sending a large crack through it. Something told Stormblade that if this pokémon attacked him, he would not hold back as if they were in a trainer's battle. This tyranitar could very likely kill him.

"We-"

"Sequoiarc sent us!" Snowcrystal cried from behind him, causing the tyranitar to look over at her. "He needs Tanzenarc's help."

The tyranitar stomped over, reaching down for the growlithe and lifting her upwards by the fur on her head. Snowcrystal cried out, but he ignored it. "How do you know that name?" he growled.

"Let her go," Stormblade demanded. "We don't mean you any harm. We just want to talk. You seem like you could help us."

"You're not supposed to know that name," the tyranitar growled at Snowcrystal. Stormblade could see in the rock type's eyes a hint of panic, desperation…and knew that that was fueling the fire behind the tyranitar's violent actions, for reasons he could only guess. This wasn't a loyal guard of Tanzenarc's, nobly protecting the legendary's home. This was a crazed, desperate pokémon. He watched in dismay as the beast raised his fist toward the growlithe.

Two things happened at once. Snowcrystal fired a blast of hot flame into the tyranitar's face and Stormblade darted forward, slamming the dull side of his blade into the creature's rocky hide. The rock type dropped Snowcrystal and focused his attention on Stormblade, lunging toward him with a thunder fang.

As the scyther dodged, he heard cries from behind him that told him that Rosie was struggling with her captor. Stormblade felt something slam into his back from behind, sending him teetering off balance. The tyranitar leaned toward the ground, readying some type of rock type attack. Still dazed, Stormblade braced himself for the pain.

It never came. Instead, the tyranitar gave a shout of agony himself, and Stormblade saw that Yenn had his teeth sunk deep into the tyranitar's arm. While the yanmega's jaws didn't seem to be strong enough to completely bite through the rocky hide, it was clearly causing enough pain on its own.

Stormblade tried to gather his strength to come to his companion's aid, but something happened before he could. Slamming his fist into the ground, the tyranitar forced a spire of rock out of the earth and toward the yanmega. It struck Yenn's head above his snout, and blood sprayed across the tyranitar's face. Yenn dropped, completely limp, to the ground.

Stormblade froze for a second before realizing that during the commotion, Rosie and Snowcrystal had both managed to free themselves. Seeing that the tyranitar's attention had turned to them, he bounded toward his friends. "Run!" he cried, seeing that they had hesitated upon seeing Yenn collapse.

Luckily, both fire types trusted his word and bolted down the ranger trail. A golem immediately pursued them, but Stormblade knocked it off course with an attack of his own. Seeing that the rock types were ignoring Yenn's still form and coming after the three of them, Stormblade reluctantly turned away from the yanmega and followed after Snowcrystal and Rosie, trying to cover them from any attacks.

"That way," he called, leading them off the ranger trail and toward a rugged path that ended in a steep cliff edge.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened as she realized that he wanted them to jump. As she approached the cliff, she could hear ocean waves crashing against the rock.

Rosie reached the edge first and froze, realizing that it was quite a drop. Before Snowcrystal could shout words of encouragement, Stormblade gripped her between the dull sides of his blades, lifting her off the ground.

"Sorry, Rosie," the scyther said, before he gave the ninetales a nudge that sent her over the cliff edge and into the water with a scream. Stormblade took off, leaving the rock types snarling at them from the cliff edge.

He watched them from the air, trying to ignore their shouted threats, when suddenly a roar interrupted his thoughts. From around one of the boulders bolted Redclaw, fearlessly snarling at the rock types before turning and running the other way. To the scyther's relief, they followed him. He knew Redclaw could outrun them; he would be safe. However, Stormblade had no idea where the rest of Redclaw's group was, and he scanned the sky worriedly for Ray or Fernwing before flying down to the beach and setting Snowcrystal in the sand. A bedraggled Rosie staggered out of the water a few seconds later.

"So what do we do now?" Rosie asked, coughing a few times.

"I need to find the others," Stormblade said. "Someone needs to help Yenn and-"

"Yeah, and let's hope he's the only one in trouble," Rosie replied. "I think the humans should be okay…the rock types outnumbered us, but they've got more numbers on their side."

"Let's hope. I'll be back soon," Stormblade said. "Wait for the others here." Without waiting for a reply, he flew off.

 

  
**-ooo-**

Damian, Justin, and Katie stood on the remains of what had been a battlefield. Their group and Redclaw's had suddenly run into each other right before the mountain's pokémon struck back with a vengeance. Though the pokémon had been defeated without any serious injuries occurring, it had become clear that they would probably have to retreat, even though there had not yet been a chance to talk peaceably with one of the wild pokémon.

Then stronger foes had appeared. Redclaw had lured some of them off while the rest had been dealt with by the group's combined strength. Now it was time to regroup and make a new plan.

Damian was about to recall some of his pokémon when he received a call on his pokégear. Seeing that it was Teresa, he answered it, and her smiling face appeared on the video screen.

"Oh hey, Damian! The contest is over, so you and Katie can come pick up the pokégear now."

"Oh, um…" Damian paused, hearing Redclaw's howls coming ever closer. Suddenly the arcanine appeared over the rise of a cliff, several powerful pokémon behind him. The arcanine's eyes widened as he realized he'd led them back to his companions. "Uh…can that wait a bit? We're a little…busy."

"Okay, sure," Teresa replied, but he wasn't looking at the screen.

Redclaw had sprinted away, and what appeared over the cliff were pokémon a lot tougher looking than the ones they had faced, including, to Damian's surprise, a tyranitar. He turned to Scytheclaw, who merely nodded at him in understanding and prepared to fight.

The rock types headed toward them, but before anything started, the sound of engines rang through the air, causing all the pokémon to halt. From around a bend in the road, two ranger jeeps appeared, and with them a large amount of well trained water pokémon. The rock types hesitated, and as the ranger's pokémon shouted something at them, some reluctantly turned and left. Others attempted to put up a fight, but were quickly driven back by the highly trained water types. Even the tyranitar was sent running with the others. Within minutes, the area was clear, leaving the confused group and the rangers alone.

"Are you okay?" one of the rangers asked them, and Katie, deciding to answer for everyone, nodded in response.

"We're fine I think…some of the pokémon might need a trip to the pokémon center just to be sure," she said.

"We can give you a ride there," another ranger offered.

"That would be great, but…first we still need to meet up with some of our pokémon," Justin explained.

"We can help you find them," the ranger told her. "We have other groups scouting the mountain as we speak. If we don't find your pokémon soon, they will."

"Why don't you go on to the pokémon center," Katie told Justin and Damian. "I'll find the others and meet you there."

"Okay," Justin said. "Just stick with the rangers, all right?"

Katie nodded, and as she did so, she heard the buzzing of wings and saw Stormblade come to a halt near the rangers' vehicles. "That's one of them," she cried, and beckoned to Damian and Arien to come forward as she approached the scyther.

During the quick conversation that followed, Damian translated for Stormblade, telling Katie that Snowcrystal and Rosie were safe, but that Yenn had been injured. At one point Redclaw also chimed in, telling Arien that Thunder was waiting at the bottom of the mountain.

"We'll find Yenn, don't worry," Katie told Damian. "Fernwing and Ray should be safe wherever they are, so I'm not worried about them. Take everyone else to the pokémon center and I'll be back with the others. And…we'll figure out what to do with Yenn when we find him."

Once everyone had agreed to the plan, Justin and Damian took most of the pokémon and headed down the mountain with one of the rangers, leaving Katie to search for their injured companion.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The ranger gave a sharp cry as hit the brakes and his vehicle ground to a halt. He had just turned a sharp corner, and lying on the dirt path ahead of them was an unconscious yanmega. The ranger gave his companion a puzzled look before both got out of the jeep and approached the pokémon.

"A yanmega? That's odd. We never see them this time of year."

"Think it was attacked by those rock types?"

The two conversed with each other in low tones as they examined the yanmega, who showed no signs of waking. It was immediately obvious that the bug type was in need of a trip to a pokémon center.

One of the rangers pulled out a special temporary poké ball, one used for easily transporting wild pokémon. When he tossed it at the yanmega's side, however, it merely bounced off, telling him that the creature already had a registered poké ball somewhere.

"We'll have to drive it back the old fashioned way. Here, help me."

Together, they lifted the limp yanmega and set it gently in the back of the jeep underneath a covering of tarp. Seeing nothing else in the area, they decided to head straight back, and within minutes they were on their way back to Shellreef City.

Not long after, Katie, flying on Ray's back, passed over the road, her eyes scanning the landscape for their missing companion. Stormblade flew close behind her, assuring the trainer as best he could that it was the place they had left Yenn, but the yanmega was nowhere to be found. Whether it was because of the rock types or the rangers or if Yenn had simply left himself, he didn't know. The only thing left to do was to keep searching.

 

  
**-ooo-**

The pokémon center lobby was busy. Justin and Damian waited awkwardly, the pokémon clustered around them while they waited for Katie to return. Stormblade had known where Yenn had been at the time they were attacked. It seemed odd that they weren't back yet.

It worried Justin that a dangerous pokémon with a Forbidden Attack was on the loose, injured or not. He glanced at Damian's pokégear screen, hoping he'd see a call from Teresa's, and that Katie would say that she'd found him, before some disaster happened.

Thunder was even more agitated than Justin. With the pokémon center as crowded as it was, she was getting a lot of stares, and she tried to ignore them as she paced restlessly back and forth.

Noticing this, Damian stood up and walked over to her, ignoring her challenging glare. "If you want," he said, "I think they'd let us go back and see Nightshade."

Thunder stared at him uncertainly, clearly lacking much trust in the trainer. But she nodded, still watching Damian warily as he walked up to the front desk.

"Hey, wait," Justin began, stopping him. "Can I borrow your pokégear in case Katie calls back? I just want to…" He trailed off, then quickly added, "I promise that this time, I won't get it swapped for someone else's."

"Oh, sure," Damian said, handing it to him. "We shouldn't be gone long, though." He turned to the desk and Justin walked back to the group of waiting pokémon.

He was glad no one questioned why he was with so many. He knew it must have looked odd, and some of the pokémon were clearly uncomfortable about being in the pokémon center.

After Damian and Thunder had been taken somewhere in the back, Justin heard the lobby doors open again. To his surprise, in walked a ranger who was wheeling in a pokémon with large, insect-like wings. Justin's blood froze. He recognized the yanmega lying lifelessly on the gurney as the ranger walked up toward the front desk. Yenn. But where was Katie? Why had she brought him here?

"Stay here," he told the confused group of pokémon, weaving his way through the small crowd of waiting trainers as he approached the ranger. "Uh, excuse me," he began, tapping the ranger on the shoulder, "but did Katie tell you to…" He paused, for when the ranger turned to him, he realized that it wasn't one of the ones who had come to their aid on the mountain.

"Is this your pokémon?" the ranger asked while the nurse quickly looked Yenn over, calling for one of the blissey that had been checking up on another waiting patient.

"Uh, well, sort of," he began uneasily. "It's more of a…well, it was following my friends and they'd really want it back, you see…" He was aware of how stupid he sounded, but he wasn't sure what else to say. "It's a wild pokémon we…befriended, I guess."

"This one's in worse shape than the others," the nurse said, cutting off any reply the ranger was about to give. "If you want," she addressed Justin, "you can come back with it."

Justin wasn't sure if there was anything he'd rather do less, but figured that going with them was a good way to make sure they put Yenn back outside before he could wake up. As he was led into a door opening into a wide hallway, he quickly used Damian's pokégear to send Katie a message: "We found Yenn. They brought him to the pokémon center."

He followed the nurse and her chansey down a hallway into a side room, where another nurse – or a nurse in training, seeing how young she was – was preparing the area where the next wounded pokémon would be examined. Justin glanced down at the yanmega, who still showed no signs of moving. "Um…this is a wild pokémon," he began hesitantly. "I think you should put it back outside. It'll…" He glanced at the gash on the pokémon's head. "It'll be fine."

"Wild or not, it's our job to help the pokémon who come in here," the nurse responded, not looking at him. "And unless we close that wound, it could easily get infected."

"All right, just…make it fast," Justin replied, hoping that if nothing else, Yenn would stay unconscious, or that he wouldn't lash out if he did wake up.

Both nurses ignored his rude remark. Together, they lifted Yenn onto the clean white table, taking care to make sure his wings and tail didn't brush the floor. Justin then watched as they cleaned the wound, and noticed when a few of Yenn's legs started to move.

"You weren't the one who did this to the yanmega, were you?" the younger nurse asked, and from the annoyed look her superior gave her, Justin figured she wasn't supposed to ask things like that.

" _No,_ " he shot back. "Wild pokémon did this."

"It's okay," the older nurse told him. "Even in trainer battles these things sometimes happen. And wild pokémon can be unpredictable."

The younger nurse watched as Yenn's slow movements grew more noticeable. "It's waking up," she said. "We want it asleep when we close the wound. It should be quick enough for sleep powder, right?"

Justin knew very well that sleep powder didn't last long – a few minutes at most – and the thought made his unease grow. Nevertheless, he watched as they put some sort of tube and mask against Yenn's face, presumably to make him breathe in the sleep powder, and he found himself wishing frantically that Katie would show up and somehow fix everything.

He said nothing as the nurses numbed the wound and tried not to pay attention as they closed it with what looked like two thick staples. Yenn showed no sign of moving at all, and Justin breathed a sigh of relief when it was done.

"He can go back outside now, right?" he asked.

"We'll need to monitor him for a while," the older nurse told him. "Pokémon that have had a head injury can sometimes-"

"Pokémon faint all the time!" Justin cried. "I'm sure he's fine."

"He may be, but we want to be sure. When pokémon pass out for more than a few minutes, we need to check and make sure there isn't anything wrong. Try not to worry," she added, mistaking Justin's distress as concern for the yanmega. She turned to the nurse-in-training. "While he's still asleep let's quickly check him for other injuries."

The nurse quickly did a scan of the pokémon, confirming that he was a male and seemed to be in decent health apart from the injury. They then lifted him onto his back, sliding the two halves of the table apart a few inches to accommodate the spikes on his back, and for the first time they had a clear view of his scar.

Both of them looked stunned, and the younger nurse turned to Justin in confusion. "What is _that_ from?" she asked.

"Look, I don't know," Justin replied, suddenly finding himself growing more uneasy, for reasons he couldn't understand. "We found him that way."

The young nurse turned to the more experienced one. "Is that from some sort of procedure we do here? Have you ever seen-"

"No, that's not right. Do a full pokédex scan on him."

The younger nurse quickly did as she was told, and Justin watched nervously, suddenly wishing he could leave the room.

"The OT comes up as some weird code..."

"Let me see," the older nurse said, taking the pokégear from her hands. She walked over to a laptop in the corner of the room and sat down in front of it. A few seconds later Justin heard the sound of typing.

"I should give him the antibiotics now, right?" the younger nurse asked, and after a confirmation, she opened a drawer and pulled out a syringe.

"It's not coming up with anything…" the older nurse mused, staring at the computer screen.

The trainee nurse walked over to Yenn, bending one of his legs to expose the soft tissue in the joint. Justin tensed as she gave him the injection. When she was finished, she lifted the needle away, and that was when Yenn started to move again.

At first his movements were slow, dazed, but then as the nurse was about to hand off the empty syringe to the chansey, Yenn suddenly flared to life.

The yanmega's body tried to jerk upright, his wings beating strongly enough to send several of the objects on the counters smashing to the floor. His jaws made snapping motions as he tried to lunge at the nurse holding the needle, and only the fact that he was on his back in an awkward position stopped him from harming her.

His tail lashed as his wings beat harder; something else shattered on the floor. The movement from his wings gave him enough of a lift that he could scramble back onto his feet. He lunged at the young nurse and slammed into a protect barrier that the chansey conjured up at the last moment. Justin backed against the wall, his hand reaching for the doorknob next to him and his face white with terror.

In his dazed and confused state, Yenn did not know who Justin was. He did not know what had happened to him earlier in that day. All he could tell was that he was back in the place he had sworn he'd escaped – or maybe he'd never really escaped at all. Everything was muddled in his mind. Thoughts swam in and out of his head that made no sense. He watched as the boy flung open the door and fled into the hallway. He focused on the doorway and his possible route of escape.

He launched himself at it. His wings didn't work the way he wanted them too. They slammed into the doorframe on both sides, nearly sending him crashing to the ground before he turned his body so that they fit through. He emerged into a long hallway and his mind flared with panic. He didn't see the boy. He didn't care. He needed to get _out._

The area was brighter down one end of the hallway. He flew in that direction, but he felt as if he'd been drugged; his movements were sluggish and there was a pounding ache in his head. He found it hard to focus on anything. His vision swam. He kept flying toward the light.

Suddenly he slammed with full force into a large glass cabinet. It shattered and he collapsed to the floor. Several humans and pokémon screamed.

Damian rushed into the lobby, Thunder right behind him. The glass cabinet that had been set up in the hallway near the lobby had been smashed, and a yanmega was thrashing about in its remains. "Yenn…" Damian began, alarmed. He rushed toward the bug type, ignoring the confused shouts of the other trainers.

"Yenn, what happened? Did-" He suddenly froze, for the yanmega's body had gone still, standing on all six of his legs with his wings raised. His eyes were glowing.

Damian backed up, aware that Yenn's attention was now solely on him. The yanmega's eyes were an odd shade of blue, which was a clear sign that what he wasn't about to use any ordinary attack.

"Damian!"

It was Katie's voice, somewhere behind him. He didn't dare turn around to look. He could only think back to the underground arena, when Blazefang's eyes had glowed moments before…

Snowcrystal acted before she could think. Almost without realizing it, she was suddenly between Yenn and Damian, and the yanmega flinched, the glow starting to fade from his eyes. "Yenn, don't use that attack," she pleaded with him. "There's a reason you're not…listen to that reason. No one is your enemy here!"

Yenn shook his head, as if trying to fight off the effects of the Forbidden Attack. But the glow was gone.

"See…you did it. Now don't worry, we're getting out of here. Just come with me." She moved closer to him, taking care not to step on the shards of glass that littered the floor.

Blazefang quickly limped up to her, holding a paw in front of her to halt her progress. "Let me talk to him," he explained, then added in a whisper, "His Forbidden Attack can't kill me." He edged toward the yanmega, careful of the glass. "Yenn, listen to me," he began. "You're not in danger here. You-"

He was interrupted as one of the nurses emerged from the hallway, looking at the scene in dismay. Before she could react, before Blazefang other the others could tell him otherwise, Yenn lifted into the air and shot toward the windows above the entrance to the lobby. The glass shattered, some of it raining down on a few of the trainers below who gave startled cries.

Damian rushed out of the lobby and into the open air, watching the small shape of the yanmega fade into the distance. "Come on, we need to find him," he shouted to the others, then sent out Fernwing.

 

  
**-ooo-**

By the time the sun was setting in the sky, the group was gathered at the edge of the city, with no sign of Yenn. How he had managed to fly so far so quickly, Katie wasn't sure.

Yenn at least seemed to have some degree of control over his Forbidden Attack, more than Blazefang must have at that stage, but she couldn't write off Yenn's being able to fight against it as more than a fluke. If Snowcrystal had arrived more than a moment later, it would have been over. And the fact that Snowcrystal's presence had snapped him out of it long enough to fight back was a miracle in itself. It was too close. Katie felt a great sense of apprehension. Their peaceful search of the city had been shattered.

"We'll have to keep looking tomorrow," she said, addressing the trainers and pokémon gathered around her. "There's no way we can find him in the dark."

Damian was about to reply when he noticed an incoming call on his pokégear, which Justin had returned to him. Katie glanced over and could see that it was Teresa.

"Hello? Damian?"

"Tell her we can't switch the pokégear back now," Justin said.

However, what Teresa said next had nothing to do with the mixed up pokégear. "Do you and Katie know another trainer, who was at the beach with a growlithe? The one who had Katie's pokégear?"

"That was me," Justin said, leaning toward Damian so that she could see him on the screen.

"Oh, good. Well…I think I found your yanmega."

 

  
**-ooo-**

Nathanial Mausk sat alone in his office room, the only light coming from the glow of his computer. Volco was beside his desk, taking an early nap. Mausk paid the typhlosion little attention.

He had just returned home after a brief excursion training some more pokémon. It had been a long while since he'd sat silently in his own home, catching up on the news he'd missed while he was away. That evening, however, he'd stopped browsing the news and was merely focusing on his own thoughts. He'd had a lot on his mind since the incident with the houndoom down in the arena. Shadowflare, that attack had been called, if he was to believe what the legends of the Forbidden Attacks had said. It wasn't like him to rely on mere myths and rumors instead of facts, but the information he'd gathered since the incident seemed to match.

An incoming call from his pokégear interrupted his mind's wanderings, and he picked the device up. Volco let out an irritated groan as he shook his head, woken from his nap.

"Yes?" Mausk asked politely.

"I heard you just got home," the man on the video screen began. "And just in time, too. I found something I think you need to see. It's about those…Forbidden Attacks, you called them?"

"Show me," Mausk responded, and waited as the other trainer sent over a file.

"See what you think," the other man told him. "If it's really one of them, this could be bad news."

Mausk and the other trainer briefly conversed before ending their call, and then Mausk opened the file. It was a clip from the evening news, one of the things he'd skipped watching. He watched as the camera of a pokémon center showed a yanmega crashing into a glass case, a trainer and later a growlithe running up to confront it. Mausk didn't miss the glow in the yanmega' eyes. However, he wasn't entirely convinced. Yanmega could be taught to use psychic.

He was about to close the file when suddenly the yanmega took off, flying toward what he assumed was the window, and the trainer lifted his head to follow it. Mausk's blood ran cold.

It was the same trainer he'd confronted in the underground. The one he'd shot. The one he'd been sure was dead.

Mausk rewound the clip, noting that there was a houndoom approaching the yanmega near the end, a houndoom that bore the same wounds his own had gotten in the arena. That kid still had that twisted pokémon…still had a pokémon with a power that even Mausk refused to get involved with again. The fact left him deeply unsettled.

He looked at the other pokémon – a growlithe, and realized that it was the same one he'd seen in the underground. That unusually small, runty growlithe.

Mausk focused again on the boy before he turned back to his computer. He'd remembered seeing that boy's face somewhere else, on the night he shot him. Within minutes, he'd pulled up the news headline he'd recalled, connecting the boy and one other, younger one to the library fire in Stonedust City.

Seeing that there was a follow-up article, he began reading that, stopping when he got to the part about the ghost pokémon claiming that a white growlithe was responsible. He looked back at the pokégear, where the video clip was paused. The growlithe in the video was orange, but it looked the same size as the white one he'd briefly gotten his hands on in the wild before the scrawny trainer had taken it from him.

He turned back to the first article and the picture of the boy that had originally been posted for all to see, then looked at the words beneath it. Damian Cooke.

If nothing else, now he had a name to go with the face.

_To be continued…_


	77. A Time to Regroup

 

The group met up with Teresa at the edge of a small but thick grove of palm trees and lush vegetation. To their surprise, it hadn't been very far from the city itself, and was near a stretch of the beach inhabited by several trainers. They supposed that, in his weakened state, Yenn hadn't been able to fly far.

Teresa stood near the forest's edge, looking worriedly at Justin while her sableye, resting on her shoulder, gave the newcomers curious glances. "I couldn't get close to him," Teresa explained. "Maybe if you go in there, he'll come down from the trees. Or if not, you can just recall him."

Justin shot a desperate look at Katie, who only gave him a glance and nodded her head. "Uh, look, Teresa. I kind of…well, that yanmega isn't exactly mine. It's wild."

Katie gave a frustrated sigh, and Justin knew he'd probably messed up by not playing along. Teresa, however, didn't seem bothered. "Well, okay, if you want me to help you catch it, I guess I can do that. And oh, here's your pokégear, Katie." She held the device out, and Katie stepped forward and returned Teresa's before taking it.

"We're not looking to catch the yanmega, really," Katie explained. "We just want our pokémon to talk with him. That's it, really. He got frightened at the pokémon center and we've been trying to find him." She glanced at the darkening sky with a frown.

"Yeah, we can take it from here," Justin said, nodding to the group of pokémon before looking back at Teresa. "Thanks for the help."

Snowcrystal stepped forward, Stormblade and Redclaw at her side. "We'll go find Yenn," she told Arien, who quickly sent the message to Damian so he could tell the other trainers.

As the growlithe walked past Teresa, she noticed the trainer's gaze following her, but what unnerved her was the gaze of the sableye. The imp-like pokémon gave her a grin, like it suddenly knew something it wasn't supposed to know. Glancing over herself, Snowcrystal noticed that some of the dye on her back leg had come off somehow. She froze, trying to think back to when it could have happened, but she couldn't pinpoint an exact point during the day where it could have washed off. She darted ahead of Redclaw and Stormblade and into the palm forest. If Teresa had noticed, she didn't say anything.

As soon as she was in the shelter of the trees, Snowcrystal could hear Teresa conversing with the other trainers. She was insisting she could help, and Katie, Justin, and Damian were sounding worried when they tried to explain Yenn's disdain toward humans. She supposed the situation did look odd; groups of trainers didn't usually travel around with wild pokémon, especially not pokémon who disliked humans.

Snowcrystal quickly turned her attention away from them and to the search for their missing companion. They walked fairly quickly through the thick foliage, scanning the trees for any sign of the yanmega. It was rapidly growing darker, and Snowcrystal was getting worried. However, sure enough, they soon spotted the familiar form of Yenn, perched at the top of one of the palms.

He looked exhausted, his wings drooping and legs weakly clutching the base of the leaves, his back toward them. Snowcrystal was sure his large eyes could already spot them, but he made no move as they approached.

"Yenn?" Snowcrystal called. "It's us…we need to talk to you. What happened back there…it wasn't-"

Yenn's head slowly turned toward them. "You… _what?_ "

"We just need to talk to you. The others are waiting back there, and we all want to make sure-"

Suddenly Yenn took off, the force of his wingbeats causing the palms around him to sway. He came to a stop in front of the three of them, and Snowcrystal could see that he was breathing hard and still looked panicked. Now that she was staring right at him, she had a good glimpse of the gash on his head, and the two thin pieces of metal holding it closed. The sight, along with Yenn's crazed state, made him seem so different to the pokémon that had happily taken her to fly above the waves at the beach earlier that day.

"Wh-where were you?" he asked, his voice shaking. His words were somewhat slurred, and it sounded like it took him effort to speak. "How did I get in that…where were the rest of you? Why didn't anyone stop them? I th-thought we were in this together." His tone was now tainted with rage, and it frightened Snowcrystal. She stepped back.

Stormblade and Redclaw glanced at each other before the arcanine answered, "You were taken to the pokémon center. We didn't know until later. But Yenn, you were never in any danger. Something else happened though. You…tried to use your Forbidden Attack."

That caught Yenn off guard. He froze, as if trying to wrack his memory for details of the incident but unable to come up with much. "I…did?"

Stormblade sighed and stepped forward. "That place you were taken to…it wasn't any sort of lab. It wasn't a place where pokémon are harmed. It was a hospital. An infirmary."

Yenn just stared at him, looking like he wasn't quite sure whether to believe the scyther. "They…they had an infirmary back in Cyclone's army. But that…was no infirmary- Arrrghh!" He cried out as he ran his legs over his head, as if trying to dislodge the pieces of metal that held the gash together.

"It was," Snowcrystal told him, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. "Humans have different ways of helping pokémon that work better than what wild pokémon can do. Things like medicine, for things like pain relief and fighting infection. You know, like the way Damian was helping Nightshade, but stronger. They know what they're doing. They're…" She trailed off, unsure whether or not Yenn was believing any of the things she said. "I promise, the humans there meant no harm to you. Nightshade's there now. He can tell you when he gets back."

"You left Nightshade there?" Yenn replied, horrified.

"The humans at the pokémon center can help him better than we can," Stormblade answered. "They have better medicines for fighting pain, too. He'll be more comfortable there."

"That can't be true," Yenn growled. "It won't…they won't work. Won't stop the pain. He…you can't leave him there for them to do who-knows-what to him!"

"We would never do that," Redclaw protested. "It's not the first time Nightshade's been in one of those places. He was there for a long while quite recently. I've been to one too. All they did was help us, treat our injuries. Like we've been saying, it's an infirmary for pokémon. That is all."

"Why would humans run infirmaries for pokémon?" Yenn asked, though there was less of a frantic edge to his voice. "What would they get out of it?"

"I guess that's something Cyclone didn't tell you about," Redclaw replied.

Yenn was silent in reply, but his quick breathing told the small group that he hadn't really calmed down. Suddenly turning away from them, he lifted his head toward the treetops as if he wanted to fly. "I-I can't keep following you," he said. "If this is what happens when I do-"

"Yenn, look," Stormblade interjected, coming around to stand in front of the yanmega again. "I'll make sure everyone else is more careful next time. You won't be taken back to one of those places if you don't want to be. But…please try to believe us. I was in a human hospital for months. No one did any…" He paused. "…Anything bad to hurt me or anything like that. These humans aren't like the ones you knew. You could ask anyone, even Thunder. They'd tell you the same thing. We wouldn't lie to you."

Yenn was silent for a moment, and it was clear that Stormblade's words were starting to sink in. He didn't look so sure that the humans at the center had ill intentions anymore. And suddenly he started yelling, as if every bit of fear he had was coming out at once. "You don't understand! You weren't there! It looked just like it! All that equipment everywhere, humans staring…everything was just-"

Snowcrystal glanced at Stormblade, unsure how to react to Yenn's frantic rambling and hoping the scyther had some idea.

"Yenn, listen," Stormblade said patiently. "You were never in any danger."

The yanmega stopped suddenly, drawing back from the others as if he wished they hadn't seen his outburst. "It was an infirmary…" he finally whispered, his voice sounding small and weak. "I thought I had this under control. Why is this still happening?"

"You…you didn't use your Forbidden Attack," Snowcrystal said, "so that shows a lot of control, I'd say."

"No, it's not enough…" Yenn replied, his voice gaining a frightened edge to it again. "This isn't right, I should be able to…I shouldn't have…"

"Look, just come back with us," Stormblade told him.

Yenn was silent before he quietly whispered, "Okay, I'll come back. Tomorrow…I'll come back tomorrow."

Stormblade looked like he was about to object, but Snowcrystal caught his eye and shook her head.

"I'm not going to leave," Yenn said, clearly noticing Stormblade's reluctance. "I'll be back t-tomorrow morning like I said. Now please leave me alone."

Snowcrystal could tell that Yenn still seemed too shaken up to be able to calmly come back to the others, and hoped that he'd be more at ease when tomorrow came. She glanced from Stormblade to Redclaw before turning around and walking back the way they'd come. Without another word, they followed her.

 

 

**-ooo-**

When Snowcrystal and her small group met back with the others a few minutes later, they were surprised to see Teresa still there.

"Did they find him?" the trainer asked, her sableye still staring curiously over her shoulder.

Damian turned to Arien, who gave him a quick translation from Snowcrystal. "Yeah," he said. "He'll be back in the morning."

"I just wanted to make sure," Teresa said. "I'd be worried sick if one of my pokémon was missing. The yanmega was injured…how did that happen?"

Justin gave Katie a wary look, and she turned to Teresa. Before Katie could say a word, however, Damian spoke up.

"We were looking for something on the mountains. The wild pokémon attacked us there."

Justin shot Damian a glare, but he didn't seem to notice. Teresa, on the other hand, just looked confused. "Why would the pokémon attack you? They've been nothing but peaceful since I've been here. Are you sure…I mean, I'm not saying I don't believe you, it's just…"

"It's a long story," Justin said. "We'd rather not get into it."

"Well," Teresa began, "what were you looking for on the mountain? I mean, if you want, my pokémon and I could help you look. There won't be another contest for a while and I'm just staying here until I decide where I want to go next. I'm sure the wild pokémon won't cause any trouble if there are more of us together."

Alarm bells began to ring in Justin's mind. He thought about what he could say that wouldn't seem suspicious or odd, but like before, Damian managed to speak first.

"Actually, we could really use the help," he told her. "We were looking for a cave that's supposed to be in those mountains. We were looking for the entrance, but we didn't get far before those pokémon attacked us. If you could help us find it, that would-"

Justin shot him a look, one that Teresa noticed. She looked at Justin uncomfortably. "If you don't want me to, I won't bother you. I just thought-"

"Actually, it would be great if you could help us," Katie began, causing Justin and several of the pokémon to look at her in surprise. "We just need help finding the cave entrance, that's all. We'll go back and look, but probably in a day or two from now."

Teresa beamed, excited at the prospect of a small adventure. "Okay. I'm pretty familiar with the groups of wild pokémon around here. They've never attacked me before. My pokémon could have a word with them if we run into any trouble."

Katie and Damian smiled back. "We'll stay in one big group this time instead of splitting up. That should help," Katie said. She looked back to the group of waiting pokémon.

After a few more details of the search were discussed, Teresa said her goodbyes and sent out a flygon. She took to the air, leaving the large group behind.

Justin turned to Katie and crossed his arms. "Do you mind telling me why we just told a complete stranger she could help us look for a legendary no one knows about?"

"No one said anything about a legendary," Katie replied. "And let's face it, she's right. There will be more safety in numbers the next time we go up that mountain. All we have to do is find the cave entrance, then she'll leave and we'll have what we need."

"Well…I guess," Justin responded, unenthusiastically. "But no one else, okay? We can't have everyone finding out what we're really doing. If word got out that there were undiscovered legendaries, and one so _close_ to the city, imagine what people would do."

"I know, I know," Katie agreed. "No one else…unless there's a really good reason we need their help. And no, Justin, I won't take that lightly."

Snowcrystal watched both the humans and the other pokémon. Some of them seemed uneasy, or simply shaken up after what had happened with Yenn, but others looked at peace with Katie and Damian's decision. Snowcrystal was happy with it; Teresa really did just seem like she wanted to help, and she knew that if Teresa had been a pokémon, the others would have welcomed her more readily. But with another trainer on their side, the mountain search didn't seem quite as daunting as it used to be.

 

 

**-ooo-**

The next morning, Yenn returned, just as he'd said. He didn't say anything to the other pokémon, and avoided Stormblade, Redclaw, and Snowcrystal. The others informed him that they were taking a couple days to rest before attempting to search the mountain again. Yenn had just nodded dully after hearing the news that a new trainer would be helping them. He didn't object or verbally lash out, but stood silently contemplating it.

Soon, the trainers came back from the hotel, bringing food for the pokémon. Yenn took one look at it and refused, flying off on his own among the trees.

"So," Thunder began, watching the trainers through narrowed eyes and addressing no one in particular, "what exactly are we supposed to do once we find this cave? I'm not wandering around in dark underground passages again."

"No reason you should have to," Wildflame told her with a shrug. "I'm sure some of us will be staying behind anyway. The entrance is probably going to be small."

"Well, I won't be going down there, that's for sure," the scyther replied. She gave the houndoom a wary look. She had been wrong about Wildflame before; that much had been proven during the conflict with Solus. She remembered her promise to Nightshade, the promise that she would try to trust the others. "I can cover for you if those pokémon bother us again. I'm not afraid of them."

"You would be a big help," Wildflame replied. "Just don't…kill them. I don't think they're really bad, they just…see us as a threat to Tanzenarc for some reason, from what I can guess. And Nightshade should be able to come back, according to Damian. Though of course he'll have to stay in the poké ball while we're on the mountain."

Thunder thought back to her visit with Nightshade at the pokémon center. He had told her the humans were going to perform surgery to repair the damage to his arm, and now that it was morning, she knew the surgery had already happened. She was sure he'd be all right; she may not have trusted the humans much, but she did trust Nightshade's judgement.

"Yes…that will be good," she replied absentmindedly. Her thoughts quickly wandered to other things. The rest of the group was searching for a legendary, planning a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks, and Thunder still wasn't sure she really wanted to be a part of it. She was mainly with the group because she had nowhere else to go, and Nightshade was the main thing connecting her to these other pokémon. She gave a sigh. Being dragged around the region was still a huge step up from being with Master, and better than trying to fend for herself. If anything, there was something almost calming about having a sense of direction, however odd it was.

 

 

**-ooo-**

Yenn, off by himself near the top of a tree, tried to ignore the pain in his head and thought back on the previous day's events.

It couldn't have been a lab, he realized. He'd escaped much too easily. The other pokémon – though he was still reluctant to admit it – were right. But what bothered him most was how he'd reacted.

He'd lost control. He'd panicked. That shouldn't have happened. He should have realized there was nothing restraining him, that any grogginess he'd felt was from the head injury, not from being drugged. But no, he'd panicked like some mindless creature and tore his way out of the building, rather than keeping calm, getting the humans to back off and finding an exit point afterward. Sure, he'd escaped from…whatever the 'pokémon center' really was, but he'd gone about it all wrong.

He was supposed to think rationally, analyze his situation and come up with a plan of attack or escape. That's what being in Cyclone's army had taught him to do. He'd practiced this technique so many times, planned for what to do in many different situations where an encounter with humans went south. But when actually confronted by any of those things in reality…he had fallen apart. It was as if all that time he'd spent preparing had been useless. He felt ashamed of himself.

A noise from down below startled him, and he jolted involuntarily as he saw the bushes rustle and a pokémon walk out. It was the floatzel. Alex, he recalled. He hadn't spoken to her much since joining the larger group of pokémon, and he found it odd that she would be wandering off alone…looking for him? No, that couldn't be. And yet…

Alex suddenly caught sight of him and gave him a friendly wave with her paw. Yenn just stared back, not sure how to respond as he watched the floatzel bound closer.

"What do you want?" he called down to her, realizing he sounded more rude than he intended.

He was sure the floatzel noticed, but she didn't seem to care. Cupping her paws to her mouth, she called up, "Why don't you come down?"

Yenn shook his head and remained where he was.

"I just want to talk to you," Alex called back. "No one's mad at you. I promise!"

Yenn hadn't even considered that the others would be angry with him. It would make sense that they would be, he thought. He had acted completely irrationally in a situation he could easily have taken control of. Alex didn't sound like she was just saying that to calm him, though, so he tried to put it out of his mind. He sighed. He supposed there was no harm in talking to the floatzel for a bit; if he changed his mind, he could simply fly back up to another tree and she'd be forced to leave.

He flew down toward her, faltering a bit in midair due to the small amount of dizziness that persisted when he moved too much. He opted to land on a tree stump about the floatzel's height rather than the ground. "Okay," he began, his voice sounding more tired than he'd hoped, "what did you want to say?"

"Well," Alex replied, "I think you should come back with the others. You really shouldn't be on your own while injured."

"I…" Yenn thought of what he could say, but in the end decided to just tell the truth. "I feel safer out here. I know the humans haven't done anything yet, but…"

"They're not going to hurt you," Alex replied, showing no annoyance over his distrust. "But…if you're still unsure, the other pokémon are there. You know some of them don't have poké balls. It's not like the humans could do much of anything if they wanted to with them around."

Yenn wasn't fully convinced, but yet another pokémon was there trying to reassure him and he didn't want that to be in vain.

"You see…" Alex fiddled her paws nervously. "…I also wanted to say…well, I mean I wanted to suggest…I think you need to let the humans treat you with their medicine."

" _What?_ "

Alex looked down at the ground, well aware that her suggestion wasn't going to go over well. "There's no reason to refuse help. The human medicine isn't bad, not like the, uh...whatever the humans you knew before used."

Yenn stiffened. Why did she have to bring that up? "And I'm supposed to just let them do whatever they want to me?"

"No, I mean, they know what to do already. If you'd stayed at the pokémon center, they would have given you medicine anyway. So you can heal better. And so you won't get an infection."

"I…," he began, realizing that what Alex said was true. He did know that human medicine was incredible at keeping infection at bay. The humans he'd known back in those dark days in that terrible building had been extremely concerned about infections. He knew she wasn't making that up. "I'll be fine," he said, sounding unsure.

Surprisingly, Alex didn't press the issue. "Okay," she replied. "But if you change your mind, you can just talk to me. They have stuff to help with pain, too."

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Yenn asked.

"Well, not really. I mean, if you don't want to talk about the humans, we don't have to." She thought for a moment. "Before I joined up with Snowcrystal and the others, I lived in a lake near a mountain. You must have lived around water, too. All yanma do, don't they?"

Yenn nodded, realizing that Alex meant to try to distract him from his worries about the humans. He decided to let her. "There were lots of ponds where I grew up. The yanma and yanmega spent most of the year there. Of course, we'd migrate for the winter, but…" Thoughts of his old home returned to his mind. Though he was sad to admit it, he'd known for a long while that he didn't want to return there. He didn't want the other yanma and yanmega to see his scar and wonder what had happened to him. He couldn't quite explain why; he just didn't want them to know.

For a while the two of them talked of their lives in the wild, and Yenn found himself becoming less tense. He started to feel silly for avoiding the other pokémon, when some of them so clearly wanted to make him feel comfortable.

"Just…know that you can ask me or Stormblade, or anyone else really, if you're worried about something," Alex said after they had finished talking. "The humans are really here to help, I promise."

Yenn decided not to comment on her statement about the humans. "Okay," he said. "Thanks."

 

 

**-ooo-**

As the day wore on, everyone was glad for the rest and no one seemed keen to go back to the mountain. Damian took some of the pokémon down to the beach again while the others relaxed or had friendly practice battles.

Sometime near the evening, Teresa contacted Damian again and asked to meet everyone, including the pokémon, at their meeting spot near where they'd found Yenn. Damian had called Katie, and she made sure everyone had gathered in a clearing at the time Teresa was going to arrive.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, both Thunder and Yenn showed up, though the latter was perched at the top of a particularly tall tree, quite a distance from the rest of the group below. He looked wary and uncomfortable, and the growlithe wondered if he was mainly there because he wanted to learn everything he could about Teresa in case she confirmed his suspicions.

Thunder, on the other hand, didn't look concerned. She may have been a bit displeased, but at the moment, she mostly looked bored. She hung near the back of the group, not meeting gazes with anyone.

"So…what are we going to tell her when she asks whose pokémon are whose?" Justin asked, glancing from Katie to Damian. "It's kind of weird for us to be traveling with these wild ones."

"Who says she needs to know?" Katie replied. "Me and Damian just won't send out any more." She glanced over at Scytheclaw and Arien, who were the only two pokémon Damian currently had out. None of her own, except technically Stormblade, were out at the moment, but after a second thought she sent out Ray, and the pidgeot greeted her happily. "I'll probably need him when we search the mountain," Katie told Justin. "Better send out Fernwing too," she said to Damian.

Almost as soon as the tropius was released in a flash of light, the waiting trainers and pokémon caught sight of a flygon swooping low toward the trees. A few moments later, Teresa landed in the clearing and stepped off her pokémon's back, her sableye clinging to her shoulder.

"So, I guess we should all introduce ourselves now," she said, sweeping her gaze over the pokémon. "I'll go first. My name's Teresa, and this here-" She gestured to the flygon. "-Is Aero. She's won me plenty of contest ribbons, right?"

Aero smiled shyly and turned her head away.

"And I guess you've already met Vicky," she said with a small laugh, turning her head to look at the sableye on her shoulder. Vicky grinned back.

Teresa reached down to her belt and unclipped three more poké balls. Why there wasn't a sixth, Snowcrystal wasn't sure, but didn't find it strange enough to question. Teresa tossed them into the air and the pokémon formed in front of her.

The first gave Snowcrystal a small jolt of fear – and at the same time, she heard the brief beating of Yenn's wings before he stilled – for it was a creature Damian had shown her on his pokégear at some point while they were in the desert. A cacturne. The same pokémon that had stalked them as they'd traveled to find the portal. The spiny green pokémon didn't look at all unfriendly though, and gave a cheerful wave to the watching pokémon. Teresa then told them his name was Hal.

The second pokémon was one Snowcrystal had never seen. It was a large beetle-like pokémon with blue and black armor covering its body and two enormous spiked mandibles. "The vikavolt here is Skylar." Teresa said as she gestured to that pokémon.

The third was a pokémon Snowcrystal had only seen in books. It was a drapion, a massive purple scorpion-like pokémon, and Snowcrystal would have found it intimidating if the pokémon wasn't calmly looking around the clearing like the others were.

"His name is Bruce," Teresa said, indicating the drapion. "So, what about your pokémon?"

"Uh, I guess I'll just introduce everybody," Katie said before Damian or Justin could speak. One by one she went around the group, introducing the pokémon by name and giving a brief fact about each of them. When she came to Thunder, the scyther shrank back, noticing that Teresa was giving her scars odd looks. At Snowcrystal, Katie faltered a moment before introducing her as simply "Crystal." "And, well," Katie added once she was done, "we also have a heracross that's recovering in the pokémon center. Damian wants to get him back by tomorrow night."

"Oh…I hope he's okay," Teresa replied.

"Yeah, so do we," Katie replied, and before anything more could be said on the matter, she turned to the other two trainers. "So…why don't we let some of the pokémon rest here while we go get a look at the festival?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Spark cried, nudging Justin's leg. The boy, though he couldn't understand his words, looked down at him and smiled.

"That's fine by me," Teresa said happily.

Snowcrystal decided to stay behind. As the trainers talked together and turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of Vicky the sableye giving her an odd look through her diamond-like eyes. Snowcrystal looked down at her fur uncomfortably, but no one said anything.

 

 

**-ooo-**

That night, after the trainers (apart from Damian, who had stayed behind in case the pokémon had trouble) had gone back to the city for the night, Snowcrystal and some of the other wild pokémon stayed behind among the trees. Perhaps it would have made more sense for them to go with the trainers, she thought, but she knew some of the pokémon still weren't comfortable with human buildings, and it might look odd to Teresa if they never went into poké balls. She wasn't sure exactly why Katie and Justin insisted that Teresa should not know that anyone besides Yenn was wild. However, she guessed that Katie thought that the less they had to explain, the better, and she left the thought alone.

For some reason, her thoughts shifted to Articuno, and she felt her mood immediately drop. Most of the time, it didn't seem real, like it had been a dream, but every so often the thought would come to her. Articuno was dead. And then it was all too real. Cyclone had killed a legendary. That really happened.

Snowcrystal had never really known Articuno personally, but he had always been a constant presence in her life, someone who guarded her home and allowed herself and her tribe to live peacefully in their element. At least he had, until the Forbidden Attacks resurfaced, then all that was shattered. But all the same, it was still so strange to think that Articuno was never coming back. What her tribe was hoping for, depending on, would never reach them. All Snowcrystal had was herself and her friends, those who were willing to go back to help her tribe once this was all over.

Snowcrystal tried to push those thoughts away. They weren't helping her now. What she had to focus on for the time being was how to help put an end to the Forbidden Attacks. Her tribe would have to come later.

 

 

**-ooo-**

Yenn hesitantly approached the sleeping group of pokémon in the night. The pain in his head had not allowed him much sleep, and as much as he hated to admit it, part of him knew he needed help. He sighed. He really wasn't sure he liked how he was suddenly becoming okay with these things.

Then again, he realized, he had been okay with much worse things in the near past. He couldn't believe he was once okay with Cyclone's methods, turning a blind eye to the fact that Solus tortured pokémon because Cyclone had said it wouldn't leave physical marks on them. The thought disgusted him now.

Besides, he thought, he'd planned what he was going to ask. It was going to be safe, even if something went wrong. The humans wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

Carefully, he nudged Alex awake, and as the sleepy floatzel looked up at him, he felt guilty for waking her. "Sorry," he told her. "I just…could I talk to you?"

Alex rubbed her eyes and shook her head a few times. "Yeah, sure," she said, yawning.

Yenn led her away from the main group so as not to disturb them. He also wanted to be away from Damian's tent, in case the human's alakazam heard him somehow. He sighed again and turned to Alex. "You said the humans had medicine…that prevents infection, right? I know that's true. I want to make sure…nothing bad happens. And if they really do have pain medicine that works, maybe-"

"Oh, of course," Alex replied, seeming more awake. "I can wake up Damian for you. Arien will explain everything."

"No, don't do that," Yenn quickly said. "That's not…that's not safe. I was wondering if you could get it for me instead. Then I could go somewhere safe, away from the humans, in case…"

"Wait a minute," Alex interrupted, looking alarmed. "I wouldn't know which are the right ones. I could ask Arien, but…I'm not even sure he'd tell me, or if he even knows himself. We should really get Damian-"

"We are not 'getting Damian,'" Yenn said. "Look, I already have to deal with the fact that I'm going to have another scar that reminds me of humans. I don't want to know what the consequences would be if Damian decides to-"

"Wait a minute," Alex said, holding up a paw. "If you're worried about having a scar, well, pokémon get in battles a lot, and sure, they don't usually end up hurting each other badly, but lots of stuff happens. So, humans have a medicine that helps to avoid scarring while the wound is healing. Your wound looks small enough for it to work. I mean, you'll probably still have a scar, but you wouldn't be able to notice unless you look really close."

Yenn paused, not having expected her explanation. "You're not…making that up, are you?"

"No," she said. "I know pokémon who've had it. Really, as long as you do it soon, it should be able to help, not that that's most important. You need to be able to fight infection first and foremost, but…" She trailed off, and then said, "But I really need to wake up Damian. He's the one who knows about these sorts of things. You should let him help you."

Yenn took a deep breath. "I don't know if I can do that."

"I mean, if it makes you feel better, you could have Redclaw or Wildflame there to watch. Or maybe we could even get Thunder; she doesn't like humans either, as you know."

"I…" Yenn was silent for a moment. "I'll think about it."

"The humans really haven't done anything to hurt us, you know," Alex said. "They have no reason to, anyway. The humans you knew of clearly wanted something with you, but these-"

"All right, all right, I get it," Yenn snapped back, a little too hastily. "I said I'll think about it." And with that, he took to the air.

 

 

**-ooo-**

The next day, Damian was able to bring Nightshade back from the pokémon center. He'd been a little unsure about it, thinking it would be better for Nightshade to rest at the center, but the nurses had told him that it was fine as long as they were careful, and that Damian just needed to bring him back to the center every week or so to make sure he was doing fine. Damian had brought the heracross to the group's meeting place and then gone back to the pokémon center to deactivate Nightshade's poké ball and officially release him. After that, he gave a spare poké ball to Justin and allowed him to capture the heracross again, leaving Damian able to carry all six of his pokémon.

"You know," Katie began, glancing up from her pokégear, "the water pokémon festival parade is supposed to be today."

"Yeah," Damian said, "the pokémon center was really crowded. I'm not sure I want to go back to the city today."

Katie glanced at Justin. "What about you? Ever seen the parade in person?"

Justin shook his head. "I watched it on TV, though. Think we could go see it? I doubt we'd get a good view, but…"

"Well, we could watch from the rooftops," Katie said. "We could take some pokémon and fly there."

"And I'm sure you're not the first person to think of that," Justin said, and Katie gave him a shrug. "But, yeah, let's go and see."

Katie agreed, and though several of the pokémon voiced their desire to come along, Katie shook her head. "There probably won't be any room. But you guys can still watch the beach celebration tonight." She then glanced to Snowcrystal. "I could take you, though. You're small enough."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure it was fair to the other pokémon if she went, but when she looked at them, they just nodded to her encouragingly. She walked over to Katie.

Justin recalled Spark as Katie mounted her pidgeot, holding Snowcrystal with one arm. Justin climbed on the large bird's back after her, and a moment later they took off.

They were soon soaring above the city, coming up to the main street, which Snowcrystal could see was more crowded than it had been before. Apart from the underground fighting ring, she remembered with a shudder, she had never seen so many humans in one place. She couldn't see any of the parade, and figured it still hadn't started yet.

Justin had been right; they certainly weren't the first to try getting an easy to reach spot with a flying pokémon. There didn't look to be much space anywhere. Seeing as the rooftops were already crowded, Katie had her pidgeot fly lower to look for a spot.

She was getting frustrated when suddenly she heard a shout and saw none other than Teresa waving at her from her place on the ground in front of a small shop. It wasn't the best spot, as there were several trainers in front of her, but it was better than anything Katie had been able to find, so she landed there anyway.

Katie returned her pidgeot and Teresa, seeing that she had Snowcrystal with her, pointed up at the ledge of a windowsill where her sableye was sitting.

"Your growlithe can watch from up there," she told them, smiling at Snowcrystal.

Katie nodded and reached up, setting Snowcrystal on the ledge next to Vicky. From there, Snowcrystal had a fairly good view of the streets despite the excited crowds waiting.

"So…Crystal, was it?" the sableye asked, giving Snowcrystal another one of her eerie grins. "Today's the biggest day of the festival, so I'm guessing that tomorrow we're going looking for that cave?"

"I think that's the plan, yes," Snowcrystal replied.

"Hm…wonder what we'll find there," Vicky said. "There are always strange secrets to discover, aren't there?"

"Y-yeah, I guess so," Snowcrystal said, suddenly feeling uneasy.

For a while she sat in silence while the trainers talked, wondering how long they'd have to wait for the parade to start. Then, all at once, she heard cheering and noticed movement from down the street.

Two massive mudsdale were pulling a large wheeled contraption decorated to look like the rocks one would find near the ocean. There were real pools of water in it, Snowcrystal could soon see, and various types of small water pokémon were leaping about, making patterns in the air with their water gun attacks. This was all under the direction of a trainer who sat at the top of the contraption, making movements with her hands that all the pokémon seemed to follow. The pokémon themselves seemed to be greatly enjoying themselves, and they would occasionally spray some water over the waiting crowd.

"That's just the first float," Vicky said excitedly, her claws gripping the ledge as her legs swung back and forth. "Wait until you see the rest."

Snowcrystal watched as the 'float' came closer to where they were standing, more following behind it. Each of them had an elaborate design relating either to water pokémon or the ocean, and most had performing pokémon on them. They looked bright and cheerful, and Snowcrystal couldn't help but smile as she looked at them and watched the water types entertain the crowd. For a while, she could forget her worries.

"Trust me," said Vicky after several floats had passed by, "it may seem like just a bunch of harmless fun, but it's more than that. Every year, the people running this parade raise money to help pokémon in need. Pokémon all over the city, and even elsewhere in Inari."

"Really?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Yeah," Vicky replied. "They've been trying to rescue pokémon from shady places that abuse them, and to shut down the people responsible for those sorts of things."

"I wish more cities could do things like this," Snowcrystal said, thinking back to all the time she'd spent in Stonedust. There hadn't seemed to be any causes dedicated to helping abused pokémon, at least not any that were well known like the parade. She wondered what Thunder and Yenn would have thought of it all if they could have seen the parade and believed Vicky's words.

Snowcrystal enjoyed the rest of the parade, seeing water types she had only ever heard of in books at the Stonedust City library, and some she had never heard of at all. Vicky was happy to tell her the names of the species she didn't recognize, and she found herself getting caught up in the excitement of the people and pokémon watching. This, she thought, was how humans and their pokémon were meant to be, having fun together, enjoying what they were doing and working for. The things she had seen in Stonedust seemed a long way off. Perhaps this city didn't have such darkness lurking within it.

Once the final float had passed and some of the watching trainers had started leaving their places and heading into the shops or across the street, Snowcrystal glanced to Katie and Justin, who were talking excitedly amongst themselves. She was about to call out for their attention when something else caught her eye. Above the heads of the trainers now crowding the street, she could see a television screen above the doors of one of the shops on the opposite side. A human was talking, although the noise of the crowd was too great for Snowcrystal to hear anything, and she couldn't read the words scrolling across the bottom. However, she could clearly see the artist's depiction of a white growlithe next to the speaking human, and she suddenly felt her blood run cold. The humans were still talking about that? All because she'd helped the others sneak into the library?

Vicky noticed what she was looking at and gave Snowcrystal a small smile. "A white growlithe, huh? Wouldn't that be…interesting."

Snowcrystal remembered the look Vicky had given her on the night they'd met up with Teresa to find Yenn. She turned away from the sableye, leaped down from the windowsill and lightly butted her head against Katie's leg.

"Oh, hi, Crystal," she said. "I guess that's it then. We should head back to Damian and the others. See you tomorrow, Teresa."

The trainers exchanged a brief goodbye before Katie sent out her pidgeot and she, Justin, and Snowcrystal were off.

 

 

**-ooo-**

That night, Damian, Katie and Justin brought the pokémon to the beach to watch the grand finale of the water pokémon festival. Since most of the beach was crowded, they had chosen a place on a grassy hill further away from the water, but still with a good view of the ocean and the bright fireworks being sent into the air above it.

Only Yenn had refused to come. Thunder, surprisingly, hadn't objected, and seemed calm as she sat near where Nightshade was. The heracross's arm had been fitted with a proper sling, and he sat on a blanket beside Katie, who was giving him some of the jelly treats she'd picked up from a shop.

"I didn't know humans did things like this," Thunder remarked, jumping a bit as a particularly large firework went off.

"Well, you see, Thunder," Spark interjected, "most of them aren't monsters like the ones you were used to."

Thunder gave the jolteon an annoyed glance, but she didn't retort. "I guess not," she said instead, looking to Nightshade.

At the front of the group, Snowcrystal gazed out at the shimmering ocean, the moonlight and fireworks reflected on its surface. It was beautiful, and the sight of so many pokémon and trainers celebrating together made her smile. There was a calming, happy feeling to it all, something she hadn't really felt in a long time. After her last experience at Stonedust, Shellreef City was certainly a welcome change.

And in the light of the fireworks, beyond the celebrating trainers and pokémon, she could see the mountains that concealed Tanzenarc's cave. Tomorrow, they'd all search together, with safety in numbers, and sooner or later they would come upon their second unknown legendary.

_To be continued…_


	78. Legendary Encounter

"Cyclone wants to split the army into groups," Silverbreeze said, the early morning light shining overhead as Ashend and Itora looked to her, skepticism and wariness on their faces.

Silverbreeze had chosen a meeting spot close to the main sleeping grounds, near where the prey was brought in but secluded among the rocks and foliage so that no one could see them at a distance. Though Ashend had at first said that it was too close, that pokémon could pass by, Silverbreeze assured her that no one would be around at that time of morning, and certainly not Solus or any of the other powerful psychic types. The scyther had insisted it was a good place to talk freely, maybe not ideal, but it would do for the time being.

"What's the point in that?" Itora asked, giving the scyther an annoyed glare. "We've always worked together."

"He's worried that such a large group of pokémon has attracted the attention of humans," Silverbreeze said. "I've tried to convince him to let Solus lead a group, but Cyclone wants him right here with him. With us." She gave a worried look to Itora and Ashend.

"Well, it makes no difference anyway, then," Ashend sighed. "We've been having to deal with Solus enough already."

"I told Cyclone I wanted to stay," Silverbreeze said. "I believe he'll allow me to, at least for the time being. However…" She trailed off, as if hesitant to say anything more. "That's not all I wanted to tell you two today. I believe that I may have an idea of what we can do about Cyclone."

Ashend kept her expression unreadable, waiting to see what the scyther would say before she gave any sort of reaction. In truth, Silverbreeze's words surprised her a bit, though she wasn't sure she could get her hopes up yet.

"Well, go on," said Itora.

"I've heard pokémon talking," Silverbreeze explained, "and they said that months ago, there was an ice type. An ice type who used the Forbidden Attack Deathfreeze enough to start losing his sanity. However, the places he used it in were contained and there was no widespread damage, so most pokémon were able to keep it more or less a secret. But that pokémon remains in the custody of others who use hypnosis and psychic powers to prevent him from using his Forbidden Attack. I believe they are succeeding; there's been no signs of the ice Forbidden Attack since. And so, what I think we should do, is find where exactly they're keeping this pokémon. Convince Cyclone he can break him free and win him over for the army. Keep most of the army in the dark about this mission or the location, so that Cyclone goes in, and those pokémon don't let him come out."

Itora glanced at Ashend, somewhat confused, but the misdreavus didn't show any surprise. "There's a pokémon with the ice Forbidden Attack?" the manectric asked. "Why didn't we know about this?"

"It's possible Cyclone didn't know," Silverbreeze replied.

"I know about this pokémon," Ashend sighed. "When I was learning about the Forbidden Attacks I learned about this one too. But I'm not sure Cyclone doesn't know. Any information on the Attacks would have been passed to him. I don't think this is as simple as what you're proposing, Silverbreeze. If he knows, there must be a reason he hasn't gone after this ice type."

"I never said it was simple," the scyther said. "But I'm thinking that if Cyclone does know, the reason he hasn't gone after this pokémon is simply because he doesn't know where it is. If we could find that out, that would be a very helpful step in the right direction. The pokémon knew that Deathfreeze was used somewhere in the areas north of Stonedust City. The pokémon around here might know where they've taken the ice type. That's what we need to find out."

"I don't know," Itora began. "Even if this works, I'm not sure it's good enough. I want Cyclone dead."

"If Cyclone dies, his Forbidden Attack will be passed on to another pokémon," Silverbreeze replied. "If he's captive, it won't, at least not for a long while. This is the better option."

Itora sighed and rolled her eyes.

"And how are we going to get Cyclone to walk into this place himself once we find it?" Ashend asked.

"Well," Silverbreeze replied, "if we go there first, tip the pokémon off, maybe we could trick Cyclone into it and they'd be ready. Look, I know this is an ambitious idea, but right now it's the only real one I've got. We kill Cyclone, and we'll have a new Acidstorm user to contend with. We trap him, and even Sandra too if she won't cooperate, and the army falls apart."

"What if they try to free Cyclone themselves?"

"We'll have to make sure Cyclone's mission to recruit the ice type is a secret, then," Silverbreeze replied. "So they'll never find him. Let Solus and the rest of the army attack the humans themselves so both groups can destroy each other for all I care. But if any of us want to survive in the long run we have got to stop the Forbidden Attacks."

Ashend sighed. "It sounds impossible but…you're right. At the moment, this is the one plan we've got. And our first step would be finding out where they hid this ice type."

"Yes," Silverbreeze replied. "I was told he was taken far away, but how far I don't know. But Cyclone has scouts searching the region for the Forbidden Attacks. If we could get some on our side, that might be our best bet. They could find out."

"And once we do find out," Ashend began, "we'll need a way to bring Cyclone to the pokémon keeping the Deathfreeze user trapped. How do we pull that off?"

"I don't know," Silverbreeze admitted. "We'll have to work things out from there. First, we'll find some of the scouts." She paused, lifting her head toward the sky. "I think we should be heading back. Cyclone's meeting should be over soon. But don't worry, I can keep finding us safe places."

"Yeah, 'safe,'" Itora muttered glumly as she turned around and trudged back to the main camp, Ashend drifting beside her.

Silverbreeze merely nodded to them before she took off in a different direction, leaving the two to think about what she had said.

"This isn't going to work, Ashend," the manectric whispered. "I don't think Cyclone's going to just listen to every one of our suggestions and go along with-"

"Wait," said Ashend, cutting her off. In the distance, she could see a disturbance among the army pokémon. They were all gathering around a high ranking tyranitar who was trying to make some sort of announcement.

Itora grimaced. It was the same pokémon who had tried to prevent her and Yenn from seeing the smeargle's execution. The sight of him made her sick. Quietly, she and Ashend slipped into the edge of the crowd, looking up at the rock type.

"Today is a grand day for the army," the tyranitar was saying. "Our pokémon have returned, and with the ground type stone!"

Itora gave Ashend a worried glance, but quickly looked away and covered it up. They couldn't act that way around the rest of the army; Ashend had drilled that into her whenever possible.

Ashend watched as Sandra stepped up by the tyranitar's side, wearing a light purple stone around her neck. Dread filled Ashend's body as the sandslash picked up the stone between her claws and gave the watching pokémon a smug smile.

  
**-ooo-**

In the morning, Teresa met with the group outside the city and they walked together along the beach toward the base of the mountains. Despite what had happened during their last excursion, most members of the group were in high spirits. They had agreed that there would be no splitting up this time; with sheer numbers on their side, the wild pokémon were less likely to be hostile. Even Yenn came with him, though he appeared more listless and sluggish than usual.

"What about your houndoom?" Teresa asked when they'd reached the base of the mountain. She pointed to Blazefang, who had been riding on Fernwing's back during the entire trek across the beach. "He's injured. He should be in his poké ball."

"Well…" Katie glanced at Damian and Justin. "We kind of…lost it," she lied. "That's why he's had to stay out this whole time."

Teresa looked a bit amused. "You do know you can just get a new one, right? A pokédex scan will reveal that he's yours if you were the original trainer, so you'll definitely be allowed to have his connection to a poké ball broken. Then you can give him a new one."

Snowcrystal turned to Spark, astonished. "Humans can do that?" she gasped. "Then that means…we can sever Blazefang's connection to Mausk. And Thunder, too."

Spark didn't look nearly as excited. "Well, you see…we can't just walk up and ask to use the machine they use to break a pokémon's connection with a poké ball. It's highly regulated; if it wasn't, then people would be stealing pokémon left and right. And well, he wasn't registered to us, so…"

"But he was registered to _Damian,_ " Snowcrystal shot back. "Remember when we first met Damian and he had to get us to Stonedust quickly?"

"Yeah, but Damian released him. Anyone who caught Blazefang afterward would have done so fairly, according to the rules."

"But Thunder…" Snowcrystal looked up at the humans. Katie had nervously dismissed the subject of Blazefang and the trainers were sending out their pokémon. Katie and Damian didn't send out all of theirs, just the ones they had shown Teresa earlier. "Arien!" she called, running up to the alakazam. "I just thought of something. Can you tell Damian to do a pokédex scan on Thunder? If she comes up registered to Mausk, we could show the police. They'll know she's been abused and they can go after Mausk."

Arien stared at the growlithe, unsure where the sudden revelation had come from. "Snowcrystal, we have more important things to worry about right now. But…I guess you're right. That would be helpful." He turned to Damian and the trainer immediately reacted, taking out his pokégear.

"You think the police aren't already on Mausk's trail?" Spark asked.

"I dunno," said Wildflame, dropping into their conversation. "He didn't seem to be hiding when we saw him outside Stonedust."

"The police don't know what Master does," Thunder said suddenly, drawing the attention of the other pokémon. "He often turned in poachers to them. Made the police think he's on their side, I guess. Maybe they wouldn't be if they knew what he really was, but I don't think we can trust them."

Spark and Snowcrystal glanced at each other. "Trust me, Thunder," Spark said, "the police would _not_ be on 'Master's' side if they knew what he really did. We can trust the police if we just bring the evidence forward."

"Sure, then," Thunder said dully. There was no sarcasm to her words. "Try it."

Damian walked over to Thunder, who stiffened but did not back away. "Just a minute," he said to the other trainers. "The pokémon want me to check something." He held up his pokégear in front of Thunder, waited a few seconds until the scan completed and looked down at the screen. "That's…weird," he said. "It says there's no original trainer."

"What are you doing?" Katie asked, walking over while Justin looked nervously at Teresa.

"Um…Arien said that if Thunder was registered to Mausk then we could…"

"Take that information to the police?" Katie finished.

"Mausk?" Teresa looked from Damian to Katie. "Who's Mausk?"

"He's…" Katie hesitated. "He's the reason Thunder looks like that." She indicated the scyther's scars and Teresa's eyes widened in horror.

"How did he do that?" Damian mused, still staring at his pokégear screen. "He had a poké ball. I _saw_ it."

"He must have tampered with it somehow," Katie replied. "So the pokémon couldn't be connected with him. How, I don't know, but he must have thought of everything."

A grim silence hung over the group.

"Wait a minute…you _know_ who this guy is?" Teresa said. "Did you go to the police? Did they-"

"We…we don't have any proof," Damian quietly said. He suddenly seemed like he wanted to talk about anything else.

Katie glanced at Damian worriedly before turning to Teresa. "We did what we could," she said.

Teresa seemed to understand that the others wanted the subject dropped. She looked uneasy as she glanced from Thunder to Blazefang and then to Katie again as if she realized things weren't adding up. However, she said nothing more, instead turning to her pokémon. "Okay, you know what to do," she told them. "If any pokémon are hostile, try to reason with them, but if they won't listen, then it'll be just like we planned."

Her pokémon gave an enthusiastic cry and Vicky held out sharpened claws. Snowcrystal could see that not one of them was afraid of the potential oncoming battle. And they shouldn't be, Snowcrystal thought, not when their group had so many pokémon on their side.

"Well," said Katie, walking to the head of the group, "let's go. Fernwing, keep close to us."

The tropius nodded, flying steadily so Blazefang would not have any chance of falling off her back.

As the group set off, climbing up the trail, Thunder stayed behind. Teresa had tried to come closer, obviously concerned, but Thunder had given her a warning glare. The scyther wasn't sure why she was coming on the expedition this time. She thought it might be because Justin had Nightshade in his poké ball, but she wasn't sure that was it. With a sigh, she pushed the thought out of her head and slowly followed the others.

  
**-ooo-**

During the trek up the mountain's slope, the large group didn't run into any hostile wild pokémon. They saw a few stray pokémon here and there, but those turned and ran when they saw the group. Snowcrystal found this odd. Perhaps, she thought, they were cowardly when faced with much more powerful opposition.

"Hey, Crystal," Spark said, and Snowcrystal was glad that the jolteon remembered to use her improvised name in front of Teresa's pokémon. "It seems weird, doesn't it? Last time we were here, the pokémon were acting so strange. Now they're just…well, normal, I guess."

"Yeah," she replied. "Something's different."

They carried on, and every once in a while, the group would stop and search the area for any potential cave opening, but they never strayed far from each other. They were not bothered by any wild pokémon, and when they took a break for lunch, Arien voiced his worry aloud.

"I'm not sure I like it," the alakazam said. "We haven't seen any of those aggressive pokémon. Why would they be hiding like this?"

"Think they're planning something?" Alex asked. "I mean, what are they going to do? There's a lot of rocks and trees, but…with so many of us they're bound to be spotted before they get too close."

"Maybe they're just keeping out of our way," Nightshade suggested. He had been let out of his poké ball to eat with the others.

"Doesn't sound likely," Rosie muttered. "They were out for our blood the last time!"

"I say let them come," Scytheclaw said. "I could use the target practice."

"Well," Wildflame sighed, "my guess is that they saw how big our group was this time around and realized they couldn't fight us head on. And Alex is right. They'd have a hard time sneaking up on us. Let's just count this as a blessing and focus on finding that cave."

Though some of the pokémon were uneasy, they soon agreed with Wildflame. If the wild pokémon weren't attacking them, it was a good thing, and they had enough to focus on without worrying about why.

After Thunder had finished her food, she walked over to Nightshade, trying to ignore the chatter of the others. She sat down beside the heracross, staring off into space for a few moments before she said, "You stay with these pokémon because they're your family, right?"

Nightshade nodded. "That's right."

"And you'd even try to stop Forbidden Attacks for them."

"Yes."

Thunder was silent for a moment, then she stood up. "Okay," she said. "I understand that. I guess I'll help you." She turned and walked off by herself, but not before seeing Nightshade smile back at her.

  
**-ooo-**

They searched each area thoroughly, taking their time and knowing that it was likely going to take several days to find what they were looking for. They saw the occasional wild pokémon, some of them rock types, but each one turned and fled the moment they saw them. No one was quite sure why, but they were too grateful to avoid a battle to question it much anymore.

Teresa had grown quieter as the day dragged on, and it was clear she knew the others were hiding something from her. She didn't voice any of her thoughts on the matter out loud, and the group didn't bring it up.

It was mid-afternoon when they decided to take another rest. "You should have seen the place when we were here last time," Rosie was telling a group of Teresa's pokémon. "All these crazed rock types just straight up attacked us. For no real reason. We couldn't figure out why."

From a short ways away, Arien watched her nervously, not sure he liked the way Rosie was so casually speaking to them about it. They had to tell that there was more to the story than the ninetales would let on.

Snowcrystal wanted to trust Teresa, but she understood how it would be dangerous to let other humans know what they knew. Perhaps keeping her and her pokémon in the dark was for the best. Trying to put the thought out of her head, she turned to Spark, thinking of something else that had been on her mind.

"So…if Thunder and Blazefang aren't really registered to Mausk, do you think we could break their connection to a poké ball?" she asked.

"Maybe," Spark said with a shrug. "I'm not sure, though. They would realize something fishy's going on with Blazefang, because he _would_ have an original trainer registered – Damian – and that could mean someone caught him fairly afterward, but maybe…maybe you're right. We should ask Arien anyway. If they're unregistered to a trainer now and have signs of abuse, they might allow it."

Snowcrystal felt glad to hear that. She was sure that Thunder and Blazefang would be as well, even if they couldn't prove any connection to Mausk and get the police involved. She was also glad that Redclaw didn't have to worry; Mausk had to have destroyed his poké ball since Damian had been able to briefly capture him when they'd first met.

Seeing no reason to wait any longer to address the issue, she told Arien what she was thinking, and once the alakazam relayed the information to his trainer, Damian looked hopeful.

"The unregistered trainer thing is weird," Damian said. "They should know something's wrong. I think that'll work."

Katie, Justin, and Teresa gave him weird looks, and he quickly explained what Arien had told him about Thunder and Blazefang.

"We should have thought of scanning Thunder before," Katie said. "But I guess better late than never. If – heaven forbid – we run into Mausk again, we don't want him to have that sort of power over any of the pokémon."

Teresa stared at her. "Wait a minute, you told me you lost Blazefang's poké ball."

Katie resisted the urge to shoot a quick glare at Damian, who had suddenly realized his mistake at voicing the matter out loud. Before he could say anything, however, Katie spoke up instead. "Yeah, it's a long story, but Mausk has it. When…when we said it was lost, that's what we meant."

Teresa seemed to accept the answer and realize they weren't keen on talking about Mausk. "Oh, okay. Sorry, I won't ask about it anymore."

The trainers and the pokémon rested in silence. After a short while, Teresa pulled out a few bags of pokémon treats and tossed a few to her pokémon, then to the others waiting around her. She tossed a few over in Yenn's direction. "Here, have some of these," she said. "You'll probably feel better." The yanmega only gave her a look of disgust and flew to a higher perch.

Sitting down with the rest of the pokémon, Vicky gave Yenn an annoyed look. "Well, he's friendly," the sableye said sarcastically. She turned to Snowcrystal. "What exactly is he traveling with you for? He doesn't seem to like any of the trainers."

"Well," Snowcrystal began, "he's mainly with us pokémon, really. He has his own reasons."

"That's about as vague an answer I was expecting," Vicky replied. "Come on, he must be here because he needs you for something. Why else would a wild pokémon-"

"Vicky, knock it off." Aero the flygon had walked up to them, crossing her arms. "The yanmega can do whatever he wants. It was a while before you allowed yourself to be captured, remember?"

Vicky just shrugged. "I had good reasons. I was just wondering if Crystal here knew of-"

"Someone's coming," Yenn called from where he was waiting, and all the pokémon looked up toward him.

"Where?" Snowcrystal asked, and Yenn pointed his body toward an outcrop of rocks north of where they were resting. A few moments later, and Snowcrystal heard the sound of a pokémon approaching.

By then, the trainers had realized something was up. They stood up in front of where Nightshade and Blazefang were resting, facing the direction the pokémon were now staring in and ready to command their own in case of any trouble. Damian and Katie both had their hands near their other poké balls, the ones containing pokémon they hadn't sent out.

Yet what emerged from behind the rocks was merely one pokémon. It was a golem, and the moment he saw what looked like a small army staring him down, he stopped and hesitated.

"All right," Scytheclaw said, stepping in front of the others. "What do you want? Are any more of your buddies waiting around? Because I assure you, the battle won't go the same way this t-"

"No, I don't want a battle," the golem said. "There was…there was a mistake."

"What are they saying?" Teresa asked Damian.

Damian glanced to Arien questioningly, and a moment later began to relay the information to the other three trainers.

"What do you mean a mistake?" Redclaw asked, stepping beside Scytheclaw. "You and those other pokémon attacked us unprovoked."

"We were told it was the wrong course of action," the golem replied. "We are sorry."

" _Sorry?_ " Rosie muttered. "I don't see the others here apologizing."

Snowcrystal watched the golem, confused. The rock types were told it was the wrong action? Told by _who?_

"Well, we mean you no harm," Redclaw told the golem. "We mean no harm to anyone on these mountains. I can promise you that."

"Yes, we know," the golem said. "We will allow you to search. You won't be attacked here." He turned and headed away, further down the mountainside, leaving the group staring in confusion.

"What in the world was that about?" Rosie said, looking around the others incredulously. "One day they want our blood and next thing you know, they're perfectly okay with us being here?"

Snowcrystal understood Rosie's sentiment. It made absolutely no sense. The pokémon of the mountain knew who Tanzenarc was. They knew that her group was searching for him. What had changed to make them suddenly okay with it?

"It…it could be some sort of trap," Scytheclaw said, glancing worriedly at Damian. "We should still stick together, just to be careful."

Teresa's pokémon talked together in low whispers. Then Aero asked, "What happened when you were last here that made them not want you to search?"

"We don't know," Scytheclaw said, only half telling the truth. "Really, your guess is as good as ours. I have no idea what these ridiculous pokémon want or don't want."

"Well, we should keep moving," Snowcrystal said.

The other pokémon agreed, and Arien sent the message to his trainer. Justin recalled Nightshade and Blazefang and climbed back onto Fernwing's back.

Snowcrystal didn't know whether to feel relieved or worried by the golem's words. She felt unsettled, but the mountain terrain around her was peaceful, and had been peaceful all day. She knew there was a piece of the puzzle she and her friends were missing, but she couldn't guess what it was.

"Well, uh, we've searched this area pretty well," Damian said nervously. "Let's go that way, over by those trees." He pointed over at a grove of trees higher up the mountain. "We didn't get to look around there last time."

The group made their way up to the trees, still searching for any signs of a cave as they went. Like before, they found nothing, and there was no sign of any of the rock types.

When they reached the trees, they took another moment to rest. They had just barely sat down when Katie said, "Maybe we should find that golem again. Or one of the other rock types. They probably know where the right cave is, right?"

"I…I don't know," Damian replied. "He said it was okay to search. If they were okay with us finding the cave and they knew where it was, wouldn't he have told us?"

"Why would the pokémon have been so weirdly protective of some cave?" Teresa asked. "None of this makes any sense."

"Your guess is as good as ours," Justin said. "But at least they don't seem to care anymore."

"I think we should find one of the wild pokémon," Katie said. "They live here. They've got to know where all the caves are, at least."

Justin had tuned out of the conversation and was fiddling with Spark's poké ball when he felt something roughly nudge his side. He turned his head and jumped with a cry of alarm, scrambling backward. Thunder was standing over him. "Spark!" he cried, and his jolteon obediently leaped to his side. Thunder, however, didn't move, just pierced him with a piercing stare.

"She wants you to let Nightshade out since there's trees here," Damian said, looking up from Arien.

"Argh, fine!" Justin cried, flinging the heracross's poké ball away from him and darting over to Katie. Nightshade materialized in front of Thunder, looking confused at being let out again so soon.

Teresa and her pokémon cast suddenly nervous glances at each other, then looked back at the other trainers and pokémon. "Did you…" Teresa began, "…did you do something to anger the rock types? This isn't adding up."

"We told you," said Justin, "they attacked us for no reason."

"Nothing attacks for no reason," Teresa replied.

"But that golem came up and apologized for it. You heard Damian! Your pokémon must have heard the golem too if you don't believe him."

From his place near Thunder, Nightshade looked at the trainers. "Thunder, what's going on?"

"The humans are having a disagreement," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, there are plenty of trees here, so I thought-"

She broke off when Teresa's flygon took off and landed in front of the wild pokémon. "There's something you aren't telling my trainer," she said. "What is it?"

"Aero, relax," Teresa's vikavolt said. "We offered to help. Whatever happened between them and the rock types-"

"Well, if they're not going to tell us what's going on, why are we even helping them at all?" Aero shot back.

Teresa, who had been trying to speak to Katie, noticed her pokémon squabbling. "Guys, stop it!" she hissed, then turned to Damian. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, and the golem did say they were wrong for fighting you, right?" She glanced at her pokémon, who nodded. "I just…can't think of a reason they would have attacked you, mistake or not. Surely you must have an idea."

Katie and Justin glanced at each other and Damian immediately looked worried. However, there was nothing they could say about Tanzenarc. "I…I think," Katie began, "that they thought we were here to harm a pokémon here, and when they found out we weren't, they realized there was no reason attack us."

"Why would they think you were here to harm a pokémon?" Teresa asked.

"We really don't know," Katie replied.

From where she sat in front of the rest of Teresa's pokémon, Vicky crossed her arms. "Maybe what we should really be asking them is why they have a white growlithe they have to dye orange?"

Several of the pokémon, who had been talking back and forth with Teresa's, went silent. Snowcrystal stared at the sableye in horror before she could stop herself, and Teresa's other pokémon merely looked confused.

"See?" said Vicky, seeing the shocked reactions of the waiting pokémon. "I was right, wasn't I? I saw it the day we found that yanme-"

"All right, listen up," Wildflame growled, stepping forward. "You can't tell anyone. Snowcrystal needs-"

"So her name is _Snow_ crystal," said Vicky, not seeming at all intimidated. "I bet that's because-"

"We hide her fur color to protect her," Redclaw said tensely. "If anyone else knows, that could-"

"She was in the library! It was all over the news!" Vicky cried.

"And that's why it needs to be kept a secret," Redclaw said, lashing his tail.

"What's…going on with the pokémon?" Katie asked, and Snowcrystal realized that now the attention of the trainers was on the pokémon dispute as well, though of course without Arien and Damian's translation, they had no idea what was going on.

"Come on, everyone, let's just stop," Teresa said as more shouting broke out between her pokémon and the rest. However, the pokémon were too agitated to simply stop.

"Ugh, let's go somewhere else," muttered Thunder to Nightshade.

"Wait," the heracross said. "I'm worried about Snowcrystal. Maybe I can talk to Teresa's pokémon."

"Why you?" Thunder asked. "It's not your problem. I know you're-" She paused, seeing the look in Nightshade's eyes and sighed. "Okay, I get it."

However, before Nightshade could make a move toward Vicky, each of the arguing pokémon – save for the dark types – were lifted about a foot into the air by a psychic energy, and then brought swiftly back to the ground. "Stop this now," Arien cried out, giving them all his stern glare. "Now, I think we will have to let Teresa know about Snowcrystal, but understand that this is something that must be kept a secret. I will speak with Damian about it."

In the silence that followed, Spark looked over Teresa's pokémon, his ears drooping sadly. "Just…please keep this secret for us, okay?" he asked. "We want to keep Snowcrystal safe."

"I don't see what the big deal is, really," Vicky said with a shrug. "If she has a poké ball, no one else can capture her."

"It's…more complicated than that," Rosie said. "Just…please. Don't go spreading the word around."

"Well, if you're going to be that stubborn about it, fine," Vicky replied, turning her head away from the ninetales.

Snowcrystal looked from one pokémon to another, not liking the fact that she was the cause of the sudden debate. She didn't like how casually Vicky dismissed their concerns either. However, maybe the sableye had one point; maybe she _should_ have her own poké ball.

She opened her mouth to speak, but as she did so, a sudden change came over the clearing. Everything was silent; even the trees stopped rustling in the wind. Then she could feel a strong psychic energy around them, something that wasn't coming from Arien. It made the fur on the back of her neck rise.

Around her, both the pokémon and the trainers had sensed it too, for everyone suddenly grew quiet. Thunder moved to stand protectively by Nightshade, and Teresa's pokémon gathered closer to their trainer. The rest of the group stayed still, waiting.

Then they could see something moving through the trees.

The area around it shimmered, rippled like still water that had been disturbed, and gradually the creature became more visible. Its outline was hazy at first, but grew more defined as it came closer. It rivaled Redclaw in size, but had a more lithe, feline form, like that of a liepard or a persian. Its body looked almost like it was being seen through mist, but even that was fading, until the pokémon came to a stop in front of the trees, its full form suddenly visible.

Snowcrystal knew at once that this was another one of the legendaries that had worked with Sequoiarc long ago. Like Sequoiarc, it had six limbs, and its light purple fur was marked with dark stripes. Its long tail ended in a round orb. The most distinctive feature, however, was the mask-like plate covering most of its face, tufts of white fur sprouting out either side beneath it. Like Sequoiarc's, this pokémon's mask was marked with patterns, starting with a trio of circles on the forehead.

Teresa took a few rapid steps backward, her pokémon immediately on the alert. She cast a look of shock toward Damian and seemed only more startled at lack of fear or confusion on the other trainer's face.

The strange pokémon, however, merely stood in front of the trees, unmoving, showing no sign of concern at Teresa's reaction. Snowcrystal knew it had to be aware of what it was risking by appearing in front of Teresa, and she briefly wondered why it had even thought to show itself to humans at all. Did it know that three of these trainers had seen Sequoiarc? One thing was clear, however. This was not Tanzenarc.

"What is that thing?" Teresa cried, shooting a look at Damian, who glanced back at her, seeming at a loss for words.

"It's…it's one of…" he began, not noticing when Justin motioned for him to stop talking.

All around them, the pokémon were looking on in a mixture of surprise and awe, Teresa's especially. Thunder moved in front of Nightshade, who uttered some calming words to her, trying to get her to step aside.

Then the feline beast spoke.

As it uttered the words, Snowcrystal also heard them echoing in her mind, placed there by the creature's psychic abilities. This, she realized, must also be how it was speaking with the humans, for they had stopped talking immediately and begun to listen.

"My name is Fortunarc," it said, and the voice, unlike Sequoiarc's, sounded female. "Do not worry; you have no reason to see me as an enemy. I know you are not a threat. You know what we are. Some of you have spoken with Sequoiarc."

"Where is Tanzenarc?" Snowcrystal asked, stepping closer to the creature. "Sequoiarc told us to find him."

"Tanzenarc no longer resides here," Fortunarc said, her eyes flashing. She sat down on her haunches, seeming completely at ease with the surprised group. "He hasn't for a long while. The pokémon of this mountain, however, were unaware of this until I informed them yesterday. Had I known they still thought he was here, were still dedicated to protecting him, I would have told them sooner."

_Tanzenarc wasn't there._ Snowcrystal felt a stab of disappointment, however it was short lived. Tanzenarc wasn't there, but this legendary was. Perhaps she knew of the plan, or at least of where to find Tanzenarc. She remembered what Sequoiarc had said, that the psychic and ghost type legendaries were roamers.

"Perhaps I should explain further why I am here," Fortunarc said, her psychic voice echoing in Snowcrystal's mind. "While I normally conceal myself, I see no reason to do so from you. I know you have no intentions of spilling our secrets." She paused, and Snowcrystal thought she was looking at Teresa, who looked shaken as she watched the legendary. "Pokémon on these mountains revealed to me that there were humans who knew Tanzenarc's name, so I waited here for your return, listening to your thoughts. I know that you are trying to put a stop to the Forbidden Attacks and have pokémon that possess them among you."

Blazefang shifted uncomfortably, but Yenn looked on without moving. Fortunarc turned her attention to the houndoom.

"I've seen you on occasion, seen and heard some of the things you've done. And if you're trying to put a stop to this madness we created, I want to at least help you again now."

"You've…seen me?" Blazefang stammered.

"You fled from Cyclone's army," Fortunarc replied. "Back when it was small enough that I could follow its movements without being detected. I tried to help you. When Solus the espeon interrogated pokémon about your whereabouts, I tried to throw him off. As Sequoiarc must have told you, our powers are very weak now, and it took great strength to do even that, but I'm glad to see I bought you enough time."

Stormblade stepped forward. "You…when Solus was trying to get information from me," he began, "he couldn't read my mind. I never knew what stopped him." The image of the espeon's fury and frustration came to the scyther's mind, but he pushed it away.

"I wanted to help the pokémon Cyclone captured," Fortunarc said, "but the Forbidden Attacks were my priority. I'm sorry I couldn't have done more. I couldn't get closer to the army."

"So you were following pokémon with Forbidden Attacks?" Nightshade asked from where he stood beside Thunder.

"Yes," Fortunarc replied. "When I heard they were being found again, I searched for them. I found Cyclone first, since he had attracted a lot of attention. Then I found Blazefang. I knew I couldn't get through to Cyclone; it was too dangerous to reveal myself, too dangerous to get close to him. Nothing was going to sway him from using his Attack. But I had to help Blazefang get away. I later learned that Cyclone recruited others and gave them Forbidden Attacks, but by then the army had grown too numerous, with too many psychics, for me to safely stay nearby. But I see now that one of them is with you." She moved her gaze to Yenn, who remained silent.

"If you knew we were trying to stop the Forbidden Attacks, why didn't you show yourself to us before?" Blazefang asked.

Fortunarc sighed. "At the time I did not think it was safe. I did not know how pokémon who knew nothing of our existence would react. But now that you've seen Sequoiarc, I felt as if I should try to contact you."

Snowcrystal realized that this legendary had spent months, probably more, wandering the region without letting herself be seen, trying to help but staying on the sidelines. She understood why Fortunarc wanted to be secretive, but a part of her wished she had done _more._ That all of the legendaries behind the Forbidden Attacks had done more. She thought of what Stormblade had been through as she watched the legendary. If Fortunarc was still listening in on her thoughts, she gave no indication.

"If Tanzenarc's gone," Damian asked, speaking for the first time since Fortunarc had appeared, "do you know where we can find him? Sequoiarc said that he and some of the other legendaries had a plan to get rid of the Forbidden Attacks."

To their surprise, Fortunarc suddenly looked grave. Her posture stiffened, and her claws dug into the dirt. "I can tell you where Tanzenarc is," she said, "but don't blindly trust his judgement."

"What…what do you mean?" Blazefang asked, looking worried.

"I do not think his plan will work," Fortunarc said. "You can go to him. Hear what he has to say. But don't make rash decisions. If his plan doesn't work, it could make things worse."

"And what _is_ this plan?" Katie asked, having heard the psychic words in her head.

Fortunarc looked back at the trainer, but seemed reluctant to answer. "You can hear it from Tanzenarc himself if you must know. He lives in Winding Cave, a few days' walk from Steelspire City. If you tell the pokémon living within the cave that I sent you, they should lead you to him."

Snowcrystal tensed, looking worriedly at Stormblade, who tried to give her a hopeful look back.

"And say this plan doesn't work," Katie said. "What do we do then?"

"We find _another way,_ " Fortunarc said, the words reverberating so strongly in the minds of those watching that some of them cringed. "I won't stop searching for more information. If you can reach other pokémon with Forbidden Attacks, get them to resist them as some of you have. That is the best thing they can do."

"But…how can we do that?" Katie asked. "Two of the others that we know of are with Cyclone. The other one's insane."

"If you are helping the houndoom and yanmega, others may listen to you," Fortunarc said. "I hope you get the chance to convince them."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how they would ever make such a difference, if a legendary like Fortunarc could only hope. But perhaps she did have a point. Yenn's friends back at the army would have deserted if they could. Maybe one day they could help them.

"Like Sequoiarc, I am weak," Fortunarc continued. "I don't have much of my power left. But there is something I can do to make things easier for you."

Before anyone could question the legendary, Fortunarc had stood up and begun walking closer to them, passing Snowcrystal until she stood in front of Damian, who stood still and did not back down. Fortunarc bowed her head and closed her eyes.

All at once, the four trainers staggered backward as a wave of psychic energy flowed through them. They did not act as if the sensation was painful, just overpowering. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, it was over. Fortunarc opened her eyes.

"Good luck to all of you," the psychic's voice echoed into the heads of the watching pokémon and trainers. Without another word, she then turned and walked back toward the trees. Though a few of the pokémon called out to her, wanting to know what it was Tanzenarc had planned, she did not answer, and before they knew it, her form had grown indistinct until it vanished altogether.

"What…what _was_ that?" Teresa cried, breaking out of her shocked silence. "What is Sequoiarc? What's a Forbidden Attack?"

"Well," said Katie, "I guess we have a lot to tell you."

Damian stood still, trying to pinpoint what it actually was that Fortunarc had done to them. He felt no different, and there seemed to be nothing different about the other trainers, either. He turned to Katie.

"Steelspire City is only a few days' walk away," he said. "We can get there quickly."

"But that thing said that Tanzenarc's plan might make things worse," Justin called out. "Why would we go there anyway?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Katie asked him.

"We should at least hear what he has to say," Spark suggested, and Damian nodded in agreement.

Then he paused. Arien's psychic presence hadn't been there to tell him what Spark had wanted to say. As he took in the shocked expressions of the other three trainers, it suddenly occurred to him. He had heard Spark's words.

_And understood them._

_To be continued…_


End file.
